The arguments for many looking to purchase physical gold is that they do not trust "paper" / financial built "vaporware". Should the poop hit the fan you can't just pocket your ETFs, as you need an open stock exchange (did you already forget 9/11?) to sell them and they settle T+3.

When people tell me they've purch'd $500k of diamonds in Tel Aviv in order to pack the highest value in the smalles possible space they're telling me that the don't want to have anything to do with finance. They want tangible "stuff" - a safe house in a safe country and a store for value outside the "electronic reach" of banks, govt's, who might be tempted to freeze the assets of a nation with a flick of a switch.

A (bad) sign 'o the times.

Paul