Comic for Wednesday, May 31, 2023

[Darth Fluffy 302]

Comic for Wednesday, May 31, 2023

They should blend in really well.      Rule one, pick your operatives so that they do not stand out and draw negative attention to themselves.

The large horn on the forehead looks particularly annoying to live with. Good news! We have plastic surgery. (guessing EGS has plastic surgery comparable to ours)

I wonder why they came dressed to the nines, and the ties, how does that happen to be a thing in multiple universes?

The vibe is organized crime. Maybe Big Bird (Liam) isn't really a good guy?

Their plan to bring gold to exchange for money seems sound - it's a fair guess that it would still be valuable in the EGS universe.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

Reading this on a small phone screen.  My 1st thought was Magus was trying to bully his way through liquidating more of Srileck's wealth.

That's not Magus.

Is Dan trolling the charachter count by introducing new characgters at the end of the month without naming them?

 

[Amiable Dorsai 70]

46 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:

I wonder why they came dressed to the nines, and the ties, how does that happen to be a thing in multiple universes?

The whole thing seems stylized. Maybe this appearance was chosen to be as different from their actual appearance as possible to make descriptions useless?

[Darth Fluffy 302]

1 hour ago, Amiable Dorsai said:

The whole thing seems stylized. Maybe this appearance was chosen to be as different from their actual appearance as possible to make descriptions useless?

They could be cosplayers from a nearby convention.

[mlooney 3,417]

9 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:

They could be cosplayers from a nearby convention.

Very few cosplayers would be trying to exchange gold for cash with out ID.  

 

2 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

The vibe is organized crime. Maybe Big Bird (Liam) isn't really a good guy?

That thought had accrued to me, but I'm not sure about it.  Of course given my current track record, Liam is, in fact, a mob godfather.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

Or are these manifestations of "haircuts" Tedd may be considering?

 

[mlooney 3,417]

Some one pointed out on the EGS discord that finally we have goons in the comic.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

I think it might be these guys. If they are new arrivals they might need to convert gold into local money.

[ijuin 572]

When dealing with a society which uses fiat currency, and with which your society has no formal relations, it is quite sensible to carry some mundane-but-valuable material such as gold to convert into their currency. Despite inflation, the value of one Troy ounce of gold has tended to hover around one week’s income for a middle-class household ever since currency was invented.

[mlooney 3,417]

12 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

I think it might be these guys. If they are new arrivals they might need to convert gold into local money.

Yeah, that's a possibility.  It's really the only one that make sense right now.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

20 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

I think it might be these guys. If they are new arrivals they might need to convert gold into local money.

I leaped to that conclusion with both feet. Could be wrong, but OTOH, the resolution is due, and they fit the clues we've had so far. NOW it makes sense why Dan was hiding them. I assumed they were Uryoums, like Virginia.

[mlooney 3,417]

1 hour ago, Darth Fluffy said:

I leaped to that conclusion with both feet. Could be wrong, but OTOH, the resolution is due, and they fit the clues we've had so far. NOW it makes sense why Gan was hiding them. I assumed they were Uryoums, like Virginia.

If they are, I suspect the one with the horn is Mystcorn the Unicorn, not a Uryoum

[Darth Fluffy 302]

1 hour ago, mlooney said:

If they are, I suspect the one with the horn is Mystcorn the Unicorn, not a Uryoum

That is a weird but tempting theory. Horny horsey has yet to make a non-dream appearance, and the break off was rather abrupt, so it's due.

[mlooney 3,417]

The Dan did say that he was canon, which means he's going to show up again.  This seems like the best time to introduce him.

[mlooney 3,417]

I just had a thought.  There has been a time skip of intermittent length.  What were the goons doing for cash before?  The time skip is based on Grace wearing warm weather clothing.

[ijuin 572]

This may not be the first time that they have sold off some gold, merely their first visit to this particular dealer. Making multiple small deals of several thousand dollars each would attract less attention than trying to unload a quarter million dollars in gold all at once.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

4 minutes ago, ijuin said:

This may not be the first time that they have sold off some gold, merely their first visit to this particular dealer. Making multiple small deals of several thousand dollars each would attract less attention than trying to unload a quarter million dollars in gold all at once.

I've seen a couple of dealerships that look like that, in Texas and Albuquerque. They are always in a sketchy part of town.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

11 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

I've seen a couple of dealerships that look like that, in Texas and Albuquerque. They are always in a sketchy part of town.

I don't blame them if you can just casually unload for a quarter mill in gold all at once in these places.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

3 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

I don't blame them if you can just casually unload for a quarter mill in gold all at once in these places.

$250,000 in gold at around $2000 per Troy ounce is 125 ounces. With fees, let's call it 120 ounces, or 10 pounds., or 4.5 kilograms. 120 one ounce gold coins seems to be within a reasonable inventory for a place that transacts in gold; if not, they almost certainly have a source if you are willing to wait. Absorbing that and paying cash should work similarly.

The weight is an issue, especially since the next comic that just came out indicates they've done this more than once. People fleeing hostile regimes would do well to find a more portable transport mechanism for more than trivial amounts of wealth. Gold will, of course, set off metal detectors, so is difficult to conceal in a thorough search.

