Sold some yesterday

I did the unthinkable. I finally sold a little bit of my bullion. It was a need to raise cash quickly event due to a bunch of human errors trying to get a land deal closed. Anyhow, I got a little feedback from my LCS on the state of things in my corner of the world.

The guy told me they're lowering their payouts on silver and gold because they're only getting sellers in the door, and no buyers. I found that a little interesting. By the time I got there, I still got -$20 off gold spot, and -20 cents off silver spot. I was pretty happy with that not having to ship and wait. It was just plain bullion, no eagles.

 

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Pretty typical. Most buyers and sellers have memories about 6-12 months long. If the price today is below that people buy and not sell, if above the reverse. Remember when prices was still in the 30's or high 20's a few years ago? Imagine how "cheap" $20 silver would have seemed to them. People were talking about "backing the truck up" at $22 silver, yet today $20 silver seems expensive to the same people.

$20 and .20 back is a fair deal your dealer gave you.

 

I was happy with it. I got wrapped up in buying some land, and today is closing, but my life insurance guy botched the paperwork for a policy loan and he ended up shorting me. So I needed some quick cash to get the rest of the down payment in order to close on time.

One thing to take note of, for you market watchers. I'm going to be looking to unload a good chunk of my bullion stack over the next six months to get this land paid off by January 15th. I'll do my best to keep you guys informed of when I'm selling. Those will be the days to buy as I'm certain there will be an immediate uptick as soon as I've let mine go.

 

Is this considered insider info. Careful, look what happened to Martha!

 

That's usually my luck as well. I still remember a stock I bought in 2009. Sat on it for like 4 years and it didn't do much. I sell it and it triples in the next 6 months.

Paying off land by Jan 15th? Man, must be some small land or a huge stack!

 

I agree with this. On the way down the premiums rise until "normalization", as we saw a couple years ago. A lot of people are buying, so the inventories need a chance to fill in. On the way up, the buy back premiums fall until the same thing happens, only in reverse. The inventories get a glut of secondary sell back, so it needs time for the inventory to clear. Makes perfect sense....as right now if you're paying attention you can buy at very low premiums, the risk is the fall back in price/spot.

 

I unloaded a bunch of scrap gold jewelry at $1260 - roughly 1 week before it flew into +$1350 territory. Was only a couple OZT, but I felt I had acquired your septic touch for a moment there.

Then I realized that I had paid about 65 cents on the dollar at spot when it was still around $1100. All in all, I got about 30% net profit for holding a couple months after considering auction premiums, and selling at 90% of spot to an LCS.

A win is always a win, even if it wasn't as big as it could have been. I still booked the win and took the payout - and have more to go.

 

An old friend told me years ago when I was complaining that selling gold coin that day would return us a smaller profit than if we perhaps waited, that "you will never go broke taking a profit". The wisdom in that simple statement made more and more sense the older I got.

 

It's years of diligent saving and investing. The whole thing is going to be funded in three thirds. A third bullion, a third life insurance loan, and a third cash. I use that life insurance as my own personal credit line. So it won't necessarily be paid for by January 15th, but there will be no liens, and I will not be forced to make any payments.

That being said, I will be working my tail off to pay back my insurance loan so I can rinse and repeat in a few years.

 

I'll spare the price, but I picked up a nice 40 acre chunk of wooded land in a state whose government is frantically trying to buy it all to get it away from evil private citizens. Private citizens that won't allow the wholesale pillaging of the game and timber.

It's largely a place for me to get away and play, but I like to see the underlying value as well.

 

Martha was never convicted of insider trading. It was for lying to the investigators. Sound auspiciously familiar to possible near future events?

 

Could be any state these days. Even Nevada is trying to shore up "reserved" land. Especially with the recent BLM divestitures.

Mind if I ask what state?

 

SD 51555 and you ask him what state? really? If you google that it'd probably give you the city too...

 

If you were playing a long game with pm accumulation, trading at a high to buy land has to be a good thing. I think I'd enjoy a 40 acre wood far more than a pile of silver.

 

Minnesota. They are bested only by the Federal government and the state of Alaska in acres owned. The various gov agencies already own over 60% of forested land in the state, and the race to get the rest is on fire. Potatoes and logging are driving it. MN hates potato farmers, and can't bend over enough for logging.

"Sustainable Forestry" is all the rage here. Private land ownership has been listed as a hindrance to effectively managing the state's woodlands in a number of DNR reports.

 

I'm in a similar spot - debating how to fund a land purchase for our future house, without having to take out a loan. I considered selling some of the pile, but most would be at a loss.

 

Ah, makes more sense. Yeah, MN is very much a socialist state. My firm has had many a run-in with MPCA. We own about 800 acres in NW MN in between two lakes, and we dare use that land for productive use.

I have some mixed land in Iowa I do the same with. Some tillable, but the rest woods and CRP. I get you, its fun to go to a chunk of land and know its yours. That you can always, if everything else falls apart, grab a camper and go live there.

 

If only more people literally saw the forest through the trees. When the biggest hindrance to government is the private citizens - the citizens are long overdue for a review of their government.

I have a good (if not long-winded) "one for the little guy" story. I've had a piece of commercial property along highway 50 in Nevada since 2003. I saw the expansion coming - and I got way out in front of it. Bought for a modest price just waiting for urban sprawl and expansion. There was an inkling of talk about "USA Parkway" and the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center (TRIC) back then. It is the single biggest boon to expansion for the County - and the state really.

Fast forward to 2014. Among all the expansion that is driving the area - Tesla announces their Giga-Factory in the area, and one of the mandates is early completion of USA Parkway that will link Interstate 80 with Highway 50...

http://mynews4.com/news/local/usa-parkway-extension-will-cut-tesla-commute

USA Parkway will link Interestate 80 to US Highway 50 less than a mile from my property. This triggers a giant boom in sales and construction throughout the area.

Needless to say - JACKPOT!

I put the property up on MLS in January this year - ready for a substantial windfall.

Fast forward 3 months. In April, I get a letter from Nevada Dept of Transportation - they are widening 50, they decided to only widen on my side - and in short - are exercising Eminent Domain rights. I will lose about 60% - 70% of the property to this widening.

They sent a long legal-eze letter about how they will value the property.

Well, my realtor and I already "valued" the property when we put it up on MLS earlier in the year. I basically set a precedent for all of my neighbors along US 50, and a highly valued price point.

This MLS listing came as a shock to the NDOT representative that I spoke to. Timing is everything.

It will be an uphill battle. After all, the government does move with ultimate impunity, and I am quite sure they will go back to the price I paid and offer a paltry initial amount to make me go away.

I am in the process of rallying the neighbors to make sure we are all unified, but having already listed it on MLS at fair market value is a huge boon.

 

I plan on selling silver at my coin club this month. Not all of it but I want to see what sells right now. I have a mix of Eagles, Rounds, and 90% junk. Some I will sell at auction and some at my table. I've been buying and selling since January 7 this year. I have not taken a loss and have made enough to have fun. I'll give a report on my latest coin club experience at the end of the month.

 

It will all sell, the price you realize may be less than you want. Right now there's a HUGE sell. Everyone that held is looking for short term profit, so the market is softening.

I saw a 10ozt A-Mark bar sell for $192 at our coin club last Wed. Spot was still at $20.50 at the time. I will be bringing cash to the next show.