Hi guys, This year for me has been all about reading which has lead me to gold and silver. From what I have read so far, silver seems to be the better buy for a number of reasons. I have a few questions in which i hope i can get answered. 1. What are some great books on metals (investing, numismatic coins, general information etc). 2. Who is a good metals supplier? The Perth Mint has always been reputable but their premiums are somewhat high. (Brisbane Area). 3. Are silver coins better then bullion? 4. Are silver coins harder to sell when they weigh 1kg or more? 5. Are 1kg coins worth it? 6. What else can I learn or do to increase my knowledge in the field of metals? This is only a few questions of many I have. I understand that my own research and learning process is better than what i could learn from anybody else. I just need to be guided in the right direction to get started. Hope I'm not asking to much and that you guys can help me! P.S. What do you think of those 1kg Lunar Year of the Horse Coins? xD
Welcome! Some of your questions are location specific and depend on your goal. So, for example, if you live in the US, there are many dealers that offer a variety of pm products. If you live in Australia or England, the answer will be very different of course. Also, what is the reason you are buying precious metals will depend on whether for you blobs (non-denom common bullion bars) or semi-numi coins are a better buy. I haven't sold any coins or bars as I am relatively new and because it's not a good time for me to sell now because I would end up losing value on my tiny investment of blobs and coins. So, I can not really answer if 1 kg coins are difficult to sell...that's better left up to those who regularly sell a multitude of different size coins / blobs. For me personally, I have bought mostly bullion coins and fewer blobs. I have a few semi-numi coins. As a general rule, I believe that many popular semi-numis and bullion coins will sell better than blobs when the direction of the pm market is assuredly upward...but that may not happen for a few years yet. If you are a doomsday end-of-the-world-around-the-corner kind of person , then buying anything but the lowest premium blobs and silverware (and anything that looks like crap but has pm content) doesn't make much sense because you would be stacking for ounces, not premium gained potential. If you believe the world will stumble along as we have for the past few thousands of years then you may want to buy some semi-numis. .
2. Who is a good metals supplier? The Perth Mint has always been reputable but their premiums are somewhat high. (Brisbane Area). Their freight rate really takes any joy out of their prices too.
Australia Brisbane is probably the best place I am looking at... Swiss silver and gold looks pretty good, don't know what the premiums are at abcbullion though. Has anybody dealt with abcbullion before? I guess you could say I'd like to buy silver as an investment and yes I have theory's about doomsday... To be quite honest the monetary system won't hold up much longer, loom what happened to Rome. Still I'm sticking to my gut with silver over gold. Does anybody else think otherwise? Should i buy in ounces or kilos? I am still looking for good books to read so i can educate myself, so if anybody has ideas throw them at me. Thanks for your replies so far guys
Most of the answer can be find by reading through the forum...don't be too lazy to do your due diligence.
The 2 most important questions I've learned to ask yourself are, why am I investing? And what is my exit strategy? From there u can get an idea what type of PM to get. For me I collect for doomsday scenario and also as a long term investment keepin in mind liquidity of my metals. So what I would do is buy as many local bullion coins as I think I need for doomsday then collect semi-numismatic coins. Once your satisfied with your worse case scenario stash, u can start investing in bigger blobs or bigger coin. Then Look into gold bullion. cuz as a stacker, IMO I must have gold coins to keep things interested. I try to keep to 50/50 ratio now that I think I have enough local silver currency. I also keep a bit of half oz and quarters oz rounds for bartering requirement as part of my silver stash.
It's good to know people are preparing for the worst and not just me. I don't see why you can't collect coins for investing all whilst having them anyway in case of a financial collapse. Do you think regardless of it being gold or silver that either one will be easily trade-able?
