P-man,

You have nailed it. There are 4 major classes of gold participation: physical, Comex, ETFs (which do not include CEF/GTU etc, which are the closest to physical IMO), and miners. Comex and GLD/SLV are fake, and will fail to pay off big when POG/POS erupts, because they can't. The analogy is an investment in a miner in a geopolitically risky country - when the mine is worth a lot, it will be confiscated or abusively taxed.

So we are left with only 2 means of blue sky participation - physical and geopolitically safe miners. Period. End of story.

Strike