How many of you buy silver or gold to stockpile

luked

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had a friend once a while back tell me that i should invest money in precious metals such as silver and gold.
so how many of you do it and why? and also where do you buy your metals and what do you buy? coins, bars etc?
 
I've been putting most of my savings in bullion and coins for about ten years. It keeps value as cash goes down by inflation. I started when gold was 700 per oz. Now is a really good time to buy. Prices went down significantly after the election. I've bought online and in person, just go with well established businesses. Research before you buy, know weights, diameters, coin details,etc. Have them weigh the units in front of you, or if you buy online, go to a jeweler to weigh. If they have the tools to measure diameters and thicknesses do that too, or buy them yourself. Only buy government issued one oz units, there is much more potential for fakes with bigger units.
I found some very good deals on gold numismatic coins by getting to know owners at small coin shops, way under standard prices.
I've sold a couple units of gold in different shops over the years during hard times, so I know it is convertible back to cash if needed.
 
Silver and gold are lousy investments. If you've bought over the past five years, and sold today, you've lost a lot of money, as opposed to terrific gains that could have been made playing the stock market.

The metals are a hedge, or insurance, a safe-haven against fiat currencies that all except for one, are in the tank. Currently, strength is in the dollar. Not sure if buying a lot right now is a great idea, as I see prices on PM's going even lower. They say buying the market dips, or dollar cost averaging are the kiss of death, and that one should wait for a solid upswing in prices, to buy.

Last, many buyers like to keep their purchases confidential, so they go with the LCS, as opposed to online bullion dealers that keep records of customers, that could be turned over to govt depts at any time.

This is my 2c on the subject.
 
As Detectorists, we naturally gravitate towards PM's...Theres a lot of History available regarding the change over to paper, gold confiscation, etc...Now we are in a digital financial world...Hardly anyone alive can tell you what a Mercury dime is, and have never held one...You can do a little test in your daily life by asking people whats an oz of silver worth? They will not know...so its a limited market.

But, Silver/gold coinage has stood the test of time as opposed to fiat crashes, and thats the 'selling' point people are trying to convince you of...

Its not a bad idea to get a hold of a little just for your interest in coins/history. might be a better 'investment to get a hold of some gold jewelry items that can always be traded and are safe from a confiscation/outlaw kind of deal....nice little 4gr 14ks are a steady $100 no matter what the melt price is...

The good thing for us is, if things got really bad, financial collapse kind of deal, at least we can always go out and find some..!:laughing:
Mud
 
had a friend once a while back tell me that i should invest money in precious metals such as silver and gold.
so how many of you do it and why? and also where do you buy your metals and what do you buy? coins, bars etc?

Other than what I have found detecting, I don't invest in precious metals, I only invest in dividend paying US stocks from high-quality companies. :yes:

Didn't do too badly this year, my investments finished the year with a total return of 15.3%
 
Other than what I have found detecting, I don't invest in precious metals, I only invest in dividend paying US stocks from high-quality companies. :yes:

Didn't do too badly this year, my investments finished the year with a total return of 15.3%

15% return FTY? Nice. That's hard to do with interest rates as non-existent as they are. Good Goin'.
 
15% return FTY? Nice. That's hard to do with interest rates as non-existent as they are. Good Goin'.

Thanks. Yes it wasn't too shabby for the year. It is however a bit of work to manage the portfolio and keep abreast of what is happening to each company.
 
Thanks. Yes it wasn't too shabby for the year. It is however a bit of work to manage the portfolio and keep abreast of what is happening to each company.

Yep,know what ya mean. I manage,balance etc. my own company 401(k),but with the household investments,trusts,IRAs,college funds,etc., I pay a professional. I'm not educated in the trade enough for all the minutae that goes into that stuff.
 
I don't look at, or manage my 401k that much. I just checked and my return this year has averaged 29.42%. I may be nuts but I'm vested 100% in my company's stock and have been since 2006. My annual return since then has been just under 10%.

Still, my 401k, like my bank savings account, is nothing but digitized numbers in a database. It could all disappear at any time. Unlike PM's. 'If you don't hold it, you don't own it.'
 
I don't look at, or manage my 401k that much. I just checked and my return this year has averaged 29.42%. I may be nuts but I'm vested 100% in my company's stock and have been since 2006. My annual return since then has been just under 10%.

Still, my 401k, like my bank savings account, is nothing but digitized numbers in a database. It could all disappear at any time. Unlike PM's. 'If you don't hold it, you don't own it.'

Yeah I made a lot of money back in the day with my 401k. But a friend of mine was a genious at telling you where to move your money. You can lose a lot of money if you aren't careful. I lost 8 grand once.
 
I traveled a lot on business so I tend to try to have some bases covered for the unforeseen circumstances...A few times, for some reason, when the uplink to the CC scanners goes down, theres all sorts of people lined up at gas stations that cant buy fuel to get home...So its good to always carry a bit of cash...same with owning and holding PMs, its a fall back for emergencies...

You just never know...some hacker wipes out your bank account, the Irs freezes it for some reason, the dot Gov garnishes your 401k, an inbound Carrington Effect...whatever...there you are...A guy likes to think they can pedal a bicycle out of town with a little bag of silver to start all over again with..so thats the deal...Just in Case...you should always have a knife and a lighter on you too...I will say skills carried in your head are worth a lot more than gear on your back or money in your bank account or pocket...

