silver: hold or sell?

PocketChange,
Dealers are a lot like oil companies. Prices shoot up quickly for gasoline, but they only slowly drift back down when the underlying comodity sinks in price. Some keep hoping against hope that the boom will continue. Others bought all that silver at such high prices that they don't want to admit (housing boom anyone?) that they overpaid for something that's not worth what they're now asking.

I've noticed the same thing. Silver's nearly been cut in half since Feb/Mar (thanks for the charts andy21us!!), but dealers still price things like it's $20/oz. Don't worry, if the prices stay here or drift lower, it may be several months, but they'll eventually come back down to planet earth with the rest of us.

I remember the same thing happening in 1980-82. Metals prices declined dramatically, but you still couldn't buy a Morgan dollar at a dealer's shop for less than $40 as late as 1983.

Personally, I hope it drops for the next couple of years so I can get a chance to load up! It'll definitely be a good investment for the next decade. Just don't look for prices to come down until later this year.

 

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I still stop and ask for coins at yard sales, tag sales and garage sales.
On Friday one homeowner had a big wooden box of loose US silver coins.
He was asking 12X face. The box was loaded with Barber coins, Walkers and Franklins. For a quantity buy he agreed to 10X face. I picked out the Barber halfs, a few Walkers and several Franklin halfs.
So I paid $5 each. Now some of the Barber halfs were just what I needed to fill holes in my Barber half dollar collection. Many had mint marks and there were some New Orleans minted coins in the mix. For example I got a 1909-O for five bucks! That coin is a R-2 and worth maybe three times the $5 I gave.
At this point in the market I think junk 90% is the way to go.
Still in his wooden box are loads of Barber quarters, SLQs and Barber dimes.
You bet I'll return there next weekend.

 

But until he does blow up . . . he'll be on quite a ride. Maybe Juss maybe he'll invest wisely and when the down time hits he'll have a cushion to ride on.