I really think silver and gold are in a huge bubble. But at least it's a metal bubble, and not a paper one. Even so, I'm looking to get a bit more bang for my buck. I'm looking at investing in titanium, bismuth, copper, tin, etc., It seems like we still use those metals, but they aren't as subject to the panic-mode buying silver and gold are. My ideal price per ounce is the $8-15/ounce range. Warnings or suggestions? Would the average guy actually be able to trade metals like those for anything should it ever become necessary? I'm probably looking at spending $100,000 or so. Could I peddle that much of a "less precious" metal to someone for whatever becomes our new currency after the meltdown? It's becoming more and more apparent to me that the answer the politicians have for dealing with the debt is to ignore it - until the dollar finally crumbles under the load - at which point they'll use inflation to raid my personal savings, which is the last of the money they can't get their grubby little fingers on.
There are many reasons to invest in these metals, but I will only respond to the one you mentioned, i.e. the preservation of wealth due to $/currency destruction. The value of these metals is based solely on industrial demand. if you are looking to preserve wealth due to destruction of the currency, then I don't think there are any precedents that would apply. A destruction of the currency might also result in a huge falloff in industrial output and in that case the demand for these metals might collapse completely. On the other hand, gold, and potentially silver are held as monitary assets by countries and its the only hard asset that all countries will trade in terms of a currency. Gold is really the only metal that is held as a hedge against fiat currency.
As I see things, if metals are a bubble it's in the paper market, not the physical one. There are a lot of factors that would provide pressure on both sides if the physical market were separated, such as cost of production pushing the price down, or rarity and demand potentially pushing it up. As I watch the online dealers, it seems to me supply has been dwindling the last few months at least with some of the more popular and lower mintage items. I can still find a lot of the coins I want locally though. However you slice it, with the advent of the paper markets the situation became exceedingly more complicated. I am in the camp that silver is a monetary metal and an industrial metal, and is similar to Platinum and Palladium except that I believe it has more of a monetary status than those 2 metals, but agree with Fatima that gold is the only metal that has this as its primary distinction. So silver has a mind of its own sometimes, but follows gold historically and does follow gold in tandem on occaison at least directionally though not always by a percentage basis. Obviously I like silver and I am chancing that the gold/silver ratio will return to a more historic level one day, but I like gold too. It's the safer play, and has less of a risk/reward situation IMO. Gold will cause you less heartache along the way too, but if you can handle the ride I think silver is worth it. It's also ideal for liquidity. I believe the average person will be able to trade metals one day, because I am a person willing to do so and I know others who are as well. The reason I am of this mindset is because it has been done before and just makes sense to me. It doesn't require any middle man or governing body, and will always hold some level of value, even if not more than you paid at least it can't go to zero if you hold the physical metal. So I think anyone holding metals in a worst case scenario like you've mentioned would stand to gain a lot more of any new currency than people holding the old currency, but there are other investment vehicles that may survive a currency collapse besides metals. The question is whether they will survive a societal collapse which may or may not come with a currency collapse. $100K is a lot of money. You really should talk to a professional if you haven't yet. I wouldn't put all my eggs in one basket, but most of my eggs would be in a physical metal basket. Another important consideration is security. If you don't have the means to secure your metal then you'll be relying on either trusting a bank to hold it for you or going into the paper markets. Each scenario carries its own kinds of risks.
Those metals are sold by the pound. Or in your case the ton. For example, bismuth is quoted at about $12/lb. Assuming you are planning to take physical delivery, the problem is that you are going to pay the spot price or quite a bit more. When you sell, you will get much less unless you found a good deal on some form of those metals that you can sell to the public at retail prices. One way around that problem would be to work out a deal with a manufacturer of bars and rounds. At least that way you would have the metals in a form you can eventually market. Another option is Canadian coins (98% Cu cents and 99.9& Ni nickels). I prefer this option because of the low markup over spot prices.
