Hello guys, I've never purchased any precious metals before and trying learn a few things here. I'm very interested in investing in silver for the first time. I've done some reaserch of my own but all the information I've gathered so far, hasn't made me brave enough to pull the trigger, yet. Pretty much all recommended that I start with American Eagles. Before I ask more of rookie questions, I'd like to state that I'm only buying it for price appreciation and only have 10k to play with. 1, For rookies like myself, is American Eagle really the best choice to start with? Why not bars or rounds? I get that American Eagles are popular so it'd be the easiest to flip at the end but are there better options out there? 2, If I do go for American eagles, is it a good idea to just buy a 2016 monster box(cost a little more than 10k ATM)? I want to know if it's easier to flip a monster box later on than many different stacks of American eagles. Since I'm spending fairly a large amount of money, I do want to check it out once I receive it to make sure I got what I paid for but all these online dealers are advertising it as 'sealed'. Do I need to keep it sealed for better value? 3, Where would be the best place to go sell it later? Thank you very much for your time Pat
Hey Pat, Welcome to the forum and to stacking! To me, it appears a good time to get into acquiring PM's (precious metals). Quite a few of us here first got into PM's when the market was just starting it's full on bear market descend. I started buying silver when silver was USD $36 / oz! Ouch!!! In this forum you will find members with excellent, level-headed, rational advice to offer and some with terrible advice. The one's who are always negative (PM's are a terrible way to invest one's money) or always positive ("silver to da moon tomorrow") are usually the one's dishing out terrible advice. There's good and bad reasons and times to invest money into precious metals. Also the form of that investment may be better than another form. If you stick around here a lot, you will learn a lot fairly quickly. I never purchased a Monster Box so I don't know the answer to your question regarding that. The way I see it, if you are selling an entire Monster Box, there will be far fewer spare change stackers like me who would be interested in buying it simply because of the amount of metal. You may be better off selling tubes of ASE's than an entire sealed box but you should wait for feedback from those who buy and sell Monster Boxes. Keep in mind, those who buy and sell Monster Boxes probably have deep connections that you just can't have at this point so 1) they get much better pricing on purchase and 2) they know exactly whom to and where to sell Monster boxes so they are sure to be able to flip a box whenever needed. When you write "I'm very interested in investing in silver for the first time." you really should have a very good idea of what you mean. Physical silver? Paper (shares of) silver? What is your goal? What is your time frame? Where do you live is another question to consider for yourself. If in the U.S. ASE's are probably a better investment than if you lived in Europe perhaps. Among other things to be mindful of is shipping charges and taxes....try to avoid these whenever possible....it's simply money wasted because there are dealers who offer free shipping and no sales tax to deliver to your state. Check with the dealer before purchasing. Precious metals prices are known to be volatile. Additionally, dealers throughout the year occasionally run specials (lower than normal premiums) on ASE's. There may be a season or period of time that this happens with the most frequency...try to find out if and when this is. Since I don't really buy ASE's, I can't say for sure. It's not that ASE's are not a good way to invest money into physical PM's...just that my tastes or preferences are not in ASE's unless they are from the first year of release (1986). If you are going with blobs (common, generic bars and rounds), I actually don't think there's any real need to pay extra premiums for a name brand. That said, if you are interested in buying premium bars and rounds (like these produced by Elemetal Mint: https://www.providentmetals.com/bullion/silver/private-slv/2-ozt-silver-rounds.html ), then that would be a different story. Finally, you mentioned flipping. Usually that means buying something and quickly (short time frame) re-selling it. Is that what you are looking to do with physical metals? If so, and depending on where you live, it may be wise for you to consider other PM's like gold, platinum, or palladium. Obviously in terms of weight and storage space, these metals are considerably more dense and efficient for (short and long term) storage. I like polished silver....it's shiny. .
Welcome 1. Stick with ASE's until you've learned more about what you're getting into and only buy from reputable dealers like APMEX and JM Bullion. Bars and rounds are fine but there's too many to choose from. 2. Don't tell people how much you're spending, it's a public forum selling one single tube will always be easier than selling a monster box, much bigger market can afford $600 for a tube than $10k on one big buy. Might make a few more $'s selling it sealed but it's worth opening it just to make sure they're all good. 3. EBay, Craigslist, r/silverbugs (Reddit) or any of those kinds of places.
Yep, go for it ! Nice start with an Mbox. Say one thing though, if you do get that box, I guarantee you'll go for more silver of variety, and I too feel that you could be at the correct place with this forum. "put your seat belt on, hang on" Happy stacking
Welcome Before I give my 2 cents worth can you clarify why you are very interested in investing in silver? what made you decide it's worth a 10k bet? Don't get excited about it just because the chart got a stiff, likely to be temporary. Think about how much further it has to rise before the 10k you're risking is deemed a good risk. You may realise that there are far better places to park your hard earned right now. If you're wondering if i'm trying to put doubt in your mind, I am - don't be blinded into thinking silver is guaranteed to make you money.
