Thank you very much for the links. By the looks of it then, in the US, I can either buy from an individual (not really a convenient or safe option imo) or I can buy with Bitinstant and incur a 5% fee? Neither of those sounds too great although nice to know the option is there. However using precious metal instead of bitcoins would therefore be a cheaper option since the commissions on gold sales are generally under 5% (through a dealership with no paperwork needed if sale is under $10,000). Is everyone sure there's no cheaper option? Does this mean precious metal beats bitcoin for low commission anonymous transactions?