Investing in ASE's

I'm thinking about sinking some money into some ASE's. I've seen them in coin world for $14.00 a coin, which is a little above silver value, right? Currently my metheod of saving money consists of me buying a couple of rolls of presidential dollars, looking for errors then putting the rest in the safe until I find a real coin I want to buy. I then cash them in and use the cash to buy the coin I want. It works pretty well.

I've been working some side jobs recently and I was thinking of using the money to buy silver, then putting the silver away for a couple of years and seeing what happens. If I buy 10 or 20 coins every month or so, after a few years it will add up. I hate saying this (as I think you can never say something like this, really), but I think in general the silver market is going to go up. I'm not talking like doubling in the next 5 years or anything, but I think that in a few years I might be able to sell a $14.00 silver coin for $16.00 or $18.00 at least. If you have a couple of hundred coins put aside, then that could add up really fast! I might then be able to afford that 1909-S VDB that I want!

What are your thoughts on the matter?

David

 

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If you're going to do ASE's you better buy them by the roll. To much premium individually.

 

If all you're doing is buying them for the purpose of a return, then you should compare it with any other investment you can make. Let's say you buy 100 ASE at the current price of $14 (your numbers). So that's $1,400 that you might be able to turn over into $1,600-$1,800 in a few years (then again, might not). Personally, I can take $1,400 and do better than $200 on it, but that doesn't mean I don't have $1,400+ worth of silver. It's the difference between collecting and investing.

Do you have a plan to store and insure 360-720 ASEs (roughly $5K-$10K worth at current prices)?

 

If you're going to buy ASE's, do some research first. There are bullion dealers on the web that sell the ASE's for less than you would pay from Coin World. Kitco, Bullion Direct, APMEX, etc. At some of these sites you can buy individual ASE's at the same rate as rolls. Some even store them for free until you feel you have enough to ship (which brings down the shipping charges per coin).

 

I had to go to Google to find out what ASE's are.
You can help some of us clueless types by spelling it out once, then using the abbreviation from then on.
(ASE = American Silver Eagles) Not something I deal with. Now I know.

 

If return is more important than volume, I'd stay away from silver and go with gold. For that same $150 or so a month on a dozen silver eagles, you could pick up a nice gold coin and probably make a lot heftier return on your investment.

Don't get me wrong here...silver is a good investment. But, unless you're willing to sink a lot more into it, the gains will be almost too minimal to bother with. Best of luck.
Guy~

 

I'm completely confused. I don't see why you just don't save up and buy the 09S VSB as soon as possible. What your doing is like playing poker and continuously saying maybe I'll win the next hand. Your hoping Silver will go up enough to make a profit so you can buy an 09S VDB? Why not just invest in Buggy Whips. If gas prices keep going up, people will be going back to the horse and carriage.
No just save up a while and go buy what you want, the 09S VDB.

 

I think you're on the right track. Of course there are no guarantees in life, but silver is possibly the absolutely best thing you can invest in right now based on the developing suppy/demand situation. Nobody should be surprised if silver sells for $30 about 5 years from now. ASEs are good as long as you shop around for a good price. Canadian Maple Leafs and even possibly silver rounds will do well also. Anything silver that is clearly marked as to weight and purity so it doesn't have to be assayed is acceptable. But keep in mind that this is my opinion based on my own research and you should make your own decision based on your personal analysis and what you like. As for the debate between gold and silver, I think silver will outperform gold hands down -- no contest. Investment grade silver is actually much rarer than gold and has more upside potential. ASEs are an excellent way to take advantage of this perhaps once in a lifetime opportunity. Did I mention that none of this comes with any guarantee?

 

Thalia Elizabeth and I each have a few ASEs because we like them; if they are worth more later, that's good too.

I think you'd need to buy a lot of silver to benefit from a modest marginal price increase-- a roll or two here and there probably won't net enough to be worth the investment in money, time and security requirements. (I don't mean an increase to $30-- though I think that would bring silver out of the woodwork from everywhere, knocking the price back down. One could "time it right," anything's possible.)

Just Carl makes a very good point-- try to save for what you really want. There are still some banks that have "Christmas Clubs" and "Vacation Clubs"-- pick one and rename it your "09-S VDB Club".

 

Just a couple of additional thoughts...

Of course you need to buy a significant dollar value of silver to really benefit from a price increase, but this is no different from gold or stocks or a CD at your local corner bank. It takes money to make money, unfortunately. I'm also not sure that higher silver prices will bring a lot of new silver into the market next time the price runs up. I suspect, but can't prove, that the silver runup back around 1980 pretty much exhausted a significant portion of the junk silver supply under, say, $25. People were going through their basements and attics looking for the stuff to sell for melt. The evening news showed people lined up outside of coin shops. I think it's going to take a pretty high price to repeat that act. Tell your wife that you want to sell her silver jewelry and her mothers silver service set to be melted and see how far you get. Carl is correct that it's probably a good idea to just save for the coin you want to buy, but I have a lot of empathy for the idea of buying coins to trade for other coins later on. If nothing else, it's a very fun part of the hobby -- and sometimes it even works!

 

Don't mean to contradict you but silver has always done better than gold in terms of percentage increase. $150 worth of silver eagles would be a much better investment than $150 in gold. Note that I'm not saying you should do either...key and semi-key date coins appreciate value a lot quicker than base metals.

 

I am going to slowly build a set of ASE's have three so far 2003, 2006 and 2007 all mint state. I also brought the 2007 W proof as I was confused about what was what. Kind of new to the collecting. I see the shopathome was selling the complete mint set all NGC certified 69 for 1986 to 2007 at $999. In my Coin magazine one of the companies sells the same thing for $750 but not with the payment features that shopathope has. Is this a good way to get all the mint states and avoid the grade fees or is it better to buy one at a time over the course of a couple of years.

 

You're right about the percentages between gold and silver trends. But, what I was trying to bring up was the differences in return. A silver round might be bought for $10 and be worth $20 next year. Thats a 100% return, but it's still minor change. Gold may be bought for $150 and be sold next year for $250....a smaller return percentage-wise, but a much larger return investment-wise.

But, you gotta do what you gotta do.
Guy~

 

If your going to play with silver for returns, than go with rounds and forget about ASE's.

 

You've gotta go with quantity over quality. Buy the same amount of silver (dollar-wise) and you'll get a better return.

 

There isn't much of an advantage to buying certified ASEs and paying a premium. The raw coins are great looking and much less expensive. "Certified bullion coins" is almost oxymoronic.

 

One thing to think about, Silver Eagles do cost a bit more than just plain old silver rounds, or other types of bullion coins. But when you go to sell , you will get at least spot for the Eagles, And anywhere from -3%-10% of spot for the other types of silver.

Just my two cents!

Claw

 

I've been "investing" in silver by buying what I call "junk-plus" silver. Lower grade keys and semi-keys (ex: 38-D Walker in G, VG) have 2 components to their value: the intrinsic silver value and the collectibility of a scarce coin. Since they are relatively inexpensive compared to higher grades, the silver is a bigger part of that equation. So, if silver does well, they go up. And, if it doesn't, people are still looking for that 38-D to fill a slot in their album...

Just my 2 cents,
Wally

 

I think the reverse proofs are going to go up eventually. See what they are bringing on ebay (say PR69 Pcgs)