In just the right circumstances, you could sell a Bic Lighter for a million dollars...
Mud
 
I don't invest in silver or gold as a rule. I have invested in lead with the closing of the last smelter in the USA. One of my other hobbies is reloading brass shells. If the bottom falls out of the economy or apocalypse strikes. :shock: I can always go hunting for my food and hold-up those who have invested in gold and silver :laughing:
 
I cash in all my clad finds every year and buy silver or gold with it. I also allot $100-$150 per month for precious metals purchase because I like the stuff. If you plan to make a profit with it you need to be patient and be prepared to hold it for awhile until the time is right to sell. Like stocks, there is no guarantee that you'll make a profit. I buy at coin shows because that's where I get the best prices, both buying and selling. I prefer common silver coins because the spread is small and if silver ever totally crashed, I could still spend them because they are still legal tender. Bars and ingots are not. I never buy on EBay. I also buy other coins, both silver and gold that are for my personal coin collection. The collection brings enjoyment no matter what the daily price of PM's are. One piece of advice......NEVER NEVER buy from those home shopping channels !!!!!
 
Yeah...I like coins...Since I started detecting and joined the local Numismatic Club, I have found myself thinking of everyday purchases in terms of the price of Silver...? Thats sort of odd I guess?

IE: one Burger King Value mean equals a BF Half! A Snickers bar or a can of soda is a Merc dime! I would NEVER spend a BF half or a Merc dime on that!

When a guy hits a totter and pulls a fast 3.50 clad kicking through the chips, Hey! That there was a damned old SLQ!

I still smoke, and lately thats a habit I'm trying to deal with...pissing away a Walker Half everyday on a pack of ready rolls makes a guy feel guilty...We all know how hard it is to find one of those!:laughing: DAMN! I'd have 365 Walker halfs/yr if I could give this up! Now THATS a stack!
Mud
 
Yeah...I like coins...Since I started detecting and joined the local Numismatic Club, I have found myself thinking of everyday purchases in terms of the price of Silver...? Thats sort of odd I guess?

IE: one Burger King Value mean equals a BF Half! A Snickers bar or a can of soda is a Merc dime! I would NEVER spend a BF half or a Merc dime on that!

When a guy hits a totter and pulls a fast 3.50 clad kicking through the chips, Hey! That there was a damned old SLQ!

I still smoke, and lately thats a habit I'm trying to deal with...pissing away a Walker Half everyday on a pack of ready rolls makes a guy feel guilty...We all know how hard it is to find one of those!:laughing: DAMN! I'd have 365 Walker halfs/yr if I could give this up! Now THATS a stack!
Mud


:laughing::laughing::laughing:
 
Yeah...I like coins...Since I started detecting and joined the local Numismatic Club, I have found myself thinking of everyday purchases in terms of the price of Silver...? Thats sort of odd I guess?

IE: one Burger King Value mean equals a BF Half! A Snickers bar or a can of soda is a Merc dime! I would NEVER spend a BF half or a Merc dime on that!

When a guy hits a totter and pulls a fast 3.50 clad kicking through the chips, Hey! That there was a damned old SLQ!

I still smoke, and lately thats a habit I'm trying to deal with...pissing away a Walker Half everyday on a pack of ready rolls makes a guy feel guilty...We all know how hard it is to find one of those!:laughing: DAMN! I'd have 365 Walker halfs/yr if I could give this up! Now THATS a stack!
Mud
"I have found myself thinking of everyday purchases in terms of the price of silver...? That's sort of odd I guess?"

Is that odd? Not sure, 'cause I do that myself! I don't use plastic, so I get to see where my money's going!

MP, do you remember back in the 70's when a clad Kennedy half would buy a several chocolate bars, or even a pack of smokes? Try that today :laughing:. Today, a silver half's value would buy a pack of smokes, or several chocolate bars!
 
KT does not "invest" in PMs, but what His Majesty can get hold of, by inheritance, CRHing, and MDing, He hoards. Only sold any PMs one time, when both Au and Ag were high, and used the money to purchase MDs for the chance of finding more! HA HA

KT has purchased some silver dollars, just to pass them on to Prince John. 80 and counting at this point. Looking to obtain another 20 to make an even 100 in the Royal Treasure Box..:D:D
 
You should be able to build-ya a cool throne with all that silver you find. I'm happy when I find one in the ground every six weeks or so. :laughing:
 
Yeah I made a lot of money back in the day with my 401k. But a friend of mine was a genious at telling you where to move your money. You can lose a lot of money if you aren't careful. I lost 8 grand once.

Oh yeah, I have lost over 8K in ONE day, then again I can make that in a day too. It's all a game no matter what you do. Set a plan and stick with it, ride it out. One year I lost over 100k. Boy is that nice at tax time as all my capital gains now are not taxed. I'm still working it off. But still, it was 100k.

As to silver and gold, I've bought a fair amount of silver blank coins in 1 oz. Stayed away from gold. My reason for getting some stockpiled was if the world came to an end a 1 oz silver is a lot easier to pass than a 1 oz gold coin or bullion. then again, gold and silver wouldn't be worth anything until some order came about. Things to have then are guns and ammo along with matches and some other things. Don't buy the special coins of either, as you pay a premium, unless you want to speculate on the collector value. Best prices I've seen are from Gainseville Coins. Bought some from APMEX but they can be a bit pricey. Shop around for delivered price.

As to this being an "investment", it's not. It's pure speculation. Don't put a lot in it and know what you want it for. A diversified stock and bond portfolio is the best way to go. Don't put more than about 5% of your investments in this precious metal stuff. But it is fun to watch the daily swings of it.
 
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