Hi all, First of all, thanks for the great info and discussions that go on on this forum. I recently got interested in PMs (especially silver) and am thinking about purchasing some silver for investment and wealth protection. I prefer to invest in bars (preferably 10oz) as I don't (yet) understand why pay a premium for coins (besides them being beautiful). I was thinking of buying online from the Perth Mint. Does anyone do that? what are the shipping costs to Sydney? Is it better to buy elsewhere? Also, I don't really want to hold the silver in my home. What options are there? What do you do? The PMCP certificate from Perth Mint looks very interesting and you can use unallocated silver to cut down on holding costs. Is it worth it? Anyone care to share a bit of info on this certificate? Any other practical info you think a new silver investor needs to know? Thanks in advance for all your help, Eran
Welcome eran. Many questions asked by new members can be answered by doing a search of previous posts, I have never bought from the Perth Mint so I can't help you, but there is a discussion going on now which you've probably read. http://forums.silverstackers.com/message-98855.html#p98855 As far as coin premiums go, spot price is the wholesale price of silver, coins require a more complex minting procedure than bars, as well as a limited mintage in many cases which attracts collector's interests, so you pay more. dealers have to make a living, so premiums are charged, if you don't want to pay more than a basic premium (ie "retail"), you stick to bars, sometimes you can buy silver at spot price on this forum plus postage. Do a search for storage of PM's as well, it may help.
An unallocated account means that you do not have title to any specific bars. If they ran out of silver and you wanted to come and pick it up, they could refuse and settle with cash, which may be worthless in a situation where you'd want to pick it up or have it delivered.
