Should I buy Silver and Gold?

[IIC]

if you have cash or the product you don't pay street or market prices but then you're not going to sell or buy in 1 oz quantities either. anyone that has the physical product, either gold or silver, is stupid or doesn't know what they are doing, if they pay any markup on selling the physical product when they have it. you could stand on any corner in NYC with a sign around your neck stating you have gold for sale and you'll find a buyer at the right price in cash without any markups on either end. it's a regular market nowadays.

And just how does one know if they are buying the real thing or a fake?

[skiracer]

And just how does one know if they are buying the real thing or a fake?

well that is the question regarding everything that one buys on the street now days. reverting back to pirating days I would take the coin or ingot and bite into it. i believe gold is the softer of the two metals and your bite will definitely make an imprint in the surface when biting into it eliminating the chance that someone may have coated another harder metal with gold leaf or something else that looks like gold in the hope of duping them.
nothing is really safe in todays environment. there are plenty of illegitimate brokers touting and selling worthless stock in companies they know to be worthless and the hedge funds are, and this is my own opinion for what it is worth, manipulating the markets and specific stocks to some degree. plus the fact that there are companies out there with larcenous management whose sole purpose is to rob the public thru manipulation of their companies stock. doing the due diligence required in any transaction to protect your position is the most significant action in any transaction whether it be with a licensed dealer or on the street. I've always felt that in any dealings it is always best to carry a gun and to let the person on the other end know your parameters for deceit.

[IIC]

First of all, you should get your ears checked out. It's my understanding that the fluid in them helps your body to maintain balance.

I don't know about your's...But my computer doesn't read the posted messages to me

[IIC]

well that is the question regarding everything that one buys on the street now days. reverting back to pirating days I would take the coin or ingot and bite into it. i believe gold is the softer of the two metals and your bite will definitely make an imprint in the surface when biting into it eliminating the chance that someone may have coated another harder metal with gold leaf or something else that looks like gold in the hope of duping them.
nothing is really safe in todays environment. there are plenty of illegitimate brokers touting and selling worthless stock in companies they know to be worthless and the hedge funds are, and this is my own opinion for what it is worth, manipulating the markets and specific stocks to some degree. plus the fact that there are companies out there with larcenous management whose sole purpose is to rob the public thru manipulation of their companies stock. doing the due diligence required in any transaction to protect your position is the most significant action in any transaction whether it be with a licensed dealer or on the street. I've always felt that in any dealings it is always best to carry a gun and to let the person on the other end know your parameters for deceit.

Never trust anyone and you'll never be disappointed

[skiracer]

Another amazing story, Ski. Thanks for sharing!

I'm interested to know more from you regarding your statement of geopolitical / economical situations. Can you elaborate?

Peanuts,
i've got a million stories like this last one. between my family on my mother's side and growning up in an environment full of damon runyonesque type characters at the jersey shore i had plenty of people to watch as their lives unfolded. throw my own personality into the mix and there's a book in it for sure.
I'm on the fence with our own economy. the dollar is very weak against the rest of the world currencies which is actually great for buying our exports but terrible for buying our bonds, notes, and treasuries. but with a weak dollar gold is that much stronger. so that makes gold look good if he dollar continues to weaken. that is the question on the gold front. will the dollar continue to weaken. also will oil continue to rise in price. there are so many factors involved in the price of oil with terroristic acts by any faction against pipelines, shipping, or blowing up a building or ministry at the top of the list. things are heating up again in iraq and the entire region. coupled with it being an election year and the changing of an administration and perhaps a different party with different agendas and policies makes for a volitaile situation. any negative terroristic action will send the price of oil higher and the safest haven under those circumstances will be precious metals like gold or silver or some of the other more exotic ones like platimun and drive the regular stock markets down. because of this i feel that we are going to see alot more action in iraq and the entire region aimed at throwing a wrench into the spokes of our political and economical processes with the intent to damage our position worldwide.
I could not bring myself to buy gold here at these prices. just to high and to much money to acquire any amount. silver being much cheaper seems more realistic in my opinion for any type of appreciation at this point.
Our own political situation at the present is very volitaile. i am not going to stop my normal trading but i am going to be much more cautious in my trading and the amounts that i leave myself open to losing. I know alot of people who deal in everything you could imagine that there is a market for. I have had the good fortune to have a decent amount of cash and credit on hand to profit from other peoples misfortune and friends are always calling me to ask me if i am interested in buying or financing or a piece of this or that so i see and hear about alot of deals from from people just needing to raise cash.
I am advising everyone that i speak to to remain very cautious and to not put themselves out on the line or overextend because of the volitiality in todays world.
I do own some gold bullion, ingots, and some coin which i buy anytime i can get it cheaper than the market price if a deal comes along. I own a few hundred ozs. of silver that i have acquired in the same fashion. i think it is a good thing to have some physical amount of each just in case it ever comes down to necessity. just like i feel it is important to be able to maintain and bear arms to protect yourself if it ever comes down to necessity. so like the precious metals i would also own some guns and definitely hoard enough ammo to protect yourself and your family if anarchy ever were to set in.