@mmissinglink Thank you for your insight. I too, am fairly new to stacking and found your post to be very informative and helpful. I'm very appreciative to your advice! People like you are why I like this site so much!
If I had 10k to spend I would pay down my debt first. After that, ASEs are boring but have many positives going for them, recognisable, there are penalties for faking them and they are low premium. They are also not particularly desirable. Their value will go up when the value of silver goes up. Bars are very similar but they don't have the USA getting upset by people faking them. Bars are a bit cheaper and you can buy them in larger sizes further reducing your premiums. They usually only go up in value when the spot price of silver increases. Buying a monster box all in one go will be a let down, 10k and all you have is a sealed box. Spreading the 10k out and buying some bars, some ASEs, some collectibles will be more fun and spread the risks. Some collectibles will go up in value even if the price of silver drops, it is nice to have a few investments like that for when silver is not doing so well. Most collectibles are turkeys and you will lose money on them if you buy them at the retail price. Don't try and collect sets of coins, it is a mugs game and you end up overspending on the last coin in the set 10k isn't the last $ you will spend on silver, consider how much it is going to cost to store it safely and insure it. I have a bit of gold, some old coins, some ASEs, some collectibles, some bars some jewellery and odd bits of precious metals here and there. A bit of diversity never hurts.
personally I would go with generic bars/bullion. IMHO it's not worth paying the extra for ASE's. Although when time comes to sell you may get $.50 extra or so per ounce but that doesn't justify paying $2.50-$4.00 extra for them. Buy generic like sunshine or silvertowne for around $1.00 over spot and sell for spot when it rises like your goal suggests. I myself do the same and stack for weight. But to each there own.
Welcome to our little community of people with vested interests. Haha. If you're in the States then ASEs make sense, not really if you're many other places. Local bullion/coins are likely to be the preference of the people you'll be selling to and they can be lower cost, another bonus. I too looked I to monster boxes but never committed; I ended up buying 101 coins at a time instead, the extra 1 so I have something to look at without opening sealed tubes, and then moved more toward low premium bars and rounds. My approach has been more of a diversification because there are likely to be many different kinds of buyers if we get a good move upward from here. There are likely to be people investing with big money who want as much as possible, but equally so there are likely to be people who want a few ounces because they saw that silver is going up on the news (when it is way too late to be jumping in the pool). I figure my best bet is to hold something for everyone to make selling easier when I choose to get out. I think holding 1 box only and hoping you can find a seller is a bit risky... Though you will likely find someone throwing big money around if you choose to get out at the right time. Just my 2 cents. Never hurt to diversify as long as the premiums are low on what you're buying. If you have any questions try searching topics and finding old threads - it has probably been asked before and you won't have to wait for answers to learn.
If you do buy a monster box, and suffer from OCD, you can always weigh and magnet test each coin; instructions here: http://forums.silverstackers.com/to...eigh-do-the-magnet-test-on-a-monster-box.html
If I can spare anyone the mistakes and misconceptions I've made....then I am a better person because of it and the one receiving the consult or advice is more wise because of it.....it's a win-win in my eyes. Because I don't regurgitate any tired old permabull nonsense, and because I am completely honest and critical about deception by some stackers / sellers, I get a lot of anger directed toward me by many stackers. Many of them hate the fact that I speak the truth in stating that metals have no intrinsic value as just one of many examples. Any value that metals have is that which we independently or collectively attach to it. Since, for the foreseeable future, people will continue to attach significant value to "precious" metals, investing money into PM's seems like a good idea to me. .
Ha ha! :lol: (This is not intended to disparage those who buy monster boxes...there's nothing wrong with buying monster boxes. This was created to poke a little fun at one stacker who apparently magnet tested each and every ASE from the monster box he purchased.) .
What if a stacker gets shot while fighting off a dashing gang of silver bandits? After digging out the bullet, he/she can melt a silver coin and use a tiny bit of it to help clean the wound and fight infection. So there's some intrinsic value. :-D
dont do it waste of money especially at the current high prices buy something american like a disgustingly large car that cant turn corners, then fill it with h00kers and champagne, live the life.
That's an intrinsic quality (antimicrobial), not intrinsic value. Sorry to burst the bubble yet again of the 'silver has intrinsic value' cult. The value of something like a commodity or any product, inanimate object, or natural material is always always always extrinsically attached or applied by individuals like us. That's because "value" is always a subjective perception created in a working mind. Silver can never never never attach value to itself. Silver has intrinsic properties or qualities, but never never never intrinsic value. .
