We all share a love of PMs but we have some very different feelings about how best to stack. I'm interested to know which purchase sticks in their mind as the most memorable buy. Is it your first purchase, where you felt like a real millionaire to walk the streets with such wealth in your pocket? Or perhaps a coin from your year of birth? Maybe the first piece you bought for a family member? Have you had a bad experience with a buy? Just most memorable. This is just a bit of fun guys, there are no right or wrong answers. For me, I think my first coins bought for their design, instead of buying for closest to spot stands out for me. I bought 26 of the Congo gorillas (I always buy a quantity for future trades and 1 for display). Maybe part of why it stands out though, is that they delivered it to an empty house despite my request to store them while I was overseas. They sat outside for a week or so on a busy road. Very lucky.
I have more than one most memorable buy. The one that may be most interesting is the purchase of my first silver Chinese medal back in the (late) 1980's. It's the one I use as my avatar. To preface though, I didn't get into stacking until about 3 1/2 years or so ago. I've told this story before but in short, that Great Wall medal was a purchase by me that had nothing at all to do with stacking, precious metals consciousness, store of wealth, or any of the other reasons that stackers buy metal for. I purchased it only because I liked the way it looks and since at the time I was reading a book on the Great Wall of China, there was a little added interest in the design. It turns out that the medal is truly rare. .
Although I just started stacking so far my most memorable purchase has to be the Scottsdale 2015 Reserve Round. I love the design and security features in it. Im looking forward to the Scottsdale 2016 Reserve Round if they produce one for sure.
Parker Introduced the 75 in 1964 with the first examples being manufactured in the USA. Initially just the sterling silver version was made but by 1970 numerous versions were being produced including many commemorative models. In 1974 the French subsidiary began making a beautiful range of pens and by 1979 were producing the highly sought after Laque range.
I got some early 80s pandas from bullionbourse for close to spot in 2011, because they looked to be stapled into some cheap cardboard coin holders. Turns out they were actually still in their OMP and then placed in the cardboard so it was a proper score. Having said that, didn't end up making anything on them in the end, but could have if I flipped them earlier.
Yes, there are fakes everywhere. The Chinese are not only really good at making high quality genuine products, but also very convincing fakes. My Great Wall medal is authenticated and slabbed.......https://www.ngccoin.com/certlookup/3692382-001/ .
A purchase in Dublin was my most memorable. I was flying out and rather than change spare Euro I decided to go for a walk in the market. Just after all the tat there were a couple of stalls selling old books, one selling what appeared to be antique Coach Lamps, and just beyond, a quaint little stall with fob chains and fob watches, brooches and rings, and perhaps a dozen gold coins in a glass case. I had no use for any of the rest, but I asked to see the sovereigns. Just out of curiosity. I was surprised to see that most of them were M or S mints with the patina of ages upon them. One of these was minted the same year as my grandmother's birth, and, no doubt, with gold from the area where she spent most of her childhood and youth, until she married my grandfather and moved to Melbourne. My great grandfather had struck gold in the 1870's and the wealth had transferred down into a house and a business, lock, stock and barrel for his grandson and his new wife. One of my earliest childhood memories was visiting my grandmother's old home town, and the relatives of relatives who still lived in the area. She told me I had close to 100 cousins in those towns and farms. We used to climb on top of the the mounds of old tailings on the edge of property, and some of our greatest childhood adventures were heading off into the bush to peer down, as children do, into the deep black holes that the miners had left close to 80 years before. The trader was his charming Irish best as I tried to bargain him down, but he stood resolute. Not that it would have mattered. I definitely wanted that Sovereign. As it turns out he knew what M and S meant and offered me cheaper London sovs, but I had my eye on the M. I walked away with two of his S sovs. I don't remember the dates. I felt rich and secure as I walked from the market. I'd traded paper and received gold, but the prize was the raised 'M' that told me that coin's history and connection with my Grandmother. The S sovs are money in the bank now, but the M will stay with me. Some people collect 'key' dates, but key dates for me are those dates and mint marks that have a connection to my life and memory. I have a few 'I' mintmarks too; the year my Grandfather served in India, and some SA dates. Sadly not back so far as the Boer War where my Great Grandfather served, but the connection is solid enough for me to look at them with wonder. My grandfather returned from a trip to England around 1967. Retracing his war memories in part, but mainly on family business. When he returned he visited of course. Later after lunch, my father called me to his side and asked my grandfather to open his hand. He held three brand new minted gold sovereigns. These were real money my father said. With the arrogance of youth I smiled politely and headed back to my little world. I used this memory as an excuse to buy a 1967 L sovereign as well. How many hands? How many stories these coins can tell? Perhaps my grandparents held them as well. Even that 1967 one. (p.s. it just occurred to me that perhaps my grandfather had done as I had, and traded his pounds as he boarded the ship, for those 3 sovereigns!)
My most memorable buy is also my most embarrassing. A couple years ago, I received an American Express Blue Cash card with a $30,000 credit line, and promptly decided to go all-in on silver, when the price was $24. Placed a large order with APMEX, and had the shiny goodies delivered two days later. Now I am making minimum payments on the interest, and sitting on a pile of $16 silver. Secretly hoping that the world turns upside-down (just for a couple of days), so I can cash-in, and get off this silly treadmill. There you have it I already know that I am a fool so please don't be too harsh on me.