[peanuts]

some free peanuts internet research

Hey, check this out: https://www.bulliondirect.com/

There is a tradeable market for Silver, it's just like a stock market, but you deal only in silver bullion. What I really like is that you can buy and sell silver bullion within your IRA.


I also found this informative: http://silverstockreport.com/ Jason Hommel seems like a good, smart, god-fearing man, too.

[peanuts]

hi-ho Silver!!!!

Over the last few weeks, I have acquired an incredible amount of knowledge, theory, opinion, and technical details of the commodities markets... mostly silver and gold.

Some of the things which I have found to be true:

1. The mark-up price for buying is not as bad as you might think. I have been able to find coin shops, antique shops, and jewellery shops (well, one in downtown Pittsburgh) that are offering bullion for spot plus a 1% to 3% mark-up. For example, I was able to purchase several 1 ounce .999 fine silver rounds for $17.25 when the spot price was just below $17 on April 1, as I travelled to the airport for a flight to Delhi.
2. In Delhi, I contracted a young entreprenuer to acquire some old British-issued silver coins from the pre and early 1900's. I got 10 coins, and paid $100 for all 10 of them (which included the commission to the boy). Today, I noticed similar coins selling on Ebay for just over that value.
3. The buy rate from the dealers is not as friendly as the sell rate. Coin shops are typically buying from the public anywhere between a 10% to 15% discount on spot prices. That means if you decide to buy 1 ounce of silver at $18 total cost per ounce, then you must wait until spot price is $20 just to break even on a 10% buy rate discount schedule. You have to be in the market for the long run if you want to deal in the physical commodity, and make money from your local coin dealer.
4. Ebay buyers are paying, on average, substantial mark-ups to spot price. Often, 1 oz of .999 fine silver is selling anywhere from $20 to $26... there is a HUGE market on Ebay, as all the silver seems to be selling like this. Deals are tough to get. I recently did find a deal, however. I paid $17.99 for a 1 ounce round with free shipping. Of course, at today's prices, that is no longer a deal. The Ebay gold market seem to be equally vibrant.
5. Ebay buying of raw, unstamped, unverified bullion is risky. Be sure that your items are clearly marked by the maker or assayer to indicate the purity. There are sob stories of people getting cheated without the ability to get retribution.
6. Commodity ETF trades are taxed fully unless traded in your IRA
7. Some coin shops deal exclusively in cash. I assume there are some tax benefits to this, but who am I to assume?
8. There seems to be a substantial market in China to make counterfeit pre-1964 US coins. The coins are making their way back to the US. One coin dealer showed a counterfeit Walking Liberty Half Dollar coin to me that he acquired through Ebay. It looked very real, but wasn't the right purity. I reminded him that is was illegal to have counterfeit currency in his possession. He smiled, and pulled a bunch of quarters from his register and called them tokens. He considered that there was more value in the fake coin, I think. I couldn't find an arguement with that.
9. The historic spread of gold to silver price is nearly 20 to 1. Today, it is more like 50 to 1. This sets the stage either for a silver rally, or a gold slump.

