First, welcome to the forum. Second, read this thread -> http://forums.silverstackers.com/topic-59880-we-got-totally-cleaned-out-whilst-away-o-s.html Safes at home are a bad idea. Trust us.
Just curious, was it the use of $ instead of AU or was there something else about my wording that pegged me as a yankee? An yes, you are correct.
Counterintuitively, as silver (and gold) rises in price, demand increases. You will NEVER have trouble finding a buyer in a full-blown bull market or bubble; the bigger problem is usually finding anything that's for sale. Punters who own nothing want a piece of the action, and many (most?) stackers will be waiting it out, thinking that this is finally the moonshot they've been waiting for. Many members on SS will remember the 2011 mania, with lines outside ABC bullion stretching to Martin Place. You will find a buyer at whatever price, in a rising market.
It certainly can't harm the silver but the reason some are suggesting to save the money and not bother with a dehumidifier is because blobs (common, non-denom, bullion bars and rounds) and bullion coins like American Silver Eagles (ASE's) (particularly those minted after 2007) really will gain little to no premium over the years. On the other hand, if you have high graded ASE's or silver coins that are sought after by collectors, then you should indeed incorporate measures of storage which reduce the effects of damage caused by the elements. Since my tiny stack is in a SDB, I do not use a dehumidifier but I do place my collector coins tightly sealed in non-plasticizer/non-PVC plastic before putting them in the SDB. .
Hi Niv and welcome, the thing about price being $100 is that is the price people are paying, there are always buyers at the current price, or the price would fall immediately. we can see this intuitively in 2 ways: In order for the price to get to $500oz or even $200, there had to be plenty of buyers at $100 to bid the price up When silver was $2 people would have thought it crazy to pay $20, yet here we are talking about it now as if its a bargain. If the price goes to $100 its either because of extreme scarcity of silver or inflation due to expansion of the money supply. in short there will be buyers on this forum at $100 because we'll all think its going to $200.
Niveka yes the spot price is the price that buyers are at, if spot was to jump to $200 an ounce there are buyers somewhere in the world at that price. If there are no private buyers in the country then Dealers will by it, if Dealers get too much they ship it to the Refiners if the Refiners get too much they ship it to the country where there is that buyer that is paying the $200 an ounce. Very worst case is if the market was flooded then there would be a backlog of it getting shipped but as long as it's 999 you will still get close to spot for it. Historically the price of non 999 grade was the only thing that slumped a bit during the peaks as refiners can get back logged for years refining back to usefull grade, but anything bullion grade not a problem. In fact you will find it's quite the opposite to logic as the mass population as a whole is not logical, you may find if Silver was to drop soon to $5 and ounce there would be no buyers at any price as ultimately the market is saying there is no buyers at current price. Then you may be stuck holding it with no offers at all as buyers wait for it to go even lower (This would be severe deflation and for those saying oh I would just buy it all up at $5 don't understand how small a player they really are) However if the price was to jump to $100 soon you would probably find a queue of people willing to pay $120 - $150 an ounce for it and Silver be almost impossible to source. If it was to jump to $100 that says there are more buyers than physical Silver and more production is being demanded, it also means the amount of investors would probably jump 100+ fold as people that never bought Silver before come in to chase profit and chase the next Big thing that will make them Rich! So as long are you are stacking for the long run then don't worry about it, there will always be buyers, focus more on just keeping things safe!
If I had the money for it right now I'd consider purchasing a nice safe mainly as a decoy. I'd put some things of value in it just so a burglar wouldn't suspect anything, but never have all your eggs in one basket. Hell maybe even buy some fake rounds for it, would be nice knowing if someone stole from me that I managed to pull one on them, not the other way around like they may believe at the time. It sounds like you feel secure and confident with your purchase and that's important, but to me having a safe is like saying "this is where I keep all my goodies" but then again, I live in the country with lots and lots of land to choose from when it comes to burying time. Which I'm dead set on. I understand not everyone has this option and I'd probably trust a safe over a bank.
Also, correct me if I'm wrong guys but Aussies use $ as their currency symbol as well I believe. At least I've seen it like that. Even though it's more British than anything else over there.
Ive sold ase for over $50 on ebay back in 2011, obviously theres demand otherwise price would never get there.
Thing is its happened before. In 2000 gold was around $300, hell it was only $400 in 2005. 6 years after that people were paying 5 times that for a little one ounce blob and happy for the privilege. Even now we are at significant multiples and people are happy to pay. People have adjusted their expectations. Same is true for sliver, at $5 on 2004, and hits 10 times that much inside 7 years before people start to bulk. Even now when the price dips to three times that number people get excited about cheap silver. The price is very unlikely to just spring up to that level, it will happen over time and in reaction to big and obvious events that will bring the public's perception along with price movements, otherwise the price won't move.
What was the avg petrol price at the pump in 2004? gotta be similar to what it is now, around $1.10/L
Welcome to the forum! A safe is a better storage method than a shoe box for sure, shoe boxes fall to pieces when you lift them if they are full of silver. Some insurance companies may want you to keep your silver in a safe if they are going to insure it and some may not insure it even if it is in a safe. Safes seem to slow down how quickly people can steal your silver, and may stop the casual intruder. But it seems there are people who are willing to take the risk and have the right equipment to get into any safe. Of course by installing a safe you are letting more people know about your investments, whereas without a safe it is only your family who know about it, and not all of them can be trusted either, any drinkers, gamblers, people who owe money and people who have just got divorced might all be in need of a bit of extra cash or might have an axe to grind. I don't even let my family know how much I have (But that is mostly because my wife would skin me alive if she knew) The value of an ounce of silver is subjective. The price goes up and down of course but it really depends how long you have been stacking as to how expensive you think silver is. I started years ago when a troy ounce was $14. It slowly crept up until it got to about $20 and I decided it was too expensive to buy any more silver. Then the price increased to $30 and I realised that if I had bought any at $20 I would have made a $10 profit, so $20 wasn't really that expensive. I did finally buy a couple of Kangaroos when silver was $50/oz. They were $50 anyway which I always thought was too expensive for $15 (at the time) worth of silver. By the time they arrived in the post silver was already taking a nose dive. The theory is, that as silver becomes cheaper everyone buys it and it becomes scarce. In reality I found it harder to get hold of when it was in the $40s, it wasn't so much that it wasn't around, it is more because it was rising so fast people were holding on to it and making more profit each day. So if Silver is at $100 and rising you will have no problem selling it. If silver is at $100 and falling then you might have trouble shifting it.