Quote: * Over 1,500,000,000 ounces of silver bullion have been purchased by individual silver investors since the 2008 financial crisis. *Demand for silver bullion was a mere approximate 6% of annual world silver supplies the two years preceding the 2008 financial crisis. *In 2015, some 28% of the world’s entire yearly supply of silver was used for investment .999 silver bullion coin and bullion bar fabrication. From https://www.jmbullion.com/investing-guide/pricing-payments/who-owns-most-silver-bullion-today/ Translation: Very little silver was used before the financial crisis for investment. Since the financial crisis, far more silver is being turned into bullion for personal investment. https://silverprice.org/silver-price-charts/20-year-silver-price-history-in-us-dollars-per-ounce In the few years before the financial crisis (2005-2007) silver averaged around $10 an ounce During the financial crisis, silver reached $50 an ounce. In the recent years since (2012-2018) silver has averaged around $16-$17 What do you make of all of this?
I make of this that the Silver Institute and other professional promoters of silver as an investment are unusually adept con men. They knew as well as everybody else that the demise of traditional photography demand would collapse the world demand for silver and they had to pump it up with whatever lies they could get people to believe.
Did you read the same thing I did? It seems to me that Jmbullion is actually providing good evidence at how risky buying silver actually is. They are reporting that silver turned into bullion jumped from 6% of supply before the recession to 28% after. People are buying more silver than ever before. More bullion is being produced than ever before. While this may indicate silver is popular, it also indicates that popularity is a big part of why the price of silver is so high. That popularity--that demand--could collapse at any point, indicating that price of silver is significantly inflated. Like Beanie Babies or tulips, or any other fad. The only difference between silver and Beanie Babies is that when Beanie Babies collapsed, they became almost worthless. When silver collapses it should never become totally worthless, because of its many other uses, but it should fall.
It is refreshing to see people who realize that silver (and gold) are commodities and have no more inherent value than any other commodity. So many in the coin industry tell us otherwise.
Oh no .... my collection of Beanie Babies. when it's really cold out. and there no fuel (gas, wood, etc) to burn. I'll sell them to be fire fuel for millions of dollars. Can't burn your silver for warmth.
I spent my whole career in photography. The lies being sold about silver are intuitive to me. I don't need to read reports. Problem is, and where we likely differ, is I believe gold is even more "fluffed up" than silver is, by QUITE A LARGE MARGIN!
So we're agreeing that silver is hyped and that its price is a result of increased bullion demand and little more since the recession?
On that, yup. They count medals and coins as "industrial demand" to cover up the huge decrease in REAL industrial demand. We both know that medals and coins are merely "distributed inventory overhang", not industrial use. Thing is, the same is true for gold, in spades. One GIHUGEOUS holder of silver acted rationally: The Government of the United States of America. They sold off the ENTIRE 'strategic silver reserve' via the ASE program. It was the West Point Mint's prior function. It was the "Fort Knox of Silver".
I have several hundred dollars of unsorted cents I have not touched in decades. They're in bottle after bottle of old Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice bottles. It's about as large as you want to go and still be able to handle them casually. There are some Zincolns in there, but most of it is pre-1982. What's cool is there are a whole bunch of bright red decently older-ish dates in there.
I hoard all my change. I separate the cents by decade. Yes, all the 80s are in the same container. I might change that some time. I separate the quarters by washington eagle quarters and newer. All dimes and nickels go in the same container. FYI, it's illegal to melt US cents.
Do you have data that shows a similarly large increase in the amount of gold bullion produced before and after the recession? That would show me that, like silver, a large result of the price increase is speculation.
Think global economics .. like China coming into the world market for PMs during that time frame. India too. Both pushing prices up. China was buying everything concrete, etc related back then building a modern nation. They pushed up the price of everything for a while. And consumers started consuming the other stuff like PMs. but as Kurt stated .. speculation drives the market for the most part.