Silver Bar Rankings

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I am wondering why people would pay a premium for a certain producer instead of just buying silver bars at the lowest price?

Also if you are to place a premium on producers what order would they be from most to least desirable?

From what I gather it is as follows;

1: PAMP
2: Perth Mint
3: ABC Bullion
4: Any other producer
5: Hand Pours/Home jobs

I am just making my modest stack from the cheapest bars I can find. Bought from Goldstackers or other dealers.

Would like to start to buy them off gumtree but a bit dubious about how to test for purity....

Any comments are welcome.
 
Hmm. I used to like Pamp but got bored of them. They can be faked as well.

I have a thing for Geiger's now cos they're sealed and have some security feature (was it UV marking?).
 
The premium I've seen on home pours are much more than pamp.

Look up some recent silverfox refined home pours. Plus they look much better than any of the majors.
 
Here I've got to say this... it's a secret...

They're ALL silver and they ALL melt the same.

The rest is just preference. The novice may prefer one because it's shiny or it's made in Switzerland and it conjures up something in their imagination.
 
Nobody on here can answer your question as everyone has their individual choices for their own reasons.

Me I buy Perth Mint silver bars because I live close to the mint but also I like variety so I buy other silver usually at higher premium, I am also inexperienced at buying silver so I need to follow the more experienced stacker lead re product choices.

Because I live near the mint I save on shipping costs so the Perth mint bars on your list as number 2 are not number 2 in overall premium price to me,same as Perth mint bars may be at number 1 high premium for somebody in Switzerland.

Stacking lead me to collecting so with bars I now collect small hand pours that cost in most instances a much higher premium than the top premium brands.

I would assume that some buyers of higher premium silver will be expecting to sell that silver at an even higher premium? or that higher premium silver will be easier to sell to others at higher than buy back price?

It would be pretty boring if all my silver looked the same but if I was stacking purely on an investment basis I would buy the cheapest silver available and ignore the collecting part of stacking.

If I only bought the cheapest to purchase generic silver bars I dont think I would have the same amount of silver I have as I would have lost interest in silver.
 
To test for purity get yourself a good set of scales and set up a rig for doing specific gravity testing. This will tell you reasonably accurately the purity of the silver.

As the density of silver is not very close to other metals a fake or counterfeit will show easily.

Search it on the internet, easy to do.

For coins or round shape items I just use a loop in some fishing line that you can adjust, make it just smaller than the silver and squeeze it in, holds pretty well.
 
nobody really would ask you what brand of salt you are buying, it may spark some interest when you said your pink salt is from Himalaya :)

silver bars are very nice to look at, to hold, to describe, to post picture of, and go ship about like ted :lol:

when the premium is just too much, better stack other brand and a piece or two on the expensive ones

when you have way too may pieces of the same their value for sell may get depressed when you off load them the same

some bars were taxed else where hence their higher cost to bring to your palm

silver exchange with gold, so were can select more choice on silver than gold as majority do not afford the yellow heavy ounces too much
 
Buy them locally, anything that's world recognise.

Whether they are bars or coins. :)

Depending on your purchase and plan for your future resell.

Not everyone will buy what you have. So some varieties would be good.

Each to their individual choice

But if you decide to get generic stuffs, don't expect to gain high premium when comes to sell.
 
Bastiat, depends on what your goal is.


If you want to simply maximize the number of ounces you have, then don't bother with hand pours, Pamp bars or any other bar that has more than the tiniest of premiums attached to it. Here in the US, there is no shortage of good deals on bars with very low premiums attached. To get the best deals, I just sit tight after putting my name on all the major bullion dealers promotional sign-up list. I get notified early on a number of very good offerings. Most I don't react to but some I do.


If, on the other hand, you are into collecting or obtaining for whatever valid reason (and there are valid reasons), neat looking silver bars, then that's where you can explore hand pours or other neat bars like this (which, in some cases, you can get them for a very good price):


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akyC1lBu_cE[/youtube]



and this enameled, engravable, US flag 1 oz .999 silver bar:


8838_enamelled_us_flag_1_oz_silver_bar_obverse_2_a.jpg




8838_enamelled_us_flag_1_oz_silver_bar_obverse_7_a.jpg




8838_enamelled_us_flag_1_oz_silver_bar_reverse_a.jpg





Sorry if I have offended anyone with the patriotic theme of my bars of choice. :P ;)



.
 
It all depends on what you value in your bars. Everyone has their requirements, personally I want a serial number on any 10oz bar or greater of Silver. So that rules out Perth Mint small bars for me, although that would be the most widely accepted bar in the country.

Honestly, the whole 'PAMP Mania' is overblown and I would take Baird & Co bars over PAMPs without hesitation any day of the week, and pocket the change.

If you are a true stacker, then minimising premium and maximising metal is the game. For this, any NTR bars is probably what you want, these could be under the NTR, OPM or 'Elemetal' brands. No serial number for me, plus I actually don't like the quality of them - the minting can be a bit rough but the price cannot be beat.

Personally, I stack Royal Canadian Mint bars at 10oz. Minted with reeded edge, has a laser-engraved serial. It is a government mint and produced overseas yet usually priced under the 10oz Perth bars and boasts 9999 purity. Really annoying that there is no kilobar - you have to step up to the 100-ouncer but that it an excellent bar.

For kilobars, I take ABC's happily - local, liquid and easy to sell and now an LBMA-recognised brand. Plus my allocated provider works in ABC Kilobars for silver by default. Alternately I go for Bairds from one particular Sydney Dealer who sells them for less than Perth Bars at most normal dealers.

100oz - Perth. Cheaper than RCM at most dealers in Australia, plus at that size they get serial numbers.
 
Monsta said:
Personally, I stack Royal Canadian Mint bars at 10oz. Minted with reeded edge, has a laser-engraved serial. It is a government mint and produced overseas yet usually priced under the 10oz Perth bars and boasts 9999 purity. Really annoying that there is no kilobar - you have to step up to the 100-ouncer but that it an excellent bar.
Click to expand...

Who do you get these from?

edit: nevermind, found at PB and GS :)
 
I just like stacking largely the same thing so I can build a nice pyramid if I wanted. I avoid both ends of the premium scale so I can sell them readily enough when I have to.
 
I usually buy my 2nd hand kilos from Gold Stackers. the Pamp bars are about $9 more than the randoms. I just get the Pamp for uniformity. And once I get 15 can put them in a monster box.

I probably won't be selling them until silver is double the current price so it's a pretty minor extra expense to improve the aethetics of my stack :)
 
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