First Time Investor

I agree with you all. I am going to start a FBL collection. I have never heard that about silver.

 

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I haven't sold much coins, but I agree with Hobo and others, the dealer buy and sell prices are very different, if you buy at certain price, when you sell unless the coin have appreciated alot, chances are dealer will offer you much less than you paid for it.

 

I did a quick check the other day.
For gold it looks like the dealers are charging about $50 over spot.
They are buying at about $5-10 over spot.
These prices are for small quantities (3-10 ozs).

 

Speaking of investments...

Was any of you guys lucky enough to buy some of those 2008 american gold buffalos from the US Mint? You could be making some serious scrillage today. Rah, rah, rah for the buffalos. :hammer:

What an investment!! That would have been an exception to the rule, for sure.

 

UNfortunately not. I wish

 

I am 49 and haven't been collecting long, i got started accidentally. I got on this site and others and got the advice to focus on one area. I decided to start with proof sets and have managed to put together the last 50 years of common sets and now have started to do silver sets. But what i am getting at is the fact that I am collecting them, not investing in them. I look at some of them every day and would not sell them for any reasonable amount of money. I am now working on mint sets. I love when my granddaughter comes to visit cause she will set for hours with grandpa and look at the coins. Someday these might be worth something to my grand children but for now they are priceless to me.,:eat:

 

Before you spend $0.01 research a series, look at past growth....honestly unless you enjoy coins, the research, and history like me. Put your money in a CD (Certificate of Deposit) also I would stay away from a gold coin right now because IMO when the market comes back (which will happen) Commodities will go down A LOT! This is just my opinion many would argue about my theory on gold lol ALSO I MAY BE WRONG

 

well first lets define investment. Short term or long term? Have you settled on stocks,bonds,bullion,or open to other other forms of investments?

 

Good luck with your "investment."

 

Buy silver coins and bars as a hobby. DO NOT buy silver coins as a way to fund long term goals such as retirement.

I buy, for example, certain silver bars because that is what I enjoy doing and it is a hobby to me. I DO NOT see my gold and silver coins and bars as investments.

I would not bet my working life on the spot gold and spot silver prices going up by the time you reach retirement age.

Just my opinion.

 

You said your a student. I suppose that you are in or will be going to college. Check out the tuition rates and place your money in a safe place like a bank. You will need it soon enough.

 

These days, I'd be looking to put money in anything that will at least maintain value.

From what I've been reading, this has to be one of the riskiest times since it's inception to be in the markets. The government says unemployment is at 9.5%. Shadowstats which figures unemployment the way it used to be done puts the figure at 21%. Take out government jobs and jobs that rely on government programs and now the private sector is probably closer to 40-50% real unemployment. We've lost a million more jobs than Obama predicted we would if we DIDN'T pass the stimulus bill.

When it sets in how realisticaly bad things are, I expect the markets to plummet. I've read that a lot of the stimulus money has been pumped into the markets to falsely prop them up and lure people back in. I know classical wisdom would have people telling you that the 1950's are just around the corner. It's traditionally been the only way to average a 10% return, but I'm saying, I believe we can forget about that for a long time.
Lets see. Unemployment has gotten worse. GDP is down to -5%. Yet the markets are rising?? Makes total sense! Unemployment benefits are going to start running out for a lot of people over the next 6-12 months. Then what? The stimulus is going to run out. Then what?

Even if you do have a gain, you need to subtract the dollars value, broker fees, transaction fees, inflation and finally, hack capital gains tax out of it. Maybe you end up with a profit if you do extremely well. Which I don't see what would indicate anything going that way in the near to mid term. Or long term. As we await a total dollar devaluation on top of it to temporarily save us from our debt while killing everyone's paper savings.

If you need it, you should probably just leave it in cash, on hand. In case of a bank holiday.
It won't make much difference anyway. Inflation's around 6% at the moment. You can tie it up (3 business days away) in an online account at 1.4%. Or try one of their CDs at a whopping 1.5%. Which is MUCH better than the 1.0% my bank is offering. But, they'll gladly hold on to it for you as you're losing 5% or more each year that goes by.

The current climate we live in is not real conducive for the average guy to make it in investing. We'll be lucky if we don't all lose our shirts if people are willing to get realistic about it.

Nobody can blame you if you wanted to go the precious metals route. Many people will continue to tell you to rely on the stock market because they themselves are relying on the pyramid scheme for their own retirement survival. Unfortunately, I think eventually someone will be left holding the bag.

 

BTW, notice I said precious metals. Something you don't mind parting with, selling or spending. Not rare coins. If the U.S. can somehow manage to maintain our inflated ways of living for our lifetimes, than maybe rare coins will maintain. I will need to see the next 5-10 years to make a determination on that. Otherwise, buy the coins for fun, not investing. Realize there could be a day when a paper dollar won't get you anything and people will be trading what value they have left for food. Not for a pristine 1916-D Mercury dime.

Coin collecting is called the hobby of kings for a reason. Because kings used to be the only ones who could afford to collect them for fun. There isn't much more of an extravagant luxury that we have in life. If there's fewer and fewer people who can afford expensive coins, then demand will go down and prices will follow. Just be sure to see it for what it is. An extravagant luxury that relies on great economies for higher prices. LMK where you think there will be one again and I'll consider moving there.

 

Here is something I would suggest you look into quickly:http://www.cbs6albany.com/news/new-1265060-facility-jobs.html

This plant will be the only, maker of the new process batteries, here in the united states.

 

Pass, article says pending union approval. Unions are what put GM into bankrupcy.:crying: