Something just occurred to me. When you buy a piece of paper which says that it represents gold, but the gold hasn't been mined yet, its called a "gold future" right? Well 4 weeks ago today I went to the Perth Mint and purchased a 10oz bar of silver. They had just ran out of stock earlier the same day, and so they gave me a piece of paper saying that I owned the silver, and that I could collect it when they got some more. Just yesterday I got the call saying to come pick up my bar, so I hopped on the bus after work and walked into the P.M. and collected my bar. Fine, I thought. That's just a delay in delivery. But really, didn't I actually purchase a future? What if the stock never arrived? Would the P.M. really have given me a refund if I had asked? Only at the current buy-back price I'm sure. So what's the difference then? Its futures isn't it?
I think they'd actually just refund what you paid, but I've never been in that situation to confirm. :/
Pretty sure you could have gotten a refund at your purchase price if they failed to deliver in a reasonable timeframe upon request. Sadly when theirs a supply hang up you have to wait either for delivery or wait till they have it in stock and if they had it at the price you wanted you did fine buying it when you did. I know it's frustrating but at least with the Perthmint they have a large established premises and are backed by the state government so you know they won't just take your money and run (any more than any other large government backed business anyway).
I purchased some bars from PM a few months ago, same story. I was told that they were mine to sell at any point from the time I had paid for it. IE at current PM Buy Rate, not purchase Sell price. The lady who served me made this clear. I had essentially bought a silver certificate, which I then traded for physical when they had stock. Once they have stock, they give you 2 or 3 weeks to collect too which I thought was cool, free storage for almost a month! (might actually be a month, can't remember).
I remember Pamps had a 6 week wait at one stage last year, the dealer could only import 1500kg/month apparently
I had to wait 2 weeks before taking physical delivery of my pre-paid Pamp (said 4 at the time), the queues were much longer back then!
Neither a futures contract nor a forward contract - see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futures_contract (date not specified in your case) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_contract (you paid & wanted delivery when you paid, by all accounts) What you actually made (via PM's piece of paper guaranteeing delivery - but not at any particular date yet being in what both parties had agreed to be a 'reasonable' - or sufficiently short - timeframe) would in commercial law be one of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spot_contract VRS x
