hi guys, Just after some advice... Not sure whether to invest in coins. With silver considered to become scarce are better just to stock up on as much as you can and just get bars? Thanks
Both! Run this through the websites search option and you will find threads loaded with great advice on this subject!
Bars are the simplest and cheapest way to stack silver. Coins such as Kooks, Lunars can increase a lot more over time so can usually be worth the extra premium. All depends on your available cash, expectations and taste. Same topic discussed here- http://forums.silverstackers.com/topic-21487-silver-bars-vs-silver-coins-page-1.html
Welcome to the Silver Stacker forum, Maize. The answer to your question will be a little different for everyone because everyone has a unique combination of ideology/beliefs, financial means, location, and health status/conditions and age. The most important thing for anyone who's interested in buying precious metals products is to understand why they want to buy. This may not be as easy as one thinks to figure out and in time, that thinking may change (because the world can change and our lives can change rather quickly as well). The most important advice I can give you is to try not to be overly impulsive. For some people this is not so easy, for others it comes easier. Impulsive buying could mean that you are not budgeting well which could lead to pretty severe consequences depending on your own personal life. There is NO shortage of silver blobs (common, non-denominational bullion bars) in most parts of the industrialized world. Try not to believe all the hype that you may hear from people who are trying to convince you that you must buy silver now because it will disappear off the marketplace tomorrow and that tomorrow silver prices will "shoot to da moon". That's total bunk and the people who are spewing this, more than likely, have a vested interest in getting you to believe such nonsense. I call these people permabulls. They usually are snake oil salesmen. There's more than enough blobs available to satisfy everyone's needs. That doesn't mean that there aren't fancier looking bars that you can buy, but my point is is that they are still more or less blobs which will rarely if ever gain any significant premiums....especially when compared to premiums that some coins and medals may gain. Precious metals (pm) coins and medals can be a different story. Coin and medal production (except for a few staple bullion coins like the American Silver Eagle (ASE) bullion coins and Canadian Maple Leaf (CML) silver bullion coins which have no stated limit in production) is typically on a set limited mintage. Even bullion coins like the Perth Mint Lunar series 1 oz silver coins are limited to a specific number which can be minted and then that's it. The point is, while you will never miss opportunities to buy blobs from a mint (or foundry or places that manufacture and sell blobs), you can miss opportunities to buy certain coins and medals from the mint. The aftermarket prices (with the added premiums) could get quite significant for certain pm coins and medals. Bottom line; know the reasons why you are interested in purchasing pm products then do as much reading and research as you can. Then finally, enjoy being a member of a small but vibrant community of people who have also decided to invest time and money into buying pm products. .
Welcome to this form of silver insanity Silver to become rare? mmmm. Maybe think over that a bit longer. Buy a range of stuff. Australian predecimal is usually available at about spot. And every so often you'll find a prettier than average coin among your purchase. Adds a nice new dimension to things. Some say minted coins ... and I am one of them. Some of Perth Mints minted coins are works of art and machinery in my view. Learn about and be careful about premium before lashing out on too many minted coins. And you have entered the world of "silver art" by the way. Some of the best designed coins are also some of the coins that fade and stain to a point where many of us just won't keep buying them. Hope this helps.
Yikes! The age-old question... about which you'll find every single opinion you could ever imagine. A lot of what should go into a good answer will depend on where you're located, because a lot of things are very different when you compare what it makes sense to buy in Oz, the UK, the US, Argentina, Mexico, Hong Kong etc... But---some basic thoughts that apply wherever you are--- 1---You need to decide what your goals are. If you don't have goals and a plan, you'll be making buys that'll be unfocused and random, probably impulse-driven and all over the place. If you do that, you'll end up with a haphazard stack of stuff you'll have little use for after you figure out what you want to do later on. If that happens, you'll probably regret it. 2---Rounds and bars are hard to argue with when it comes to price. 3---If you buy coins---to start with, stick with the local issue where you live (ASEs in the US, Maples in Canada, Libertads in Mexico, Kooks in Oz, etc). The local stuff always resells the best and easiest where you live if you decide you want to resell it. When you're new, it's also probably best to avoid all that fancy stuff with paint jobs, glass chips and crazy plastic packaging. Those things are usually badly overpriced and they may or may not hold their value if you try to resell them. 4---When you're new, stay away from Ebay. Until you know enough to avoid shooting yourself in the foot, it's too easy to get scammed and screwed there. Stick with good local coin shops, reputable show vendors and mainstream, well-regarded online vendors to minimize your exposure to getting ripped off. 5---Study the plated crap, fakes and counterfeits that are presently flooding the world. Start by searching "silver coins", "silver plated coins", etc in http://www.alibaba.com and http://www.aliexpress.com These are the two primary global homes of that garbage. You'll definitely see this stuff wherever you are if you get into stacking, so it's best to start your self-education right now. Search out and read everything you can find about that stuff and if you're lucky, you may end up not buying too much of it. Above all else, get your start-up goals and plan in place. Without a direction and a destination (even if you change them regularly), you're stumbling around in the dark. Good luck with it...
Whatever your choice, look to buy locally. If you can pick up from your bullion dealer or local coin shop, you will save on postage and insurance. On a large order it may be negligible, but in the early days when buying in small amounts it could make a big difference to your average cost per ounce.
low premium coins like the Armenian ARKs would be nice the arks will always be afloat. everything else will sink to the bottom. stocks can always just go higher, 18,000 Dow here we come.... now at 17,068.26
