Guide to buying silver in Australia (resurrected)

Nothing to stop you at all.

But the question is more about retaining integrity of the bar after you do such a thing. Tampering with any silver in such a fashion would generally mean that a buyer employing their own due dilligence would intelligently have to require what's left to be assay'd again to confirm it's what you say it is.

Seems like a royal pain in the arse if you were a buyer.

One of the great things about the smaller coins is the fact that the strike and markings generally avoid the requirement for such and can be more or less accepted on simple face value.


Just remember, you can get silver in tiny fractions if you so desire in coins that will easy stand up to scrutiny. Here in Australia they go as small as the pre-decimal Three Pence which has a tiny amount of silver in it (0.0420 oz for pre war and as small as 0.0227 oz post war!) which will easily cover as low as you want to go, without the need to hack the crap out of a 1kg bar.

Given that you can buy pre-decimal coins right now by the kilo for fairly close to spot and you are concerned about liquidity, why not buy that instead?

It's all down to personal choice really. I like the smaller stuff because it gives me more options, but the 1kg bars give better bang for your buck.

You can always mix and match whatever is comfortable for you after all.

If you're worried, I wouldn't be. I don't doubt when it comes time to liquidate you will still be able to move 1kg bars comfortably through private sale, even if they're $50,000 AUD a bar. There ARE people out there in the market with that sort of money to spend.
 
Meltup said:
Silverwise said:
Can any one please tell me if there are any Bullion places to buy in Melbourne city, where you can just walk in and buy?

Thanks!
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A couple that I know of in Melbourne are:

http://www.wdavis.com.au/

I spoke to them last week. They had very little stock in terms of (silver) bullion at the time but he seemed like a good guy. If you keep your purchase under $5000 then they won't require ID. They're not exactly "walk in" as they are by appointment only. If the "live" price list on the website is anything to go by, their prices seem pretty sharp compared to some of the other big boys.

The other well known one is:

http://www.australianbullioncompany.com.au

They are located on Level 10, 227 Collins Street (Wales Corner Building). I've never purchased from them but other people here have commented on their experiences with them. I understand they are walk in, walk out but have a strict ID criteria (ie ID for your first purchase regardless of size.)

Hope this helps.
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I didn't know aboout the Davis place on Collins. I can tell you that if you want silver fifties they are often around in several coin shops I know of.

But firstly, ABC (Australian Bullion Company) is apparently in melb, but I couldn't find it. I found that out the hard way a few years ago, trekking around looking in vain. They had apparently relocated. I was told they had relocated in Sydney, which is on Pitt St. (88 Pitt from memory, I think on the 6th floor). They close at four pm. They deal in bullion bars and biscuits (gold) and all manner of perth mint coins.

They have an unflattering branded bar, in my case, non have serial numbers. You also need ID to purchase.

Back to Melbourne, I must say I could not find a local shop that sold the bars or coins in any significant quantity.

IS Wright on Lonsdale sells the silver fifties at 7.50 per round at present (a few weeks back). Mainly numismatics and militaria.

Golddigger in the heart of the cbd, off flinders lane, sells them at 8 dollars each, which was high a few weeks ago, I thought. Golddigger was a good choice to name this establishment. The gent who runs it is good to chat to. He had no gold bullion at all when I visited quite recently. Though, he quoted me a cost which was 1500+ and above what you will pay in Sydney.

Mind you, 8 dollars for a 66 round beats ebay hands down. On that note, I know one dealer in melb who sells the fifties at spot, but I won't put it here as every man and their dog flogging them on ebay will rush him. I may let you know privately, if this bulletin board has a private message function and you are interested.

On the whole, my experience is that Sydney is far better served that Melbourne with bullion dealers. Even the fifties are easy to pick up - coin shops all over the place, even in the train station!
 
There are several refiners for the 1kg bullion bars.

Cosmetically, ABC (Aust bullion company) bars and Ainslee's ABC bars (Qld) are disappointing to look at and without serial numbers in my stack. Perth mint bars, at least the ones I have, look better. There is no price difference as far as I am aware (I am happy to stand corrected). Personally, I prefer the PAMP bars (not Aussie, but easy enough to source), but only out of vanity, they have serial numbers.

