Here on this weekend before Christmas 2025, with silver closed at $67.42/oz I'm amazed by the chaos out there in the retail market. Locally I've heard of a brick and mortar buying (trying to buy)at 80% back of spot. I've heard of another buying $3 below spot. I went to a pawn shop that had about eight old 1 oz bars on a shelf with a sign that said "1 oz bars are todays spot price +$7! And if paying by card it's another 3% fee on top of that! I see one oz bars from Scottsdale on ebay at $78 to $81 shipped. An ounce of silver seems a lot more "precious" than it did 6 months ago. Normally after a short term spike like this it crashes. This might not be normal but it sure is entertaining to watch play out. What have you guys seen lately in the wild?
All my of y he e precious metals are up because the Fed cut interest rates. It happens every time and more cuts are expected next year.
Rise in price may become less steep over time with increased mining. World silver mining production has decreased since 2016, maybe earlier. At the same time, recycled production increased significantly, making total production constant. However, the current price would make lower grade ores profitable. There was a huge increase in gold mining after the run-up in prices in the early 1980’s. But increasing mining and ore processing capacity are slow processes. Mike
