Sorry mate, but I can't offer you serious advice on getting set other than through shares/bullion/collectors coins. (Personally I hold all three.)
A good friend buys gold jewelry, predominately through EBay, and does get some really good buys. She enjoys wearing her 'superannuation' -(:-D)
I would think another alternative is some of the E-Gold arrangements, and if I was to consider these I'd be checking out the operation owned/run by James Turk.
Of course, there's also certificates from the Perth Mint - but I would opt to go for allocated bullion if I was using the Mint's schemes.
At the end of the day, it's your money/decision. Best I can do, eh.
Re the derivative situation, I fully (I think) appreciate it. I was only raising JS's proclamation that the derivate market (and world) would collapse when the POG reached $354 (or whatever). It didn't.
