Thread: silver pro's and con

Some opinion's please.I am thinking about buying the Mint box of 500 American Eagles or purchasing shares of the silver ETF.Hold physical silver or paper silver. What would be best? Thanks.

Originally Posted by bdev4

Some opinion's please.I am thinking about buying the Mint box of 500 American Eagles or purchasing shares of the silver ETF.Hold physical silver or paper silver. What would be best? Thanks.

Well I am an opinionated person. My choice is to buy the physical coins. This is something I have been speculating in. I started with paying $12 each for some nice ASE coins. Then I had to give $14 or $15 each at coin shows. Above $15 is not speculating anymore. In my opinion it is risk taking.
And I have done that by paying up to $17 for nice Silver Eagles.
The good thing is I can buy or sell coins myself without the stockbroker fees.
I personally have a negative attitude towards stockbrokers or middlemen.

The speculating also for me involves buying one ounce silver bars. I got 6 one ounce bars for $13.00 each.
Now I am working on a deal to buy 14 more at $10 each. This 14 bar lot is something I think will be profitable right away.

I don't call this investing but call it speculating.
There are better ways to invest such as CD accounts that pay 5% or better.

I like holding and looking at the coins. Far greater input for the sensory system than a piece of paper.

In my opinion you will make more off the ETF because you will not get hit with the wholesale and retail markups. I have never considered any of the modern bullion coins to carry numismatic value but others will disagree.

Compromise when investing, a little here, a little there etc. That way you are safe. Only risk taker would put all the eggs in a basket.

You'll probably get more ounces for your money with the ETF. It also solves the storage problem. Also, when you go to sell, the bid/ask spread on the ETF will be much much smaller than on the coins, and infinitely less hassle to get rid of quickly if there is a price spike like we had about 25 years ago. If you believe the collapse of Western civilization is near or want to hold them "forever" and pass them on to the next generation, the coins might be better. If you just want to hold silver and resell for a profit in a few years because you are convinced that silver prices will rise, the ETF might be better.

So it depends on what you want to accomplish.