If I was to go back a few years and start again, I'd consider my location, income, spending habits, rough idea of what % to earmark away for precious, reckon the nearology of silver (BUYING DIPS for the bigger purchases), then:

Find a place that regularly has silver fifties as close to spot as possible. It is easy to pay more, but really quite a simple process of ringing around the shops and comparing prices. You can easily determine the spread between the dealer's buy and sell price, and then their margin based on the spot price. Then, when you find one you like, go on their list to be contacted when some come in. The coins tend to come in very regularly as they are common.

My experience is that the better prices for this coin is outer burbs, not cbd, so be prepared to travel.

The advantage of silver fifties is that you can sock away small amounts of money in silver regularly which takes no discipline. Though, you are beholden to supply, which may take a day or two. Also, at some point you will probably want to buy bars, especially if you can't get the coins at a reasonable price. You should be careful not to pay significantly above spot, as it is quite irrational to buy these coins at the same price, ounce for ounce, as a kook, given that the fifty is circulated and the kook is a minted fine silver coin.

As three silver fifties makes about a troy ounce, you can easily do the cost conversion versus a kook. Paying 10 dollars for a single *garden variety* silver fifty (aka ebay) is a major ripoff, even if uncirculated, imo.

3 of these coins at 7.50 (a common enough price at the moment) will set you back 22.50, which is 1.5 dollars or so above spot.

I also would get some kooks, but my experience has been the best way to get them is online, through a good dealer who sells them considerably cheaper than the mint, and buy them in 20 coin rolls or more. Bear in mind the minting premium is high and imo this is an important long term consideration and a turn off. Maples in a monster box is something I'm very keen on as a future purchase to reduce premium on legal tender.

You really can't go past a one kilo kook, even though the premium is high compared to a raw lump of ABC silver. It's a beauty.

Buy 1kg bars or bigger coin purchases on the dips. Be prepared to wait. I found it best to buy in 10kg lots when having it sent interstate, to save on pph, but each to their own. The ideal is if you can pop into a shop & then no pph.

Right now you should have little trouble buying from a big distributor, but be warned, in the 2008 crash, it became scarce with delays from refiners as product disappeared from the shelves. That's right, even though the price crashed, there was less to be had. Crazy isn't it? I suppose nobody wanted to sell at those prices and everyone wanted to buy.
 
millededge said:
But firstly, ABC (Australian Bullion Company) is apparently in melb, but I couldn't find it. I found that out the hard way a few years ago, trekking around looking in vain. They had apparently relocated. I was told they had relocated in Sydney, which is on Pitt St. (88 Pitt from memory, I think on the 6th floor). They close at four pm. They deal in bullion bars and biscuits (gold) and all manner of perth mint coins.
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Welcome millededge.

ABC Melbourne and ABC Sydney are two totally different companies, unrelated as far as I am aware.

Australian Bullion Company - Level 10, 227 Collins Street (Wales Corner Building), Melbourne
Australian Bullion Company - Suite 30, Level 6, 88 Pitt Street, Sydney

Both produce bars with a variation on ABC as the logo. Just to add more confusion in the market, Ainslie Bullion Company in Qld also produce bars with an "ABC" logo.

Business names are licenced at a state level, which is why you can have two different companies with the same name in different states.
 
goldpelican said:
Welcome millededge.

ABC Melbourne and ABC Sydney are two totally different companies, unrelated as far as I am aware.

Australian Bullion Company - Level 10, 227 Collins Street (Wales Corner Building), Melbourne
Australian Bullion Company - Suite 30, Level 6, 88 Pitt Street, Sydney

Both produce bars with a variation on ABC as the logo. Just to add more confusion in the market, Ainslie Bullion Company in Qld also produce bars with an "ABC" logo.

Business names are licenced at a state level, which is why you can have two different companies with the same name in different states.
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Thanks for the welcome, GP and the well structured, concise advice for new silver stackers here in Australia.

This is a great site and one I had overlooked to my detriment. I read silver and gold sites every day. Jusy happened on this one last night, even though I knew it was there. I didn't realise it was Australian. Worse, I see that you guys meet at Petersham and I've been in Stanmore in the last few weeks..just a 10 min walk. Spewing.