Maybe a good first question is: can I spend my money right now on stuff that I'll need later, but already can buy now. And after that, spend the rest on silver. Which silver? I'd say what is known best / liked most in your region, with an acceptable premium. Whatever it is. About coin sizes, when selling, it doesnt make much difference whether its a kilocoin or a couple 1ouncer tubes. Buy both. Just like a wallet that contains banknotes&coins, as long as the $20's silver equivalents don't cost more than two $10 silver equivalents haha. I have all my savings as silver, not to prepare for the worst, but to be independent and control it myself, instead of watching powerless and dependent.
hello and welcome slim i think this link may give you some ideas, http://forums.silverstackers.com/topic-880-guide-to-buying-silver-in-australia-resurrected.html
Just a "maybe". If you ever want to sell silver in a hurry, as we sometimes do ... some buyers might try to pin you as close to spot as they can. I'm saying "might". The higher the premium you've paid on the item you're selling, the more you might lose as you sell closer to spot. Whereas if you have low premium silver and sell at about spot, you stand to lose less on your premium. This may have something to do with the popularity of items such as Perth Mint 10 oz 999 silver bars. Also you'll almost definitely find a buyer for low premium silver in ten seconds flat whereas buyers for higher premium goods might be harder to find. They all know what they want and don't want and may pay well or not so well accordingly. goldstackers.com and wdavis.com.au have low premium bars, no doubt as do other dealers. You'll regularly see low premium bars for sale on silverstackers, too. A forum member "pinkmanwhite" sometimes sells higher premium stuff (most often 1 oz coins) at very good prices. And "Maggie" has a very big fan club which must be for a reason. When I'm attracted to higher premium items its because of their typically incredible artwork, design and manufacturing excellence. I love the Perth Mint 2012 Koala design and some of the 1 oz coins such as "Maples", Eagles" and "Philharmonics". Anyway I could go on ... and on ... and on lol! But if I was wanting to get rid of something in a hurry I know what I'd be better to buy and sell and that's low premium stuff. But that's just me. These words are only thoughts, not advice.
Just adding to this discussion. I've found on these forums, selling the high premium bullion (such as PM bars, Kook's etc) is incredibly easier (even with the attached premium) then selling the low premium stuff. Just my 2 cents.
Thanks for all your suggestions and replies guys . Another question though! I was looking for the book 'Rich Dad's Advisors Guide To Investing In Gold & Silver' in Australia, and i cannot find a copy apart from the U.S which wants to charge me $50 to $100 for the book... I am a bit of a Jew like that, would anybody else know where i can purchase a copy, or have a spare copy available that i can purchase?
ABC at Mount Gravatt and Ainslie in the CBD give you the advantage of walk in for touch and feel et. Keep in mind there are other suppliers that can be competitively priced, even with postage factored in. There are many sales here than can be just the ticket too but you'd need to send your payment before the touch and feel phase comes into play. This is where your face to face meetings are useful. As for your books, I'd suggest a Google search as you can often find opinions, critiques and perhaps chapters or the like and these could guide your purchase.
Not sure if your last sentence scans all that well sliM, but enjoy the silver game just the same. It's a good learner.
Yeah I have had a few beers tonight so pardon my English. I have searched all over Google, I cannot find any retailers with the book in stock. I don't want to wait a month to receive an order from over seas either... .
Away from where I live due to work Goanna, don't really want to go to the local library. To be honest, screw it. I have placed an order for the book. The money hopefully will pay off . Another quick question for you stackers! When you buy gold or silver from another member of the website, how do you go about doing it? Do i ask for certificates etc? What questions should i ask the seller? How do i tell if what I am getting is legit? Thanks again guys!!
Ask for certificates where relevant, remembering quite a few items don't come with COA's or any form of numbering. Basically you pay for your goods, you send postal details and they post you the goods. It's a good idea to have some kind of postage tracking be that regular, express, platinum or registered post. You may or may not want to fork out a bit extra for insurance. If there was any more than one item in a package I would give insurance some thought. How to tell its legit is another matter. There are some known fake products out there. Maybe you could google "fake silver" "fake gold" etc. If you're worried, tell the seller about your concerns and ask them for any assurances that they can give. If any members were flogging fake stuff I'm pretty surely that would come to the fore very quickly and I doubt they'd still be members. Besides they'd probably now have a new place to live from where it might be difficult to post silver
