Quote fromsonic I suppose technically I could buy gold right now but at the amounts I'm currently investing in silver it would be very insubstantial and I would question the tiny pieces of gold I'm collecting. .... I could sell gold and buy diamonds, but the amount would be insubstantial and I would question the tiny pieces of diamonds I'm collecting. Silver isn't cheaper, its not as valuable.
Not only in the ground, but permeating the world's oceans. Breakthroughs in cheap energy could make it economically feasible to extract silver and gold from sea water. It's been done as far back as 1934, although obviously not viable due to cost. http://i.imgur.com/n7ByDJ7.jpg
You can buy diamonds in bulk for a few cents each on Alibaba. They are real diamonds, but lab grown or produced rather than mined. No one is going to be making silver beyond a few atoms.
Hey SilverPete, I love your phrase "radical abundance technological singularitarians" even though I have no clue what you mean by it...maybe it's a jab at folks like me? What kind of person is that in plain American English? Oh, and I like the rest of your comments in that posting....good points. .
Thanks . By "radical abundance technological singularitarians", I mean those people who subscribe to the predictions of people like Ray Kurzweil - i.e., within a few decades thanks to Moore's Law and an exponentially increasing rate of technological change, we'll have super intelligent machine intelligences and we'll all be post-human immortals. I'm on the fence on this one.... the very name "singularity" implies a point beyond which our theories provide no predictive power so who knows what will happen to us.
The question is how easy could people tell if they're "the real deal" or not? I'm thinking I have a brand new investment strategy!
Has any REAL AI actually been created yet? Intelligence basically comes down to being able to learn, and I'm sure free will plays a part. We can program super computers but they're doing nothing more than running programs. They're not learning, growing, and therefore not intelligent. But I could be wrong about that too. I don't keep up with it. Seems like every new 'AI' introduced is always a major letdown though.
It would be very very difficult as the manufacturing process improves, and relies on manufacturers not introducing natural flaws or certain impurities into the manufactured diamond to mimic natural ones. With the good ones, you'd need to send them to a lab for identification.
People who invest in diamonds can tell at a glance Getting caught selling fakes/Cz's would not be a healthy outcome
Hey Sonic, only you can decide whether physical silver is worth for you to buy and what form you believe works best for your current philosophy / goals. Certainly buying silver now at these low prices is better than throwing your money away on tickets to watch professional sports teams play games, on cigarettes, booze, and a whole host of other things that are a total waste of money in my opinion. My belief is that gold and silver prices are not yet done consolidating and therefore we will see further drops. Central Banks today are apparently net buyers of physical gold. That can't be a bad thing if you are already holding gold or are in a position to buy some gold while the price is dropping. All long term forecasts that I am aware of indicate that gold will continue in a bullish trajectory. It's the short term trends that are much more difficult to forecast for most people...experts included. That makes the decision of whether to sink a lot of money into precious metals now or wait a few weeks or months a much harder decision than whether investing money in general into metals for the long term is a sound idea. There are no guarantees in terms of the value of any commodities but there certainly are characteristics of metals that are immutable. As just one example, precious metals store well relative to most other commodities or assets. Try storing petroleum or rare valuable manuscripts, comic books, or paintings for 20 plus years. .
So theoretically there are some huge profits to be made here...as far as the diamond thing I mean. Would that even be illegal? You're not claiming they're NOT diamonds lol
If you believe there will be economic trouble ahead, move you cash into physical assets. James Rickards in "The Death of Money" recommends investing in things that have proven to maintain value through history: works of art, land, gold and silver.
I actually read something that claimed diamonds are nowhere near as rare or as valuable as people are led to believe, and that it was actually some wedding ring manufacturers that sold the lie to the public and pushed for the sales of rings for every married couple to buy. Don't know if it's true or not though.
To the average person, whether it's synthetic or natural, I don't think it matters much so long as the marketing is convincing. Take for example "chocolate diamonds", most are colored treated, low quality white diamonds but the marketing has been very successful and chocolate diamonds appear to have been a financial victory for those manufacturing them. The bottom line; most people can be made to believe almost anything given the right conditions and a good marketing campaign. .
And I do believe that's a strong possibility, if not probability, and I don't think that makes me crazy either. I'm an Eagle Scout, "be prepared" is our motto. I'm more prepared than most people, but still nowhere near where I'd like to be. It's like buying a storm shelter. You don't necessarily want a tornado to come through, but you sure will be glad you bought that shelter if one does come through.
There are container loads of diamonds scattered around the world. They hold them back for a while & than release some 99% of the diamonds go to the UK first , but are not recorded in the UK 's trading figures A good quality ruby is actually much rarer than a diamond
Cool to see others here are aware of the diamond scam. I read it awhile back, believed in it, saying "I don't know if it's true or not" is a precaution because, believe it or not, I really don't like getting attacked. But yeah, try telling that story to some newly weds haha and that's a perfect example of what mmissinglink was talking about earlier, when people get too emotionally invested before learning all the facts. I'm not that emotionally invested in the silver being the new gold idea to really fight tooth and nail for it, but it's kind of depressing all the same. See, the thing is, and this is why you guys have heard it all before, and will hear it all again: everybody WANTS to believe in that. Everyone wants to follow a rainbow to a pot of gold (or silver). Basically when people get verbally hostile and fight for this idea, they're fighting because they don't want that dream crushed. For a lot of people, that dream might be the only hope they have left to cling to. I know I feel quite hopeless about the world in general. No hope over a long period of time breeds bitterness and eventually hatred. I'm not religious at all but I understand people's need for that security. Anyway, that's just something to keep in mind next time someone goes all permabull on you all. Maybe it's best to let them keep their dream, and who knows, maybe it will pay off for them some day.
