As Jim Rogers, Mike Maloney and many others have pointed out on numerous occasions, on average precious metals outperform precious metal mining stocks, and are less risky than mining stocks. You can make greater gains in PM mining stocks if you know what your doing, but its a tricky game to play. Mike Maloney in this video discusses mining stocks vs precious metals. http://www.youtube.com/user/WealthCycles#p/u/11/_jV9iZtxnPo
Well, I'm in this investment because I am trying to fundraise enough cash by year's end to pay off a credit card. Silver goes higher than a silver stock, it seems. Yet with a stock, if I cash out, I can avoid paying all the damned fees associated with dealers. With the stock, it's just $7-$25 for a broker fee. As opposed to hundreds of dollars with bullion. If I were saving long term, this would be a different story.
If you're just looking for short term gains on silver spot with minimal brokerage in/out then you can always trade the silver ETF on the ASX (code ETPMAG) rather than mining company shares which can be hard to pick correctly for short term plays. however, if SHTF I wouldn't want to be in an ETF which is why I wouldn't use them for a long term strategy