Ouija, if you are a fool, then you are in good company with possibly most stackers who made purchases based on the same misconceptions about precious metals as you likely did. Quite a number of "fools" were purchasing silver when the spot price was above USD $30 and even above USD $45 as the price was on a steady spiral downward. Yes, of course there are some valid arguments in favor of investing a large portion of money / funds into pm's but there are also many valid arguments in favor of not doing so as well. The distinct possibility that the spot price could remain at the depressed levels that it is today for decades to come is one of the reasons I have turned my focus from generic blobs to numismatic products. And that doesn't mean that I'm hoping the spot price does remain suppressed, just that if it does, I don't want to be holding more melting pot fodder that has less value than it did when I purchased it. When I see so many similar final sale prices on numismatic items such as this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/371631910249?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT and this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/381639948549?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT and a ton more that I have observed, it makes me think that maybe there are better ways to preserve wealth buying physical metals than buying generic blobs. .
MissingLink I don't regret buying silver I just sometimes feel stupid for having gone into debt to finance my fantasy. Silver had hit a recent high of $45, so $23 seemed like a bargain. I know that Piracco has stated that he bought silver at $45, and yet he still hangs around, after most investors would have said to hell with it. I believe that the Silver investment will eventually pay off, and even though I hate making the payments (just to protect my credit score), I still get some comfort in knowing that I have something real to hold onto A pile of fiat cash could never provide the same sense of well-being. There is an intangible sense of security in knowing that my stack will always hold at least some value if I am ever totally broke, and need to pawn some coins for food (hopefully, it will never come down to that) there will always be that secret stash of purchasing power, that no one else knows about. That provides an enormous and invaluable sense of safety and security that is well worth the monthly minimum payments to the credit card company. Someday, it will all work out, and even though I probably should not have incurred debt to finance my stack, I still feel very good in knowing that it is here, in my hands, right now.
Ouija, are you paying interest with those payments? Are those payments preventing you from buying something that is a better investment? If yes, then it could be said that the way you invested into silver was problematic and shortsighted....in hindsight. I also like the idea of having a physical asset (it's simple, tangible, free of tax collection if I sell for a profit (no capital gains to claim in most cases), and so on....but for me, there's always opportunity cost to weight into the equation. With my money tied into blobs of metal that are losing value on a daily basis, could that money have been spent more wisely on something else? I do regret being impulsive and making many of my earlier silver purchases. I do regret early on in my precious metals awakening believing hook, line, and sinker the rhetoric and exaggerated claims from the permabullshit artists, the precious metals con men. These snake oil salesmen are smart and so I believe that they actually knew a lot more than they were letting on but their own greed and self interest was more important to them....so they just told their convincing tall tales of silver skyrocketing tomorrow. Of course that sort of rhetoric is enticing to many (especially people who are just coming around to the notion of fiat money, store of value, etc, etc, etc)....that's why they do it. But the reality is....here I am....I have to make the best of my own decisions and situation. .
Minimum repayments on $30k?!! That's probably an even more foolish decision! Interest would be $3-$5k pa?!
"problematic and shortsighted....in hindsight." House says: "Minimum repayments on $30k?!! That's probably an even more foolish decision! Interest would be $3-$5k pa?!" Yup - You guys nailed it - I have laid my soul bare, and I totaly expect plenty of criticism. I am not the smartest guy on this forum, but I just thought that since there is not much exciting news in the world of silver, You guys just might as well have some fun throwing darts at me. My crystal ball was not as good as yours, and I have probably made some bad choices. I will have to live with it. Bring it on, guys - poke me and insult me, and call me stupid. I can take it. And I will still value the knowledge and support that I have found here. And regardless of whatever shit you want to throw at me, I will still regard you as my friends.
I wasn't criticisizng the silver buy (plenty of us have similar stories). I meant you're significantly compounding your simple mistake and could easily lose the same amount again by making only the minimum repayments.
I know, House - but what should I do now? Pawn it all for spot - and be left with nothing, but debt and no physical metal?? I have the feeling that I am not the only one in this situation, and there will probably be more comments and attacks, as the other members around the world wake up in whatever time zones they live in - and I suspect that this forum will welcome this little bit of interesting chatter.
Personally I'd just start paying it down as quickly as possible. Cut back on as many expenses as you can and plough it all into the card. Analyse your spending for a week or two and you'll be surprised how much is 'wasted'. I know some people with big card debt and a few thousand in the bank because they like the feeling of having it there... Even though it's costing them $300+/m. You lost what, $10k? Not the worst thing to have done, could even have gone the other way and you'd look like a genius! We've all made money mistakes but as long as you learn from it, all can be forgiven Have a play around with this repayment calculator- https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit-cards/education/credit-card-debt-payoff-calculator.go and see how much you could save. Sure you could even buy more silver with the interest saved to bring your DCA down and ounces up
Any thought on switching credit cards to take advantage of an interest free holiday? Rinse and repeat.
