Please help with copper bullion

DO NOT BUY THE SO-CALLED "BULLION"!!!!! copper is at about 3.50 a POUND right now. the 20 ounces is worth about 4.00. If your going to buy copper, buy scrap or buy copper cents. they are worth 2.5 cents a piece and can get them for 1.5-1.7 cents each. I have about $150 fv if your interested.

 

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Copper cents, or copper wire from a hardware store, is the way to go with copper.
But with that said, some of the copper rounds have neat designs and I've bought some because I like how they look. I threw one of these ( http://www.providentmetals.com/2012-dragon-1-oz-999-fine-copper-round.html ) on my most recent order with Provident. Not because of the metal value, but because it was a cool looking round. And it's cheap.

 

As stated, your best bet is to search penny rolls for copper. I use to do it a lot, at least a box a week,, probably for 2 or 3 years or so. You get good at it over time and it really doesn't take much time to go through after you get your method down. I no longer do it, but have hundreds of pounds of copper "commodity" or "bullion" or whatever. In addition, I've probably taken a full roll each of 98 and 2000 WAM's (~$200 easy), one 95dd, one 94dd reverse, and numerous other nice cents (either varities or nicely toned). Hundreds and hundreds of common wheats, 50 or very common indians... probably $20-50 in dimes that got mixed in... a two superb toners that went into NGC plastic (both of which are top pop in RB grade for their date). I lack the time and eye sight and motivation to do much of this anymore..... but it was fun !

 

Right.. But what I've noticed is that if you go for the "big bars" that are 5 pounds or 10 pounds you can find those for about $7 per pound. So it is roughly twice the spot value for industrial copper. However, that is much better deal than buying those coins which are about 10 times the spot value.

I did order one of those tubes of 20 copper coins.. I think I paid around $27. So yeah.. a rip-off. But it will be a neat thing to have.

However, I'm seriously thinking about buying some of the big-bars. The more you buy, the better deal you get. If I spend $1,000 or so I can get even closer to that spot value. And since we know the spot is for industrial copper bought by the truckload, I don't think that is an unreasonable price for .999 bullion.

 

P-e-n-n-i-e-s !!!

 

searching pennies takes too long.

Just hoard nickels instead

 

Would that be the commodities market in Chicago?

 

I just coin roll hunt. Have 59 pound of copper right now all coin roll searched and bought at face value.

 

As someone who has both many forms of silver and copper, I would go with the copper cents and any form of pure silver. The American Silver Eagle is indeed the most well known silver coin in the world, but I have had no trouble at all when it comes to trading or selling other pure silver bullion to various people as well. Here is a link to a popular site that sells holders for multiple bars. They also have single holders for sale too. http://www.apmex.com/Product/15342/Sure_Safe_Silver_Bar_Container.aspx

 

I have enough food, plenty of guns and ammo, and could always use some more shiny coins! Let's talk!

 

...and as many people have already said, pennies are the way to go if you want copper. You seem to be leaning towards bullion bars because you can get closer to spot than with rounds, but you're still close to 2x over spot. Pre-1982 pennies are already priced well under spot, and you don't have to pay shipping. You just go to the bank and buy a $25 box of pennies.

I'm finding about 12-15% copper pennies in the boxes I'm getting right now. Sadly, I haven't found too many wheats and not a single Indian Head Cent yet, but I've only done three boxes so far. My kids love doing them. It takes the four of us about 15-20 minutes to sort through a box. A one gallon jar for pre-1982's, a smaller jar for 1982's (to be sorted later), a smaller yet jar for Canadians, a plastic coinsafe tube for the wheats, and the bank box for the post-1982's.

Considering one of the main principles of investing is "Buy low, sell high", copper bullion seems like the wrong choice, unless you're the one making them.

Now, if you just want the bullion bars because you want something that has a good heavy feel in your hand and is shiny, then go for it! Just know that the probability of actually making money on them as a consumer is virtually zero.

 

copper pennies are the best way like everyone else has said. I've kept over 300 pounds of them in the last 6 months, and I have been spending a lot of time searching for silver too, so not all my time is going into pennies. Check out the picture of my copper hoard as of 2 weeks ago. I've since added 2 more boxes

 

The cheapest way I've found to invest in copper is save all 1982 and before copper cents. I think each penny is worth something like 2.5 cents each now because of the copper content. A great way to acquire copper at face value.

 

The funny thing about that is that we all probably horde pennies by accident. The more the mint makes them the more I just horde them. If they just stopped making them, I would no longer have jars full of them.

 

I cant get behind the copper penny bandwagon because of a few concerns

It is illegal to melt copper cents but even if you could melt them the spot price is based on pure copper but cents are not pure copper but are mixed with 5% zinc that raises the cost of refinement, making the price scrap dealers will pay much less. I would not bet on getting more then 60% of spot. If you never went out of your way using gas to go to the bank and valued your time at nothing the value in the copper penny would have to be at five cents before you made any money.

My advice if you want to invest in copper buy stock in copper mining company's

 

The guy at my local scrapyard pays me 50% of copper price for my brass, which is only 70% copper. I'm sure I could get more than 60% of spot for my 95% copper.

 

I might be wrong but i think i saw it posted somewhere that Zinc is a a hard impurity to refine out?

 

Just because it was posted doesn't make it true. Also, brass IS copper and zinc.

 

depending what it's used for it might not need to be taken out. if you think about it... 95% is pretty pure, but if you mixed it with pure copper you could get higher purities without actually taking the zinc out. Not to even mention the coins might eventually trade for their metal value, just like silver coins. think about war nickels and 40% halves, it would be very expensive to refine that to pure silver, but the coins still trade for very close to melt. Hopefully that happens with pennies once the melt ban is lifted and they're hard to find in circulation, sort of like wheaties I can't wait.

Edit: Actually I can wait, because I need more time to hoard even more of them, opportunities like these only come around so often.