Hello all, i am a new user from atlanta GA. i just started collecting metals as an investment (at least a way of diversifying) i have been watching the market and reading articles for some time now, but my father always recommended getting on these message boards to get the best answers usually (he was super successful at the stock market). i myself am more risk adverse. i prefer to build my wealth slowly and over time (i am only 26). i started back in May when i was paid in silver canadian leaves (2011) for watching a friends house while they were away. since then i have purchased my own silver from websites (in the form of bars from a private mint (sunshine and silvertowne)) had a few questions and was hoping to get some insight on how best to proceed. this is where i am at now i am storing it for the silver content. i dont want to get into numistics or collecting for silver/gold (i do that with firearms and ammo already lol). i have been buying bars since they seem to be the cheapest. i buy when silver gets to about 17 dollars to 17.25 per spot price (i end up paying roughly 18.50 after it is all said and done to have delivered to my house). this is slow and steady which i like, but i found a dealer who will sell to me at 1.5% commission on silver/gold. the issue is i have to order at least 10 pieces of gold or 200 pieces of silver before they will order it. i am ready to invest a few thousand on this in the next year. should i continue to buy from private mints or should i get more canadian silver maples? i am leaning towards the canadian coins since i think they would be easier to resell if i had to versus a private mint what is yalls thoughts on long term buying, storing, and possible future reselling? should i go with bars, coins, or rounds?
1---Welcome to SSF. 2---The spot price of silver dropped from $43.25 USD on 9/2/11 to $17.42 USD right now, which is a ~60% drop in barely over three years. There are lots of investment options in today's market that are far better ideas than silver bullion. If an investment that'll provide a decent return is your objective, do yourself a favor---run for your life and never look back. If you're driven to sink money into silver for other reasons... There are lots of threads already here addressing the questions you're asking. Scan through the first three index pages in the Silver forum and the Silver Coins forum and you'll find threads containing lots of different opinions on your subjects (some as recent as 2 to 5 days old). Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
thank you for the thoughtful response i am not going to sink all of my money into silver. pretty much at this stage of my investing path i am trying to accrue physical capitol so to speak (as i previously mentioned i have stocked up on weapons and ammo, after the last "scare" the prices have dropped a signifcant amount). i already have a mutual fund (even though im not a fan of them) as well as having invested in several other forms the silver investing is a mix of fun and long term value. i dont anticipate buying more silver after my initial purchase described in my first post (i want to put a few thousand into it and then not look back). the overall trend over decades is that both silver and gold have increased. by long term storing i mean at a minimum of a decade or two (of course no one can predict that far out) i understand there is no way i am going to get rich doing this. would you suggest rounds, coins, or bullion bars for this approach?
Welcome, It may depend on where you live and some other personal factors but if you care only about the silver content then avoid bars, coins, and rounds and buy silver that doesn't come with the sorts of premiums that those products come with. Buy junk silver of any kind at good prices (no premiums). .
I only care about the silver content however, I do buy bars and coins with as low a premium as I can find (hence me buying more 100oz bars than silver maples due to the lower premiums) because I want to be able to sell them quicker and easier to my coin shop at the time I'll need the investement in the future. I figure it will be easier to sell a silver maple leaf 1 oz coin than coins with only 90% silver in them. And until I do need to sell, GSR trade is my plan. Selling gold to then buy silver at the moment. If ever the GSR goes down to say 40 to 45, I'll be selling silver to then buy Gold.
In a silver bull market you'll have no problem selling generic bars, it's a buyers market right now but I imagine that'll change next time the metals go to new highs as was the case in the recent bull. If you go for some bullion coins i'd probably look at something like the america the beautiful coins because they have a limited mintage and so over time get a collectors premium on top of the usual silver value.
solid advice from everyone. thank you again for the input, i am learning alot just by floating around the forums!
You plan to buy silver and hold it for 10-20 years, and that's also my plan (when the silver has dropped a bit further). I asked some time ago what is the long-term prospect of semi-numis (e.g. crooks, koalas, etc.), and the message I took with me is that mints always come up with new series (boats, people, musicians, landmarks, etc.), because some people are willing to buy them. However, since there are too many of these series, people quickly forget about them, and the long-term value drops to spot price. This means that if you buy a series this year, there is a lot of interest because of its novelty, so the minters are able to sell the coins at, say spot + $30 for a 1 oz coin. If you try to sell it in 20 years you can only sell it at spot price because nobody cares about it any longer, and you are going to lose. The same would not be true for series that continue. Say, if the crooks continues for another 20 years and you have coins dating back to 2014 and you try to sell them, many people might want to buy them to complete their collection. Incidentally, the value of the crooks and koalas also drops when the spot price drops. Don't believe those who say these prices don't drop. The conclusion is that bars with low premium might be a better investment if you are thinking of storing it for a few decades.
