Physical gold is very easy to buy and sell and it is available at any currency exhange and in most coins shops. The good ones buy and sell at spot market + a couple of % which is no different from Kitco or any bullion trading organization. 

As far as the income trusts go, there was ample warning and 5 years in which to diversify. Panic set in and the brokers did not have the intelligence to quell it, because to them it was a cash grab with the commissions. I saw the end of Income trusts happening 3-4 years ago and went all in on oil and metals, mostly precious. We are not the saviors either because when irrational exuberance in gold sets in, I will be selling all I can to the people buying at the top.