Can of worms - to invest in silver or not

Or those who bought silver at $4 are not losing anything. Not that we'd ever see that price again probably.

 

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Mmmmmm... kind ofdepends on who that someone is. I know chemistry, I know a little bit about coins, I don't know Jack about stocks.

 

Or in 2000 when people loaded up on $300 gold. Should have been me.
600 percent profit in 20 years.

 

Hi jacksbike,

Welcome to the Monkey House.

Lets start at the beginning. EVERYONE should have some small percentage of their wealth in precious metals. Let's say 3-10%. This is an investment. Above this amount is speculation. Both are fine as long as you keep them separate in your own mind.

The choices are gold or silver. Both are good and both are different and both are related. One comparison used over the years has been the gold/silver ratio. Historically it was 1/17. Currently, it's 1/98. What does this mean? WTF do I know in this age of bullion ETFs. What I do know is that from an historical perspective, silver is undervalued relative to gold. One tactic is to buy both metals in ratio and adjust your purchases as the ratio changes. feh. Works for me.

The buying of precious metals pretty much covers the squares in commerce. You pay a premium for name brand top shelf stuff like American Silver Eagles or in plain vanilla bullion rounds or ingots - Engelhard or Johnson Matthey . . . or you can buy junk silver for a smaller premium. The reason I prefer the good stuff is fungibility. I can sell it anywhere in Christendom.

You also get a discount for buying in bulk. A roll of Eagles is cheaper than an individual coin times 20. I 100 oz ingot is cheaper per oz than 100 1 oz ingots. Lastly, there is the Vig or vigorish. In this situation this the spread between wholesale and retail. Figure 20% or so.

Physical vs. paper. Again, I want the real stuff and don't trust the bullion ETFs. I use them and own SLV currently, but only for shits and grins and to play the market. Cripes, you can put away a tube of silver eagles for about $2500 but a tube of gold Eagles is smaller and can be stashed in your box of oatmeal and is pushing $40K.

Bullion vs. miners. Most pm mutual funds consist of mining stocks and NOT bullion. A few exceptions like CEF but most are miners. Bullion and the miners 'track' each other but not in lockstep because they are traded in different markets. It's a different variation on a theme. I personally like playing the junior silver miners for giggles but I already have my stash of the real stuff.

Shop around and dollar cost average your purchases continuing until you have a sufficient holding that YOU determine.

and good luck,

rono

 

I was paying 18 to 22 for Morgan.. now 30 for peace and 30 plus for cleaned Morgans.. 1/10 ounce gold eagle 230.00.. I keep telling this guy Melt of 90% is not the same as spot on .999, BUT he wants 19.50 for 10 dimes is crazy to me I know condition better grades will demand a higher premium.. If it was a Business there will always be a premium over spot they have to make money too. Individual or a collector might be able to pic-up at or near spot.. Cash in hand might work at some Shops.

 

....."you can put away a tube of silver eagles for about $2500"

Isn't a "tube" the same as a roll? Which means 20 ASE's. They're going for about $460-$480 on fee-bay.

Personally, I have 2+ rolls of ASE's that I bought years ago for about $11/coin. One of the rolls I bought in the late '80's. Not really a great return over that time period. Unless I'd have sold them a some years ago when silver was $30-$40......

I seem to remember lots of people then here predicting $100/oz., & pouring as much $$ as possible into silver when it was 2x or more as now. People (inc. me) trying to tell them it was very risky to buy at those levels were roundly dismissed: silver was the only real money, etc. etc. Where are those people now?

 

PMs flow with the inflation rate. Nice to have a bit around, but I like stocks as an investment. PMs are bulky and tough to buy and sell...only the dealers make good on them.

 

Silver is making moves. Bought mine at $19 in last few weeks and close to breaking even already. Targeting $32 to cash out and convert to gold as long as the ratio doesnt stay at current level.

 

How do you liquidate your coins ? online or person

 

I am new to pm but however you look at it, the local shops are likely the best options for cashing out in bulk. But if you want to sell piece by piece, then online sales to individuals will likely give you the best profit if you dont mind investing your time for each transaction.

 

The silver market is a come and go investment. Our stock pile is sealed for the time being. The market and even internet sales are very risky right now. Like the business market states, in these dior times your best bet is to have a bit of cash in hand... The rainy days are upon us be safe not sorry.

 

Good question but you need to start your own thread. Liquidating coins is risky now also. Get several quotes from local dealers. Its best to have qualified certified numismatist to advise you. don't be to quick to sell on the net. Rephrase your question and ask for CT help there are many qualified experts here. Ask and you shall receive the best that CT has to offer Best of luck to you.

 

No Risk in Junk Silver...Junk is just junk.. there buying it up... like stated above.. but the Numismatist part you might want to hold unless the price is right..

 

Welcome Jack! I believe there's money to be made with silver. I'm up around 40k on a purchase I made last year. If you can sit on it for what could be a year or two and not pay a big premium. Eagles are too high right now, but Maples can be found at around $21 and given today's political and economic climate I don't see much risk at $21. Most of my stuff last year was purchased from Liberty, DBS and APMEX on ebay using a 2.5% cashback card. There could be better cashback cards out there now. Every bit helps.

 

It really depends on what you are comfortable with. I'm a newbie to this as well (well 2 years) and I went with the idea that I don't want to pay for speculative value in my silver (like 1 oz AE's that have $18 of silver, but are "rare" and so are going for $150). Thought being, if things to hell, no one is going to care what you paid for it or how pretty it is, it's $18 of silver. Now, if I can buy those sorts of coins at around spot with minimum premium, I'll snap 'em up, but that's few and far between. Decided on 10 oz bars because less bulky, and even if silver goes up a ton, they will be able to be sold without the Feds getting notified. I was using $15/oz or less as my rule of thumb for total cost, and did pretty well, but the premiums have skyrocketed way more than the silver itself has to where I'm basically on the bench watching at this point. Nothing against $18 silver, just don't like padding the pockets of the dealers with the current premiums. I've been using findbullionprices.com and coinflation.com as reference tools, maybe there are better, but like I said, I'm a newbie, and this where I'm at.

 

MR. Q. I am Not starting a new thread ..not Rephrasing anything but I will refer to CT members for advice or help always..

 

Do you now have any local dealers? At your volume, you should not pay more than $1 over spot. I got two guys i am dealing with locally and they locked my rate at $19 (for the time being). I would not buy anything online you could get from a local dealer.

 

No good local dealers, but I really loaded up last year, probably finished buying unless there's a big dip and I can't resist.

 

Back about 9 years ago I sold some silver (coins and bullion) for about 4 times original cost. Adjusted for inflation my profit was about 250%. I usually buy 90% U.S. silver coins along with bullion rounds with good security features.

 

Sorry for the misunderstanding Slackaction1. Good luck