Hi everyone. I'm a young man that has just started stacking. Any advice for bullion/coins or specific pieces (i.e Sovereigns, Britannias, Maples, etc) I should get consistently in greatly appreciated.
What OZ says plus - get a PO Box, don't tell your friends, work mates, distant family etc...that you are stacking. Consider a safety deposit box. At $400 a year for a small one, its a great investment. Think about how you will sell. Will there be an available market for your stack? Test your purchased metals when you can....most bullion dealers will help. Amazing deals are very rare...do your research and don't get sucked in.
You don’t need to go to a reputable dealer if you have a portable precious metal verifier. ABC Bullion sell them for $1815 plus $50 for delivery. I stick with low premium cast bars and only buy coins at bargain prices. Silver premiums are ridiculous Gold premiums are very reasonable Remember, gold is gold regardless how it comes, so why pay high premiums on a shiny coin and not all coins are 99.999 gold so beware. This has worked for me for over 10 years Also, precious metals are weighed in “Troy” ounces 31.103g per Troy ounce not in the traditional ounce of 28g I also calculate everything back to grams to get a true understanding of price and premiums to spot price. Hope this helps
The other commenters make some great points. FWIW here are mine: Do not tell anybody you are stacking. It’s hard when you’re excited but it’s a recipe for disaster later on. This absolutely includes family. You do not want your life and home to become tasty targets for leeches or thieves. If you decide to lodge your stack in a safety deposit box make sure you have insurance as although they’re fairly secure, here in Australia there are loopholes concerning who actually owns lodged goods in the event of a (bank) collapse, robbery etc. I would be happier lodging mine with a reputable company like Bullion Now in Melbourne … buy from them and have them store it for you if that’s easiest for you (plus you don’t pay for postage) but not holding it in your hand is a downside if you choose this method of stacking. Of course, if you’re nearby a reputable bullion dealer you’ll be able to drop stuff off in person from time to time no matter where/how you bought it. Rates are reasonable and I always recommend this over safe deposit boxes at a bank. I much prefer pure gold or silver but others have different tastes. Being pure, 24k gold or 999 silver is much more straightforward to sell if you have to (especially to bullion dealers who will onsell it for a small profit, whereas with lower purity stuff they have to get it to a refiner and that costs them, resulting in a worse price for you). That said, you can find 9/10/14/18k gold, and .925 or Sterling silver, jewellery in all kinds of places and real bargains are to be had that’s for sure. You will have to either refine it yourself or pay someone to do the job for you unless you’re happy to have a pirate’s chest overflowing with loot ROFL. For silver, I think 10 oz and 1kg bars (poured not minted) offer the best value as they have relatively much lower premiums compared with coins etc. If you’re wanting to collect specialised items then go crazy and just get what works for you … remembering that if you ever have to sell them you’ll probably not recover that increased premium unless you’re selling to another collector of that specialisation. That said, when I see a bargain on 1, 5 or 10oz coins or bars I’m glad to grab them too. For me it’s all about spending the least per ounce but you may have other priorities. For gold I like 1, 1/2 and 1/4 oz poured or carded bars, or even coins if the premiums are ok. I find the “per coin” amount of premium on gold is far better than the same sized silver item so you can often find excellent deals on these. Holding gold is a much longer-term proposition than doing so with silver but it’s also universally valued more highly than silver so it’s worth the added expense to hold at least some. I always prefer physical items over “unallocated” pools in which you can buy an amount of ounces for basically zero premium. I’ve stacked in unallocated pools in the past but there are many pitfalls depending on whom you decide to entrust you $$$ to. Others may disagree but I’d avoid this until you’ve built up a bit of experience. After all that … I’d recommend you pursue a mix of gold and silver and leave all the other precious metals alone for a bit. Consider the gold as a longer-term holding and add to your stack accordingly. Silver is what I’d recommend you focus primarily on at first, especially if numismatic or other specialist areas interest you. The outlays are far lower and as you will make mistakes while learning the ropes, limiting the damage when you do so is wise I think. Feel free to PM me if you think there are things I could help you with. Enjoy!!
