Buying and selling on Silverstackers - my experience

Just wanted to get this fresh in old stackers minds and those who are new here...

Just like anywhere in any marketplace, there are snakes, spies and general sneaky people looking to take advantage of people.

My general feeling of trades (every one of the trades I have been involved in) has been A+ and I recommend all my friends to join the forum and get to talking and listening to people who have been doing this for a while.

However, I have come across a few people who REALLY try to squeeze the crap out of sellers to make them feel as though they are asking WAY too much for their metal and vice versa, there are some people who really are being unreasonable in what they want for their metal.

I suggest EVERYONE does their due diligence and speaks to another member if they are new to see if a deal is sour or if another party is doing wrong by them.

Someone recently stated that in the silver game 'it is every man for themselves' and that they are keeping their cards close to their chest - ie suppliers and prices etc. We all have our own game plan and chances are, even if we knew your secrets, we probably wouldn't give a crap. I for one do not think it is every man for himself.

I put this forth - if you are in this by YOURSELF, all ALONE, try finding a buyer OR a seller for that matter. We are a close knit community of like-minded, respectful individuals, albeit from all walks of life, who try to think about staying ahead of the rabble by honestly converting their fiat to real money.

One of my heavy beliefs is that of karma. NO amount of silver or gold or fiat will ever come close to a person's honesty, integrity and friendship. Remember that, above everything else. Buying and selling is all a game and there will come a time when the monopoly game gets put back in the cupboard and we attend to REAL LIFE--- which MANY of us are quite unfamiliar with.

The take home message I wanted to share is, be wary of the few who look to deceive, cherish those who look out for you and value relationships over everything else.

Cheers for the evening, hope all are well.

PPSS

 

Duely noted. I think it just comes down to trying to be as honest as possible. I have put a few things up for sale at pretty decent prices.. ie selling at spot plus 4% and everyone said it was almost too cheap. I wasn't in a hurry to sell my items, but I thought it was the right thing to do at the time. I already knew I had made a handsome profit and didn't see fit adding the initial premiums I had paid in the beginning. It doesn't always work out that way, though.

The main thing I wanted to achieve on silver stackers was to meet like minded individuals and show to them they were able to have trust in me if they ever needed to trade/sell or buy from me. I always read threads to gauge what someones character is like prior to dealing with them. If they are always on the attack in other threads, I am less likely to help them out regardless of what's on offer in terms of Ag, Au or fiat.

Thanks for the kudos, MO. Appreciate it.

 

if everyone bought at spot and sold at spot this discussion would be not needed, thats my philosphy but doesnt always work.

 

How does it go?
What does it profit to gain the world and lose your soul?

 

Good stuff PPSS

 

I have no soul

 

Yeah, it's tough! We are surrounded by capitalism and forced to seek profit or else become poverty stricken (or have little money to do anything).. but this all came about by my general environmental and social concern.

All about balance and listening to one's heart. If you feel like you're ripping someone off, you probably are. If I feel a bit guilty over a trade that seems one sided I will attempt to correct it and do the right thing. I guess my latest example was that one of my close friends bought some bars from me just before the plummet. The price was fixed and agreed then the price began to fall. He wasn't aware of the fall, but I was. I dropped the price a bit and also gave him some predecimal coins (one of which was a half crown that had no silver content, but I had a story to add to it and said it should be a reminder to him not to be complacent and buy silver unthinkingly - as I had bought two half crowns (I kept one and gave him the other) and didnt realise they were not silver. So I guess this was my way to try to even out the trade. I know my mate is buying now for the far distant future and I know that the difference of $10 or $15 an ounce will mean diddly squat in 20 years time, but it still meant something to me to set things as right as I could.

Just listen to your heart. Just like you eat when your tummy tells you its hungry, your heart is telling you something as well which needs to be satisfied in order for things to be kept in balance.

 

FWIW

I gave it a red-hot go, but have found there's no such thing as karma. Good things happen to bad people, bad things happen to good people and the sun shines down on saint and sinner a-like.

Develop your own trading circles... explore the 'speed of trust'... and thank god for our forum sponsoring "small traders".

 

There is always a spread, and there is always premium. Not all are created equal. If this was the case, we wouldn't have pretty silver, it would just be blobs with no extra effort put into minting or beautifying it. The premium with these items compensates the original manufacturer for their added value.

 

^^ This.

Get to a local meetup with other stackers if you can. You will often come across people who are into Aussie $200 coins, or state series coins, or world coins, whatever.

Get to know your local stackers!

 

Each to their own

 

Oh you can call it what you want , but what go's around comes around sooner or later. Even if you are not aware of it , could be a simple thing as dying a peaceful death surrounded by family as opposed to a lonely painful one with a nurse that don't give a shit cause your gonna be dead in a day or two anyway by your side or on a ciggie break when it happens.

