Anyone remember the Hunt Bros.

A little off topic being a different commodity - a more recent (2007) but somewhat similar event to the Hunt Bros.
Texas cotton merchant files for bankruptcy (arkansasonline.com)

 

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Oh my! LOL
Nice Silver bar!!

 

I can't think of any current "frivolities" that come anywhere close to the levels consumed for photography prior to the 2000s...?

(When this topic came up years ago, it seems like I found all sorts of charts breaking down silver demand by category back into the 1970s, but I sure can't find them now.)

I've seen a history of industries finding alternatives to silver because it's so expensive. I don't expect that to change.

 

In 1980 they knocked me out of coin collecting.
I went back to my stamp collection.
Didn't return to coins until about 1990.

 

In my probably naive view blaming "the fed" is an easy out. It was going to collapse on them regardless. You can only get away with leveraging for so long, after that it's a fool's game. Other than some industrial uses, nobody really needs to buy silver, so just as the price goes up precipitously when everybody wants to jump on the bandwagon, it goes down just as precipitously when everybody realizes they need money, not silver. And if industry needs more, the price goes up by itself, and more silver magically appears to fill that demand. How much silver is locked up in fancy serving plates and silverware? I'm guessing a lot, and nobody uses that stuff anymore, it came from grandma and it's been sitting in a cabinet for decades.

 

I remember being able to go to the bank and get Silver Dollars. They weren't common, but it was like getting a Sacajawea now.

I definitely remember the Hunt Bros. trying to corner the silver market and the expert telling us why silver would never go down because of it's industrial uses. LOL!

In the 90s, I bought Silver under $4 and Gold under $400. You could get it under spot because those same experts figured out there was no return when you invested in Precious Metals and they were promoting Rate of Return.

 

Your point would certainly be valid except that all things are valued based on perception. There is no reason the perception can't be that silver is properly valued at much higher levels. It is after all both a commodity and a monetary metal.

While monopolies tend to be destructive and wasteful and often disintegrate without any profit for the perpetrators too low of prices might be far more wasteful and in the long term, destructive. The commonweal profits most through stability of pricing which allows planning. Roller coaster pricing and ultimately sky high prices profit very few.

Look at the garbage that has passed for "stainless steel" since the LME defaulted on nickel contracts in 2008. A great deal of it just rusts away. Looking like "stainless steel" isn't the same thing as being stainless steel. People pay a lot extra to get something that lasts and now like ALL products it is garbage when it leaves the factory.

 

It should also be mentioned that it is NEW technology that consumes the most silver. As time goes by new methods are often found to lower costs. This can even be done without lowering quality though most manufacturers lower it anyway.

 

In January of 1980 I sold over 250 ounces of silver to Rodman and Yaruss in NYC. I raised enough money to cover my tuition at the Gemological Institute of America in Santa Monica CA. It was money well spent.

 

I am grateful for my father's counsel. My wife (now X) just had to have a house that she had found (This was in 1972.). All I needed was $500. I didn't have that kind of money then. I was working full time and going to College. She badgered me so much until I gave in to her and went to my father to borrow the $500. I learned to love my father more than I ever did. He told me that if I can't get the $500 I didn't need the house. Six months later, I lost my job and went back to college to finish my degree. I found a duplex that cost $125 a month. Thankfully, I didn't buy the house because I would have lost it.

 

I remember the Hunt brothers. All of that happened right after I started collecting.

 

Here's mine, a little late but I found it!

 

Remember the same thing holds true for gold as well. Frankly even moreso because silver has more industrial uses than gold.

Nowhere near what there used to be. A whole LOT of it got scrapped during the Hunt brothers craze. And then again years later when it flirted with the $50 level again.

 

Hey, welcome back, @Conder101!