My response to PS: Generally, coffee beans would be ok too, to preserve value. But not as good as gold, since gold has about zero yield, but coffee beans actually have a negative yield, that being the cost of storage and degradation. Also, coffee beans might be produced more efficiently in the future and have a larger consumption as well as production volume which can make them fluctuate more(?). Gold has shown over history, that most of it is still held, and not so much can be found easily anymore. Regarding the cost of extraction, good argument from the reader with the land, and I want to add that of course the marginal cost counts. If demand rises fast, and you wanted to extract more from the ground quickly, the extraction cost would be very high indeed. Quick note to the demand curve: During gold bull markets it actually becomes inverted, since investment demand drives speculation: The higher the price, the more people want it (not less like normal goods). This doesn’t help you in the long run though, since it will go in reverse again at some point. But it is surely fun to watch it on the way up.
Coffee could still be a great speculation too, if it is even more underpriced relative to history, supply/demand imbalances, and the fact that it could be volatile and not produced fast either. Jim Rogers recommends it and thinks it could go up several times.