Thanks also for clearing up the ABC issue and the reason.

I spent most of last night pouring over the material in the threads. Hard to put the lappy down.
 
cheers, mate.

Before doing anything foolish, I was just wondering if it is ok with admin to set up a thread on "price comparison" of different outfits in australia, to share the experiences of interested stackers.

I've had some interesting experiences lately and the differences can be considerable.

Perth Mint bars do attract a premium, at least with certain dealers, over the other home grown "cast" bars (ABC of all species), which can be significant.

Example, latest purchases - 749 for 1kg bars in one store. Same store 739 for serial numbered ABC bar.

Only around the corner in an other store, quoted price today of 799. Needless to say I gave that one a miss.

It would be interesting to compare the price range around the traps.
 
Please don't - last time someone decided to compare prices between Australian sources one business took offence and threatened defamation proceedings. Besides any such data would be invalid within minutes of spot price changes.
 
it strikes as a bit incongruous, when compared to other businesses. Eg, want a hotel..well you can go to tripadvisor.com and get reviews. Want some cheap eats...go to urbanspoon.com and get reviews. Want silver? Face defamation. It doesn't sound fair in the sense of fair trading. After all, the information can easily be sought by ringing around.

strange times we live in.
 
one last point...you can buy computer via a number of search engines...shopbot.com.au for example...no threats of defamation there

have to wonder why this dealer of precious was so precious

one thing i think is fair to say..there are sponsors to this website. It is entirely fair to them that a thread on price comparison is unreasonable.

as for defamation, that would be a first - how would it stand up in court? Joe blogs quotes your price and as it stands, you are high with respect to other traders. Sounds ludicrous.
 
... I think it would be fair to say that any such threats were NOT from sponsors of this website, who (myself included now :) ) are quite welcoming of fair competition and want to encourage discourse on such topics.

But ... Best left alone, as its those outsiders who are pushing particular agendas that are likely to get their backs up.

C.K
 
Well it happened. Can't discuss it any further than that, other than they took offence to being labeled "expensive" by a forum member.

There's been a couple of episodes like this on the forum in the past. Much more preferable for dealers to engage - once saw a saying that criticism is a gift as it provides an opportunity to improve, but not everyone reacts that way :/
 
GP..i know i have on one occassion skirted close to the issue of price comparisons on this forum. i have refrained from going further into depth on this comparison out of respect for the integrity and intent of this forum.................where can we discuss this topic on "comparisions"? i find it quite amusing actually....that all of us here on this forum are here for the same reason...and that is that we stack silver and gold. ...that then begs the question "where one buys their silver and gold at the best prices"...that seems quite logical??....why is it that the main question everyone wants to know suddenly becomes the only question one cannot ask???.....
 
white-metal-man said:
GP..i know i have on one occassion skirted close to the issue of price comparisons on this forum. i have refrained from going further into depth on this comparison out of respect for the integrity and intent of this forum.................where can we discuss this topic on "comparisions"? i find it quite amusing actually....that all of us here on this forum are here for the same reason...and that is that we stack silver and gold. ...that then begs the question "where one buys their silver and gold at the best prices"...that seems quite logical??....why is it that the main question everyone wants to know suddenly becomes the only question one cannot ask???.....
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Do you really want to give up the information where you find your bargains.
Than everybody goes there,the price goes up.No bargains there anymore.
The only clue I'll give up ,is people still haven't realised the the advantage of the $10 silver coins in any form.
I was still buying bargains last night till my account was frozen.
 
spannermonkey....? prices going up?.....hang on....i've been watching the discussions here and seeing the prices being paid by people for kilo and 10oz bars......gees....compared to the prices i was paying at the comparable times....my prices were bargains...i am happy to share the love of the prices i have found...doesnt mean that prices will spike (considering the miniscule volumes we deal in)..even if all the forum members went to the same source....i doubt there would suddenly be a silver spike in the market...or that my supplier would suddenly lift prices....AND YES....i dont mind passing on the contacts to others....its helping those that want it...
 
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