People invest/collect gold like this and it clearly only profitable for the people who buy and sell gold who charge you to do both.

I also think it's a hobby. Like people collect this or coins or stamps or Pokémon cards. I think as far as things to spend your time on for entertainment, you loose the lease amount on this compared to collecting other things or spending the time you spend on this entertainment doing another form of entertainment.

It's not investment unless your scrooge mcduck and have a big gold factory, it's really entertainment like collecting baseball cards.