Can someone tell me the best place to buy gold and silver bullion? I am looking to protect money from inflation and in the worst case, devaluation of the dollar. I am not interested in collecting as I don't know anything about it at this time.
How much are you looking to protect? How much time do you have on your hands? There are alot of factors. I have my oppinions which may differ from others.
I'm thinking around $10 thousand. I have plenty of time as I am retired. Just don't know squat about it.
your going to get many reccomendations and mine is to buy off ebay. with the available rebates you can save 6-8% off the selling price. i have purchaed from big dealers and ebay and the best deals i have gotten have been off ebay. these were picked up last week with spot right around 23.25 kilo bar for $22.74/oz 50 oz. bar for $23.20/oz 25 maple leafes for $23.54/oz
I think Ebay is the worst of all possible places to go for bullion for someone completely new to the game. APMEX and Provident Metals are the two internet dealers mentioned here most often as reliable sources. I personally have never used either, so I would wait for more responses.
Provident or APMEX are great places. FYI; The best place to buy loose Emeralds is in the Jem district of Bogota Colombia, just to the south of the government square....Not that I would suggest this to someone just learning jems and looking for advice. Same with Ebay, Trishs. Very surprised that 9Guns would point you in that direction.
I have read several recommendations for APMEX, Provident and Gainesville Coins and will probably chose from them. I am just too leery of e-bay. If there is a bad deal on e-bay, I would be the one to get it. Thanks everyone for your replies. I am so glad I found cointalk.
Not that you asked....but I do have another suggestion for your new financial direction, Trishs. Take a year or two to move all in, to this new field. Dollar cost averaging is your friend.
Yes. The danger is great. Think of it as shopping in the most dangerous neighborhood in town. You may save some money on a few trips, but that will be more than offset by the one time you are mugged. If you are buying gold and silver as insurance, or if you expect them to rise significantly in price, a couple of dollars for peace of mind going into the transaction is not important. You are trying to avoid risk, not seek it.
Thanks again everyone. I currently have 4 oz Gold Eagles that I have had for 20 years or more, so I think I will buy some silver, but not a large amount. Anything can happen overnight to change this market. Visions of China and George Soros dumping tons on the market make me nervous. I have looked and talked to Provident and they seem like a good choice...not to say APMEX or the others aren't.
I suggest buying only junk coins. Ingots and bars could be hard to authenticate and re-sell in the even of crisis. I mean, since the PM's are insurance, I think buying Silver Coins for the bulk of 10k is the wisest move. They can be bought in many places and even in smaller amounts. If we face a crisis, you can sell smaller quantities easier. Also, if you want to re-sell at some point, you may want to do so in small amounts to follow market trends ?
Hi Trish-- The big pitfalls to watch out for (on ebay, not with Provident/Apmex/Tulving) are talked about here: http://www.cointalk.com/t134908/ Be careful of the sellers that say ".999 fine silver" along with the description "10 mils" or "mills" or "100 mils". This means a silver PLATED bar of copper (lead?) that is essentially worthless to any of the dealers you may end up wanting to sell back to in the future. You'd have to re-sell it on feebay . If you decide to go with some 90% junk, Tulving seems cheapest by selling at spot, as long as you have ~$17,000 to spend.
Isn't it a little late to be protecting against inflation? Things have a lot farther to go down than up.
I probably would not spend 10K on it right now. I would say spend about 2K on silver. gold is just way to inflated to buy right now. Silver eagles are probably your best bet. i agree avoid anything to do wtih the word mills. things are dicy for commodities lately. i think the bubble could be getting ready to burst and you will want to hold something back. gold and silver have been ramped up a lot lately and usually it will react very violently when it goes back down again. you can't go wrong with collector coins either. it will cost you more but they will hold their value better than bullion. i would say if you can find some carson city morgans to go for it. older ones in good shape will cost about 500 bucks but if the price of silver plunges the collector value will hold. i wouldn't buy anything less than an MS 63 since you have the money.
The Op stated that she was interested in bullion and not in collecting. I can't see steering someone toward numismatic coins who has expressed a contrary interest. Given the amount of money involved i would gravitate toward junk silver coins and a couple of one ounce low premium gold coins. The junk silver is easily divisible and marketable. And if you are a shopper you can get it at a very reasonable price relative to spot silver.
Not likely to go down...more towards hyperinflation according to everything I have seen. You can't run the printing presses and fabricate trillions of dollars without deflating the value of the dollar. Prices won't go down because of the dollar's lost value.
If it was my $10,000, then 10 ounce silver bars are what would be purchased. Stick with known refiners also. In the link below you will see names like Silvertowne and Wall Street Mint which are fine. Pan American, Northwest Territorial Mint, APMEX, Monarch Precious Metals and many others are known refiners. There is no need to pay the premium that Engelhard or Johnson Matthey will command but stick with brands that are recognized. Silver is both an industrial and a precious metal, so it has potential both ways. 10 ounce bars offer portability and quick liquidity also. Someone above mentioned cost averaging and that is good advice. The markets will go up and down, so don't spend all $10K at once. I would spread my purchases out over 6 months and buy on the dips. Good Luck! http://www.apmex.com/Category/1192/10_oz_Silver_Bars.aspx
I hear people say that all the time about the presses running 24/7 making money that deflates the dollar, but what exactly does that mean without regurgitating something heard on am radio? The presses have always run 24/7 during even the best of economic times, just to keep up with monetary demand. If they're running nonstop now, it's because theres demand. Because our currency is backed by nothing more than faith and credit, the two loosest terms imaginable, what exactly is deflating it's value? I think people have inflation confused with something else. Guy
