Why Gold and Silver are dropping ...

Originally posted by 2manyquestions
For those of you who are proficient in buying Gold and Silver, what do you think of these Ten Commandments of Gold and Silver Buying ? I've been interested in buying silver or gold for a few years now, but never took the plunge. Where do you buy your silver and Gold? How do you determine if the seller is trust-worthy? Thanks for any answers in advance.

The "Ten Commandments" you've got there are right on, and I can tell you from personal experience, I do most of that myself, and have for the 15 years I have been investing in precious metals.

As far as where to buy, GirlGenius has shared her experience with APMEX, and I agree that it is a good company, they don't play games, and they have fast delivery.

As far as price, you probably can actually do better on eBay, but you'll want to get a feel for that before jumping in. Lots of "best silver" deals out there, by the pound, etc., but be sure to look at feedback. Not that it's a great indicator anymore, but you can at least see if there are any big issues. Small things, like people whining about some little thing, ignore all that.

I notice the "10 commandments" seem to emphasize old US 90% silver coins. YES! That is my number ONE holding, and it does seem like the best bang for the buck.

Good luck.

JR

To a collector something which is not worth anything to you, might be worth a fortune personally to that collector/person..

So in other words, yes. Value is an illution..
So what do you value the most?
Money?
Love?

This is one interesting topic indeed..

reply to post by 2manyquestions


I bought all my PMs through APMEX. I was lucky to stumble into them early in the process. The page you posted has some good advice, although I didn't understand #9. I am certainly not an expert or a professional but I've read a lot. Educate yourself until you feel comfortable with your prospective purchase. I started with a bag of "junk" silver and some silver dollars. I am about evenly split (cashwise) between gold and silver. Definitely a good time to buy in, being as we can't turn back the hands of time

Originally posted by GogoVicMorrow
reply to post by Qwenn

 

Watch the video I posted on the last page.

Wow I missed that, if it is true, that may explain why governments have tried to take the silver coinage out of circulation periodically, so that they could stockpile it !

Thank you JR McBeth and GirlGenius for your advice! It's deeply appreciated. I'll be looking into it. I'm definitely interested.

Originally posted by GogoVicMorrow
reply to post by Logarock

 

Don't forget drugs.
If the apocalypse does go down, you loot the pharmacy first. Then you can pay a whole junkie army to protect your fort, hunt, forrage. Pretty much anything you want.

Reminds me of that flick "the mailman" or whatever.

Originally posted by FlyersFan
You can't eat gold or silver. If you want to hedge TEOTWAWKI .. buy bulk food, survival items, etc.
I've never understood the drive for people to buy silver or gold for TEOTWAWKI.

It's all about portability of wealth. You might have stocked up on supplies and whatnot, but what happens when you want to trade? Small bits evenly exchanged for other small bits are all well and good, but when you need to trade for something big, you can't exactly cart in 15,000 sandwiches. No man is an island, and no one person or group will have everything needed to survive. There will those who have horded all of the seed and those who have horded all of the farmland and those who have access to the cleanest water and those who have massive stockpiles of fuel. When you start talking big, perishables no longer work for trade. You need something relatively small and portable that has an agreed upon value. Gold and silver provide that.

reply to post by GirlGenius


Good thread, good points pro and against metals. I think the key is balance. Food and other supplies are no brainers even in good times. Natural and man-made disasters occur. Now you've got your SHTF supplies, what next? My bank is currently offering a couple 10ths of a percent on CDs. Maybe .5 to .85% if you tie up enough cash for 3 years and whopping 2.23% for 5 years. Wowser! That will put you behind how many percent to the cost of living? Not very inviting. I do have CDs. I don't like stocks, does anybody? Really? And so to put a few thousand into silver and gold is not unreasonable. I bought much of my silver at melt value of around $16/ounce. Even after the drop in the last few days it's over $27/ounce.

This is all guess work folks but it's "best guess" work. The "best guess" is that these metals will retain value into the future. That's been their history (mostly). And so stocks, CDs, muni bonds, money market accounts or a trip to Vegas. Pick your poison. I pick having my little bit of mad money in silver and gold. It's a bit of a gamble as are all the rest. What's the worst case scenario for me? I lost some fiat currency buying silver and gold as opposed to losing some fiat currency for having had only fiat currency. After you've stored all the veggies and sides of beef, maybe pick up a silver dollar to through in your water barrel to kill the germs.

Follow your heart and use your head, you're gonna have to live with your decisions.

Here's a page that will tell you what your old US silver coins are worth for just their metal content. Any collecting value would be above and beyond that and you need to find someone to give you that increased value. As has been mentioned, you will likely have to pay substantially above melt value to buy silver and gold coins. If you buy enough, maybe 5% above melt. If you buy in small quantities or single coins, it goes up precipitously. The seller has to make a living. Buyer beware.

U.S. Silver Coin Melt Value Calculator

Originally posted by nh_ee
You can't eat gold or silver but that really isn't the intent, just as chucking a can of beans or tuna fish at an attacker might not be either. In that scenario, Just maybe lead tipped bullets might work better.

