Hi everyone, this is my first post and new to silver stacking, this may seem like a noob question so go easy on me. Cut a long story short, there is a jewellery store/bullion dealer in my town and they have a 500g silver bar with their logo on it and purity (.999), I assume they made it themselves. It's not going to be a recognisable brand name (unless another local dealer knows of it I suppose). The price on this is very enticing as it is by far the closest to spot I could find, even online. I would like your opinion of this, as an investment in raw silver, could this be trusted? Would another dealer offer less and/or would they see this as scrap?
If you're willing to sell at spot (which is all you get from a dealer anyway), then you should be able to move it on again. Generic bars aren't that hard to move and dealers have testing equipment. Selling privately might be more difficult though.
At the moment selling silver is a dog but if the price moves substantially those bars would move in 30 seconds But Screaming eagles advice is spot on what he said. As an add on ask them what method they use to achieve .999 purity. Verify this,buy a bar with full receipt 1x 500g .999 pure silver bar for xxx amount of dollars to/from date have it tested by XRF and ultrasonic to verify. If the test comes back as +++ If not get a refund Then if +++++ ask them if they can sell you those bars at spot and buy them all REDBACK
I'd ask them to assay and hallmark it. Most juristictions have a law and mechanism governing this. How you do this depends where you are in the world.
Interesting, thanks for replies. My intent is to invest until the price does move substantially (otherwise hang onto it as an investment), I don't think I would want to trade something like this unless shtf. If shtf or the price of silver does move substantially, I would want to trade rather than sell to a dealer, and that's what I'm worried about.
Getting anything close to spot is attractive at the beginning of your stacking career. As long as you can verify it's quality, silver is silver really
if it's an unusual shape.. or has a nice looking logo stamped on it, small run not many made, you never know what will be desirable in the future ...
Ask yourself this question, If you were to retire and move to the Gold coast would the local bullion dealer recognize this bar? Does this bar have a private ruling? Also if you are asking this question before buying it then it is safe to assume others will ask the same questions when you try to sell it. Perhaps private message a stacker from your local community and they may be able to shed some light on the the item in question for you.
+1 Not everyone here would agree, and there is a small element of risk involved, but a lesser-known maker can be attractive to a collector due to rarity or artisan appeal. Look at the premiums paid on this forum for bars poured in amateur refiners' back yards! Most of these bars (gold and silver) are not individually assayed, and could even be interpreted as not meeting the tax rules for 'bullion' status, but they are considered desirable nonetheless. If you are selling back to a dealer, the brand will be all-but-irrelevant, and the bar will be XRF tested prior to purchase. I'd personally buy these bars from the jeweller if the price was right. Wouldn't they also have their own XRF 'thing' to demonstrate the purity?
The price is the best I could find, unless I'm buying a 1 kilo bar (my finances would stretch too far though). I will ask if they have a testing machine.
Nice logo (small though) stating the jewellery store, dull looking but it has a bit of character imo. I don't know how much they made.
Welcome Balance8 If your referring to a south Australian jeweler that im thinking of then I would steer clear of their branded stuff. From my personal experience I could not sell one of their 1kg silver bars to another bullion dealer in the city. Feel free to PM me for the details of the 2 dealers (I don't want name and shame people publically)
Exactly, how many jewellery shop carries an XRF device??? A= none Same as, how many coin shops carries one as well? A = none Out From 100 X stackers, 5 X may have similar devices.
I know exactly the bar and shop to which you refer. It is .999 and comes from an independent refiner in Adelaide and then stamped wuth their mark. In fairness I must offer you a couple real facts, first, the refiner is in good standing seperately from the shop. Secondly, I've heard very reliable reports of a bar or two not coming back .999 through high end xrf (potentially not a QC issue with the refiner if the shop gave them something they assumed was 999 to smelt in multiple batches but wasn't, testin f say even 25% if bars at the refiner might not pick that up, only by a fraction of the total they supplied, but the difference between .999 and say .997 has tax implications.). It was a small difference, but as I said it has practical implications potentiality. Thirdly for a about 1.25% ($10) more at current spot thry will sell you buy backs they've gotten if other brands. If you do chose to go there the extra $10 is well worth it tio get a perth mint or pamp bar, you'll get that back if you eventually sell privately. Finally, sometimes, rarely, the bars are seen as curiosities for those out of state but this is a fishing expedition at best, don't bank on anything except spot or maybe even spot minus a couple points at any other local dealer. While I'm not sure if the rules about posting other businesses directly on the forum, as cind3r pointed out there's a couple other local options including some that are active and supportive of the local stacker community and are on the forums. We're likely talking about the same people. They're helpful and put time into helping us all out for free and have their own XRF that they offer use of for forum members which has saved a few people some mini disarters. Supporting them where possible is a cool thing to do. If you're new to stacking and in Adelaide though we have local monthly get together meets where you can ask all the questions you want and probably get more info than you can take in. If cheap fine silver is the goal the meetings aster often a good place to start to, meeting fellow local stackers can lead to great f2f deals (all I'll say here). It's not my meetup, but I think it's fair to say that new stackers are always welcome. http://forums.silverstackers.com/topic-74067-adelaide-meet-sunday-29th-may.html By the by you didn't have someone write down the ss Web address in bad hand writing a couple months ago in close proximity to some round 50's?
