I wouldn't imagine there's much interest in tracking ebay prices because there probably aren't too many people looking to sell gold coins at any given time.
That's one way of looking at it.
Another way would be to say: millions of people own coins in one-ounce form.
The only investment gold business in this state only offers gold in the form of one-ounce krugerrands.
Ergo: anyone who wishes to invest in gold in this state will probably buy in the form of one-ounce krugerrands.
Ergo: anyone at all who has become a gold investor in Ireland will want to know how she can realise her investment. At present, the two options for realising a gold investment are:
- sell your krugerrands at a hefty discount to spot price to a jeweller for scrap
- sell your krugerrands at a possible premium to spot price on ebay
So, if you are serious about investing, ebay is probably your only reasonable way of selling any potential investment you are likely to make.
Certainly, you can buy gold in London or New York. But that hits you for a huge transaction cost of travel and currency. You can buy Perth mint certs, but they demand a huge investment for ordinary people.
The non-krugerrand options for Irish gold investors are slight indeed. Krugerrands are, and are likely to remain, the dominant method of gold investment in Ireland.
And while ebay remains the only place you can sell a krugerrand at a premium to spot, it makes sense for somebody on the internet to track it.
It's not as if anyone else is barred from making comments. Lots of other investment threads on other boards keep track of various things: the price of MSFT; dollar/yen; Brent crude.
They manage very well to track AND discuss without any brain aneurysms resulting. It is hyper-relevant info, after all.