Or just the knowledge and peace of heart that comes with doing the RIGHT thing, compared to knowing deep down inside your an asshole that people who don't even know you dont like, let alone the ones that do and pretend too.

I look at this sort of thing as self interest, a fair go, do unto others, dont be an asshole, lightning happens , superstition, what ever you like to call it . If I get burnt I may complain but only to a point if there is no joy in the outcome, I figure that it's not worth any more of my energy or time and I dont pass the burn on to the next person or transaction even if I easily could.

I recently sold a couple of items on ebay to a person, they paid by direct deposit, no paypal coverage/insurance and the person accidentally paid three times for the one purchase , an over payment of around $600 , weren't even aware of it when I contacted them , didnt have a clue. Free money or peace of mind, I know what it's like to get burnt or ripped off and I dont want to be responsible for doing that to someone else, wouldnt do it to a family member or friend so why anyone else.

 

I wear a tin foil hat, so if anyone understands these concerns about capitalism it's me. :|

I'd prefer us to team up and survive as a group than to become a miniture copy of the very system we disagree with.

 

ar you just like being naughty jinx

 

The way I see it, the respected members of SS - the long time big boys of here are respected for a reason.

I will certainly say that I've had a fantastic face to face trade with Matrix. The most professional seller I've dealt with here as yet, hands down.

I've had a few ridiculous offers on here while negotiating trades, rather than actually PM the M-Rated words that were my reaction, I just didn't reply. Much better that way than upsetting folk.

Lowball offers to those who are savvy are insulting. "You can't out-pikey a pikey" is something I say whenever I deal with people when I'm buying drums, antiques or anything. If I get a particularly good deal, I usually give back a bit of fiat for luck. I've always followed my family tradition in trading.

I had a deal with a fella go horribly wrong the other week. I agreed on a price for a decent quantity of 66 fiftys with a not very well respected Brisbane antique dealer. We agreed a price (around right for the spot of the time) and collection date, then shook on it. Now, for me, shaking on a deal is literally sealing it. This fella then failed to follow through on the first collection date, then on the second one told me they were no longer available. Needless to say, my reaction was that of a gentleman, but he know's he's blackmarked in the local area now...

 

yar har!

ps. I take pride in my pirating skills

 

Lovely comments from the heart.

It is not all about the mighty $.

It is about the joy of doing the right thing.

When I lived in Sydney, I would sometimes pay the Harbour Bridge toll for the car behind me.

In a world of greed, kindness speaks volumes.

How well do you sleep @ night?

 

This is a very relevant thread.

I must say, as a "newbie" on the forum a few weeks back (even though I was quite experienced in terms of the "market" and the current prices - only new in terms of joining the forum), I was quite surprised when I posted a "wanted to buy" thread, and was PMed some geniune offers, but also a few offers that I thought were clearly attempting to take advantage of a "newbie" (ie, they were the sort of offer that only someone without any knowledge would accept, and the sort of offer that the person making the offer knew they were trying to take advantage of an unknowledgable buyer).

Of course, as has already been pointed out, there is nothing stopping people from offering to sell another person something at any price they wish. It is, after all, a free market. I certainly wouldn't seek the implementation of any rules to prevent that type of behaviour.

At the same time, however, I think it is a good idea to do what we can to educate newbies about some basics of trading, such as:

1. The premium for bullion over spot should (generally speaking), decrease with the size of the bar being sold (ie, higher premium on small bars, and close to spot on larger bars);
2. Larger bars are less liquid than smaller bars;
3. Be aware of the prices that you can obtain the same item for from dealers or other sites (ie, check the perth mint if you have an account, check bullionmark, aurora et luna, spotmex, and so forth).

Some might say these points are common sense, but as the saying goings, unfortunately common sense is often not common enough.

 

I do not believe that trading in a way that is fair, reasonable and honest is in any way divergent from a capitalist ethos.

A key principle of capitalism is that of acting in a way that is in ones LONG TERM self interest.

Ripping people off, lowballing newbies, or other such behaviors are not in ones LONG TERM self interest as one may profit once by ripping someone off once but they will never trade with you again, thus reducing your future opportunities.

As the OP said, it is in all of our self-interests to ensure that SS remains a vibrant, ethical and efficient trading forum.

Personally I have experienced nothing less than the highest levels of integrity from all of those that I have traded with through this forum.

I hope that others recognise the same from me, I certainly know that due to the integrity of my trading I have been exposed to trading opportunities that others who have not acted in such a fashion would not have been exposed to.

Thus, it is easy to understand that by trading with integrity I have been advantaged.

Cut-throat or other poor trading behavior is not an example of capitalism, it is an example of plain stupidity or dishonesty. Although I don't believe in Karma, I certainly have many times observed the phenomenon that leads to the belief in it - that is, that people who behave in a way that they think is advantaging them in the short term (at the expense of others) are brought down by such behavior eventually.

 

*must....resist.. posting.... come...back O_O*