“”•The prices shown are for “paper” gold traded on the Comex (among other places). Physical gold trades at a premium and is difficult to find in reasonable quantities.””
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Apparently you are not aware that you can buy a gold futures contract on Comex and take delivery of physical gold.
You can buy an August 2012 futures contract on Comex today for about $1619 and take delivery of the 100 ounce bar at the end of the month. All you need is $161,900 to do the deal. It is the cheapest way to buy gold.
Of course, you can buy some physical ... a little bit at a time. But, as noted in my original reply, not in reasonable quantities.
Apparently you are not aware that approximately 98-99 percent of all Comex futures paper settle. There simply is not enough physical to meet delivery requirements.
There's nothing like getting fiat (provided your account balance hasn't been stolen by a broker-dealer shades of MF Global and PFG), or even worse GLD shares, when the dollar crashes.
I had to pay a considerable premia when I bought in to the market. How much should I charger to sell it back over spot?