I Haven't seen much mentioned here at ATS about the true benefit of gold and silver and that IS......
As an inflation hedge.

We're always told about those two certainties in life ....death and taxes. But they seemed to have forgotten one....and that is inflation !

We have been talking about inflation! It looks like this sight is filled with gold salesman!

Let me ask all you smart guys and would be buyers a question?

Why does gold go down as the economy stabilizes? I mean if its worth so dam much by its lonesome and all?

Why did gold start out around 300oz$ and come back down to 300$ an oz during the last gold bust that you may be to young to remember? Why would any dolt invest in something that is only high in price during a very bad ecomomic situation? Do you think they just dig up gold at gold mines all year just so you can have a hedge against inflation some day?

There is onlu one time to buy gold....when the price is low.


she's a beauty

reply to post by Logarock


Not a gold buyer, but believe that today's rate will look low
in comparison to future prices....imo.

reply to post by manta78



Then we are in for really really big problems.

reply to post by 2manyquestions

In terms of getting the best price, it really depends on what amount you're looking to buying. For bulk purchases nobody beats The Tulving Co. Scroll their bullion page and be sure to check their "buy back" prices also - Link. Unlike most online discount dealers including Apmex (which is a great company for smaller orders by the way), Tulving offers free overnight shipping & insurance, plus a $15 credit against your wire transfer fee. That means you call in your order today, make the wire transfer at your bank, and the UPS man arrives on your doorstep tomorrow. Apart from being a satisfied long term customer, I have no affiliation with Tulving.

I often see people paying extreme premiums via Ebay auctions. On these small purchases I do as well, or better by walking into a local coin shop...no delivery time, no delivery costs, no insurance costs, and I avoid the counterparty risks associated with some Ebay sellers. A large percentage of these sellers are coin shops anyway.

Check the current Ebay prices/premiums on the most popular retail Silver product: 1oz Silver American Eagles - Link.

PMs are a bull market. They go up, and down. This could be an entry point, or not. I sold off some physical a couple weeks ago at 30 because I figured it would correct. NOT because the long term outlook diminished in anyway, but because I am speculating on re-entering in the coming weeks.
Gold and Silver Open Interest Show Speculators Have Reduced Positions

It should be noted the huge amount of speculation in the paper commidity market. ETFs like SLV, GLD are owned by big finance. COMEX is knee deep in speculative, and certainly illegal practices. These factors have created circumstances where paper and physical silver prices now deviate. This deviation exists in street prices and small denomination ounce transactions vs massive finacial instruments.
SLV ETF Shows 4.9 Million Ounce Withdrawal
SLV ETF shows 4.9 Million Ounce Withdrawal
Whether this is indication of a coordinated move by big institutions, or at least the rumor of it is unclear.

At some point this will come crashing down. What this will mean to the price is unclear to me. What is clear if I had any spare dollar of money I would buy PHYSICAL SILVER. Even if the paper market crashed that would only force the physical market to correct the price. What are you gonna do is there is bank holiday, or a short week, and in that time the dollar index falls 20pts?

reply to post by Logarock

Why does gold go down as the economy stabilizes? I mean if its worth so dam much by its lonesome and all?

Why did gold start out around 300oz$ and come back down to 300$ an oz during the last gold bust that you may be to young to remember? Why would any dolt invest in something that is only high in price during a very bad ecomomic situation? Do you think they just dig up gold at gold mines all year just so you can have a hedge against inflation some day?

There is onlu one time to buy gold....when the price is low.

Wow, you've sure got a lot to learn!

I'm sure others feel similarly, but why not at least read some of the thread, and then draw conclusions after? You do know that you have asked questions that have already been answered?

Let me ask, how would you know if the price of gold was "low"? In terms of "what" would you use to measure it's "value"?

Well, stay tuned, you might just learn something. And even if you can't afford precious metals, at least you will know more about what you've been missing.

JR

reply to post by OBE1


Great post, and I'll second your recommendation about Tulving. I have dealt with them for years, and they are pretty much going to give you about the best prices available. The trouble is that they do deal with higher volume, and probably many people on ATS may not be able to ante up their minimums. But, if someone does have any more substantial amounts they are thinking about spending, they should certainly check them out.

JR

It seems like there's some great advice here, and any little thing is appreciated. Thanks for teaching me a bit about the metal market.

JP Morgan has hand in Recent PM Decline
This is # you have to put up with when all your institutions of justice and government are corrupt.

I've invested in silver for the long term. I watched the price go up and down for awhile now. I have it for various reasons, it's a good hedge against inflation, when the fiat currency fails I'll have something to barter with, and some of the old silver dollars I have are beautiful to look at. Two things I've learned, always take delivery and never sell it. The spot price will go up again, I'm confident of that.

reply to post by Dance4Life


Great a detractor without an alternative!. Cite an example thats long term (not new and flashy that will cease eventually like Facebook or any cyber investment which will die)

You can keep your precious metals (although silver does have a number of awesome properties (antibacterial metal? awesome!)). If the SHTF, bullets will be the #1 currency.