I'm not knowledgeable on laundering money, but I think the go-to for absorbing big bucks is to buy businesses, since the transactions can absorb quite a bit of funds. Still, this gold transaction could be a viable method. So maybe the locations are sited for those customers?

[mlooney 3,417]

18 hours ago, ijuin said:

This may not be the first time that they have sold off some gold, merely their first visit to this particular dealer.

There is the "state law:  Must show ID" sign here that they bluffed their way past, in what seems to be their first goon use.  I suspect that they will need to meet up with Edward or DGB to get fake id due to the near impossibility of living in the modern era with out an id of some sort.  That is assuming that they want some part of the current powers that be  to know about them.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

1 hour ago, mlooney said:

There is the "state law:  Must show ID" sign here that they bluffed their way past, in what seems to be their first goon use.  I suspect that they will need to meet up with Edward or DGB to get fake id due to the near impossibility of living in the modern era with out an id of some sort.  That is assuming that they want some part of the current powers that be  to know about them.

If they have enough knowledge to fake an ID on their own, they probably can and did, even if just illusionary. Maybe they implanted a thought, 'we did that'. My guess is that the clerk was too intimidated to ask, which may be why they went as mobsters. It may also fit the business model to not ask if the customer looks unsavory.

FWIW, I'm pretty sure for tax purposes it is a US federal law to show ID for gold transactions. Maybe you only have to give a tax ID. I purchased a few ounces in the 1980, and at the time, there was no tracking (and gold was cheap, relative to now, around $120/oz IIRC). When I sold it all in the 1990s, anything over one ounce had to be reported. That may have changed, and if so, I'd guess that all gold transactions have to be reported.

Gold is not an investment, it's pretty much the opposite. An investment is something that earns income, or has some hope of gain. While that can be true of gold, of all commodities, it is among the most stable. It's really a hedge against inflation and other bad times. There is generally a cost to hold it. While I had gold, I had a safe deposit box, which had a fee. Then transaction fees on both ends. I made some money on mine, but I attribute that to the value being too low in the 1980s.

There is wisdom in the advice that you aren't generally going to do better as an amateur trader that picking a good no load mutual fund in the market you are targeting and letting them do the research. I do think it is not strictly random, though, and some few individuals, such as Warren Buffett, have a proven track record that is worth paying attention to. They are doing something the others are not.

[ijuin 572]

All of this talk of buying businesses or other investments overlooks the main reason that this trio had chosen gold as their portable store of value: They come from a place whose fiat currency is unrecognized by any authority on this planet, and which is therefore unexchangeable. Thus, they must carry their money in the form of saleable material.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

Gary Larson once commented that his Far Side calenders were a license to print money.  How do our three stooges get in to that kind of investment?

Actually, forget them.  How do I get in on somthing like that?

 

[Darth Fluffy 302]

26 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Gary Larson once commented that his Far Side calendars were a license to print money.  How do our three stooges get in to that kind of investment?

Actually, forget them.  How do I get in on something like that?

Magic, the Gathering is a way of printing money that has worked well.

 

32 minutes ago, ijuin said:

All of this talk of buying businesses or other investments overlooks the main reason that this trio had chosen gold as their portable store of value: They come from a place whose fiat currency is unrecognized by any authority on this planet, and which is therefore unexchangeable. Thus, they must carry their money in the form of saleable material.

Gold is not all that portable, 12 Troy ounces to the pound (very roughly 1/2 kg); it is portable enough if you don't need a vast amount of wealth.

It is reliable, especially if you are ignorant about the target markets. "I'm moving to another universe, what can I take that is negotiable and has value." Well, assuming the physics is similar, gold will still be rare, valued for various qualities, and is likely to be known; it appears a nuggets in nature, and is relatively easy to purify. Other factors, such as, it was illegal to own and trade in the US for several decades might come as a surprise. What else would you take with you that you'd have a reasonable certainty of the item having value? Gems, maybe, and they'd be lighter. They are more difficult to trade. Silver, but it is bulkier per value. Platinum or palladium, but they were discovered later, and are not as available as gold is here, presumably a similar situation might exist, and they are not as recognizable as gold.

 

[The Old Hack 2,448]

15 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

It is reliable, especially if you are ignorant about the target markets. "I'm moving to another universe, what can I take that is negotiable and has value." Well, assuming the physics is similar, gold will still be rare, valued for various qualities, and is likely to be known; it appears a nuggets in nature, and is relatively easy to purify. Other factors, such as, it was illegal to own and trade in the US for several decades might come as a surprise. What else would you take with you that you'd have a reasonable certainty of the item having value? Gems, maybe, and they'd be lighter. They are more difficult to trade. Silver, but it is bulkier per value. Platinum or palladium, but they were discovered later, and are not as available as gold is here, presumably a similar situation might exist, and they are not as recognizable as gold.

It depends a lot on the society as well. There was a time where diamonds were not as highly valued as other rare gems. A few centuries ago spices fetched REALLY high prices due to rarity. The word 'salary' stems from a time where you would issue pay in the form of salt. Also baseball trading cards can reach really impressive values, though I am less sure that the fame of players in other dimensions would carry over as readily. As to Magic: the Gathering, I wonder what that would be called on the other world. Technology: the Menacing?

The one thing I am fairly sure they would not bother to bring is NFTs. With magic and illusions available they have simpler ways of scamming people.