hey everyone. The name is Kevin and i am 100% new to PM i have been meaning to start investing around holiday season in 2010 but never really got around to it and then on another forum people made a thread talking about gold and silver and other PMs and it got me hooked. that is how i came across this forum. i plan on starting to purchase silver to start investing and collecting.. i haven't purchased any yet and i am on a tight budget. the other forum people said i should start off with about 1-2 ounces of American silver eagles. any suggestions? or tips or pointers would be appreciated Thank you
welcome Kevin I found this thread very informative when I first started buying silver http://forums.silverstackers.com/topic-880-buying-silver-in-australia.html what state do you live in? regular meet ups happen in most states for you to chat to others and pick their brains - just look for the forum posts. regards hills
Hi Kevin, Welcome to the forum - the above guide is written from an Australian perspective, but useful for silver buyers anywhere, however it doesn't cover all options, like 90% US silver for example if you're from the US. cheers
yeah I am from Rhode Island, in the US and thank you for that link to the guide, I really appreciate that and I am reading it now
Read all the old threads first before buying anything, that at least is free! The newer threads tend to be less about silver and more about lifestyles etc. If money is tight don't go for any of the fancy silver rounds, you pay extra because they look nice. Just buy some predecimal silver, you can usually get that for around spot price and you will often see it going for less. Plus you can buy it in smaller amounts at a time, the cheapest you would need to spend would be 87 cents for a 50% silver threepence rather than $45 in one go which you will have to do with the American Silver Eagles. Postage will be the killer though if you do buy in small amounts so unless you are close to a shop or know someone nearby selling pre decimal it might be cheaper in the long run to bite the bullet and by a round. American Silver Eagles are not the lowest premium, generic "Buffalo" rounds are usually a bit cheaper. Check the forums for sale threads and get back if you have any specific questions, they are all pretty friendly around here (just don't mention real estate or the carbon tax, or global warming)
oh I didnt realize that buying cheap as low as what you said around 87 cents with 50% would still hold good value. I guess I really need to do some homework on PMs but I don't know of any local shops around here, well I haven't looked yet..I know of a few small pawn shops but I am sure they are no help to my benefit
another thing... would you rather prefer having few PM with large value or would you rather have large amounts of small PM which added together is the same value as above? I am sure it shouldn't effect me since I am new at this and don't have anything to my collection yet.. just curious and I am sure it would also depend on the specific person and their reason for having said amount
Welcome & enjoy the journey. Getting your first hands on some 999 Silver will be a good feeling to know you hold your own real wealth.
Depends on your exit strategy - check the spreads on the items you're interested in. You've mentioned you're in the US, so most people seem to stack 1oz/10oz/100oz bars, or 1oz coins like ASEs/Maples (I'd take an ASE over a silver Maple any day). You'll pay a high premium on the ASEs, a smaller premium on 10oz bars, and a smaller premium again on 100oz bars - but have a think about who/how you're going to sell that 100oz bar if silver hits $50/oz - suddenly it's a $5000 item. $100/oz? It's a $10k item. It will be easier to sell $1000 10oz bars or $100 ASEs than a $10,000 100oz bar. If you're starting out, get some loose ASEs - you should be able to pick two up for under $90. Then you can decide if you want to stick with ASEs, (e.g. tubes of 20 if you can afford them moving forward, or even a monster box), or switch to bullion bars. Maybe get an ASE and a 1oz bullion bar, and see if you like coins over bars etc.
G'day Kevin. Like you I started off small - a coin or 2 whenever I had spare cash - over time a coin a week builds up. I still do this although the amount has increased so I spend much more but I do it every pay. Welcome to your new journey.
If I had to flee some place quickly then I'd rather have lots of small pieces of high value (eg. numismastic pandas) rather than lots of pieces of small value (eg. ASEs). And welcome!
gday Kevin! 1. Easier to find buyers looking to buy smaller amounts as opposed to buyers looking to make a larger purchase 2. As GP stated, if spot price goes up, it would be even harder to sell a bigger piece of metal 3. If you need some emergency cash or barter, you will be able to take as little or as much as you want with smaller amounts. 4. Due to the reasons stated above, coins rounds & smaller bars also tend to be more popular when selling But once again, you are paying higher premium on coins and smaller rounds. Guess you can always sell larger bars to bullion dealers at or below spot in the future if need be.
Junk Silver is very popular in the US, 90% pure. Not exciting, not collectable, will never be worth a fortune but...it will always be worth the spot price of silver. It will always be cheap, there are no premiums to pay for it, it is highly recognised, the purity is guaranteed by the US government, it will always be plentiful, never hard to get hold of and never hard to sell. You won't be able to charge a premium when you sell it of course but if the price of silver goes up you will still make a profit. Check out the calculators at the top of the page, if you are in the US look at http://www.silverstackers.com/calculators/index.php?page=3 Looks like the entry level coin is the Dime which is currently worth about US$2.91 (so you can probably imagine how big a three pence coin is). You can start small with that, check the spot price and anytime you see them going for less than spot, pick up as many as you can afford to without struggling. Second Hand shops, junk shops, garage sales, remember this isn't high end stuff so don't lok for it in your jewellers etc.
