I spoke with several people about their silver lately and I realized how depressed they are. Mind you - I only spoke with guys who buy silver, not some random guys. One person - from NY told me that now he just goes and sells anything that goes up by 10% or more. He doesn't wait - but just sells. It doesn't matter to him what he sells - he just sells. So he sold half of his silver. It went more than 10% and that's when he went out and sold it. Everywhere I turn people say they hate their silver. Some say they lost money on it and they don't want to touch it. My wife said I am crazy that I bought more of it. That's what's happening out there. So I am curious - tell me - do you share those feelings? I think people are universally depressed about this investment - and I am like - man - silver is going UP now.
I honestly don't care much. I only have a small stack and I don't intend to sell it for ten years, barring disaster. That said, I'd be happy to continue buying if we weren't stashing cash for a property deposit. I might start to care when the time to sell approaches! In the meantime, I would rather the price plummeted in the short term so that I could buy more.
I regret ever hearing about and becoming intoxicated by the discussion of silver. Count me as one of those who hate it. I believe it has been hyped up by vested interests. Even if it goes up a lot, its an irreversible error. Silver is incredibly inconvenient and expensive. Not so gold as part of an asset allocation .
+1. Silver is shyte. Believing all the BS permabull rhetoric is for numpties. I was lucky as I have always considered it just another commodity, and thus I have managed to stay in the black since $30 by hedging, but it has been hard work, and opportunity cost is cken annoying. Gold is much better.
I have enjoyed collecting silver and grabbing bargains along the way. I am enjoying doing GSR swaps with unallocated metals. Now I am buying dirty silver circulating coins from around the world, taking the time to clean off the gunk and get them shiny and adding them to a treasure chest. I could maybe have done without buying 23kg of 50% silver coins but I am generally happy with the stuff as I never expected it to do much, when I got into the game it was only thought of as a hedge against inflation, I was able to buy silver coins for below spot price on eBay (and that includes delivery). I think people who got in hoping it was a quick way to get some profits, or an easy way to earn money will be disappointed because it doesn't match their expectations. I check the forum and occasionally post but I don't really have much to do with silver these days.
+2. The only thing silver has done for me is help me save money, just like storage. As an investment its terrible. Im slowly selling more than half off just to have cash and maybe buy more gold. Then again im getting a new car soon, looking for a house and having a baby in the near future so i might be completely out of the game. But i will always have gold.
I dont want to overstate this but the mere thought of physical silver makes me queezy. The feeling i had when packaging up half my silver to send it off to a dealer at spot, at $500 per package to a courier i didnt trust, was a feeling of mild revulsion. Having been buying since 2002, or was it 03, if i needed to vomit up tainted food or something, just put a bar of silver in front of my jaded eyes. I put a family member into it and she passed before seeing a result.
Ouch. There is some real pain in this thread.... I am new to silver and sitting in profit at the moment, but it's been a learning curve and I do regret investing in some of the silver semi-numismatic coins going around. With milkspot and tarnish issues likely to cruel me down the road I think that was a mistake and I might be lucky not to lose money on those when I sell. Silver is also a kinda bulky store of value (there's only so much that can fit in a SDB!) so I prefer gold not just for it's durability but it's compactness and portability too. I'll still buy silver, but it's gotta be 999 and damn near spot to get me excited
I trade PM like penny stocks, the volatility makes it worthwhile to actively trade in an out. Though I like silver, have a fascination with it, silver is only semi precious.
Silver is in general a terrible investment. Just look at the history of the last 30 years If you got in way back then it did nothing for 20 years. If you got in at the right time and then rode the only major rise in 35 years, and you happened to sell and take your profit, then you'd be happy. And if you managed to ride the rise in the last year you'd be happy. But in general I think it's not surprising to think that most people would be unhappy with it, because assuming your timing when you start is random, there have been very few times it's looked good to you. Many have lost serious money. The 10% sell guy it probably quite smart, take profits while you can and then sit tight until is plummets again.
Stocks and crypto-currencies have been way more fun and got me way more 'silly money' than PM's have - you know, the kind you blow on blow and naked ladies... But the only way I've actually been able save is from physical... so I like that.
All this negative sentiment. Where was it during the 2011 run to $50? Might be a good time to buy some physical!
"Strong hands" is such a wanky phrase, and makes me chuckle. My interpretation of " strong hands" in stacker language is " I am so ignorant that I refuse to believe I could be possibly wrong, and I like to sound macho when I'm in denial in an attempt to salvage some sort of dignity".
For the SHTF scenario, it's my last line of defense before I start trading sea shells, or whatever else is laying around. So as an insurance policy, the price I paid for a few kilo of silver doesn't really matter.
