Been wondering this of late. Haven't done it before, would love some advice. I presume most on here will say swap with another SS member. Or sell one and buy back the other. I'm also wondering if there are any dealers that do straight swaps. Basically I'm trying to minimise the time it takes to swap. Selling one for another would take the most time I presume. Anyways, such are the ramblings of me... feel free to add to said ramblings
Straight swaps happen, you need to be aware of the changing GSR, Gold to silver ratio, it is often easier to swap one way than the other. At the moment it is something like 50:1~ish? meaning 50 oz of silver will buy 1oz of Gold. People may be happy to take 50oz of silver off of you but probably unwilling to give you 50oz of silver for 1oz of gold, you never know though. Are you aware of the historical ratio of about 16:1? Many people are and expect it to come back to that so may not want to swap out of silver at 50:1, just in case it happens soon (It doesn't look like it will)
Historical ratio is in my mind, a furphy. It's ain't ever coming back that low, baby. When you look at the centuries chart, you'll see that the ratio has never come anywhere near 16:1 since capitalism became the dominant system in the west. It got even worse when silver became partially industrialised which is why for most of the modern age the ratio floats over 50:1. If you look at the 1980 peak in silver, the ratio for that day was around 36:1 (from memory). So the wildest dream a silver stacker could hope by my most sensible guess would be 25:1 but likely closer to 30:1. Because remember, if silver goes up, it's likely because gold is also on a run, so the ratio will change very little.
When doing GSR swaps, the physical formats need to be taken into account - easy to swap five 10oz silver bars for a one ounce gold coin, but try finding someone who will swap fifty Kookaburras for an ounce of gold. GSR swaps need to take into account the premiums of the metal. I've done them straight out, but it also works to line up two trades - sell silver and buy gold etc. Means fiat gets involved, but the person who wants your silver mighn't be the person with the gold. Some dealers will do GSR swaps in the right circumstances.
Historical ratio may well be a furphy but it is used by a lot of people in the business of selling silver to get people hooked! I have seen the arguments that start off telling you where gold is headed and then talk about the great correction when silver comes back to 16:1 and how it will be $500 an oz in no time. I show those websites to my wife whenerver I need to buy more silver. It is sad to get rid of 3kg of silver coins and get 3 tiny 1/4oz maples but when you have a lot of pre decimal it is worth getting a bit of gold. You will most likely have to sell some of one metal and buy some of another, if you do it right you might make a profit on both transactions but as GP states, it depends on what the premiums are!
Isn't that when the Hunt brothers tried to corner the market? I doubt a repeat of that will be allowed to happen.
I was simply responding to this: The reason for the ratio hitting this level is a different issue entirely
If your looking for a dealer that swaps silver for gold, I understand aurora et luna does these swaps. but I think he said not many ppl seemed interested. Anyhow, I did see some swap threads in his section of the forum.
Apparently, the known "In Ground" resource ratio is approx. 14-1 Ag-Au. A great percentage of Silver is consumed for manufactured goods. Anything with a transistor, thermistor or solar blister. My moneys on Silver finding it's lining again one day.