So, I decided, after doing the actual foot-work type of research, (phone calls, physical calls, lots of reading, Ebay stalking, among other things) that my best and safest bet is to buy physical silver bullion which is stamped .999, or to buy pre-1964 silver quarters, dimes, and halves, or to buy pre-1982 pennies... AND HOARD THEM!!! Sterling silver scrap with a maker's mark or marked .925 is safe if you are buying at substantial discount to spot silver price (40%). That is enough to make money including the refiner's fees. I do not think that the commodities boom is over, yet. I think there is a looooong way to go. These are long term investments that I am making. And thus, I will be continuously buying the physical commodites over this time period. I will try to time the buying decisions to relative weakness. I do not yet have an exit strategy, as I do not see that occurring for more than 12 years from now.

My current issue now becomes one of storage. I'm leary of banks. I do not want to risk my stash (and life) at my home, either. For now, with only a few ounces of silver, I'm comfortable keeping the few coins locked in a safe, and hidden away. But as I continue to acquire more commodities, the need for an off-site, low-cost, and safe storage area becomes more important. Any suggestions?

[billyjoe]

Peanuts,
If the silver coin is rolled, you can fit a lot of it into a small safety deposit box that in my town is under $20 per year to rent.

----------Last year I went to the same bank ,a stones throw from my house, and bought several rolls of quarters hoping to get a couple of the bicentennial quarters to complete a roll. Upon opening them much to my surprise one roll was half silver and 2 1/2 rolls were all bicentennial. They also sell for a smaller premium on e-bay.

----------An honest coin dealer could do a great business. Most of them around here look like stereotypical con men. You'd walk in with silver and gold and walk out wearing a barrel.

----------I'm keeping all my silver for now as I've also noticed the ratio of gold price vs. silver and believe silver is undervalued and more tradeable amongst the general population sort of the beanie baby of precious metals.

--------------billy

[peanuts]

Peanuts,
If the silver coin is rolled, you can fit a lot of it into a small safety deposit box that in my town is under $20 per year to rent.

----------Last year I went to the same bank ,a stones throw from my house, and bought several rolls of quarters hoping to get a couple of the bicentennial quarters to complete a roll. Upon opening them much to my surprise one roll was half silver and 2 1/2 rolls were all bicentennial. They also sell for a smaller premium on e-bay.

----------An honest coin dealer could do a great business. Most of them around here look like stereotypical con men. You'd walk in with silver and gold and walk out wearing a barrel.

----------I'm keeping all my silver for now as I've also noticed the ratio of gold price vs. silver and believe silver is undervalued and more tradeable amongst the general population sort of the beanie baby of precious metals.

--------------billy

Wow! You got really lucky! As an experiment, my father got $5 worth of pennies last time he went to the bank. From the 10 rolls, he pulled out 180 pre-1982 copper pennies. I once reported that these pennies were worth 1.2 cents based on copper content. I see that the recent price of copper puts the value of these coins at 2.5 cents per 1 pre-1982 penny!!!! My father made a wise investment.

Thanks for the idea of safety deposit box. It seems like that is not good for me, however. What if I wanted the silver at 6:15 pm? or on Sunday? or I needed to be inconspicuous on the transfer? I need another option.

[skiracer]

Wow! You got really lucky! As an experiment, my father got $5 worth of pennies last time he went to the bank. From the 10 rolls, he pulled out 180 pre-1982 copper pennies. I once reported that these pennies were worth 1.2 cents based on copper content. I see that the recent price of copper puts the value of these coins at 2.5 cents per 1 pre-1982 penny!!!! My father made a wise investment.

Thanks for the idea of safety deposit box. It seems like that is not good for me, however. What if I wanted the silver at 6:15 pm? or on Sunday? or I needed to be inconspicuous on the transfer? I need another option.

buy a gun and a viscious trained dog. it doesn't pay to own anything that makes you worry or uncomfortable having. you should buy that silver from me and re-sell it for 6 points profit on ebay. antique 10 oz. ingots.

[Peter Hansen]

A FLOOR SAFE may be in your future!

A floor safe can be installed by you in your basement or garage.....It is basically a cylinder which is placed into the ground and cemented in. a cover on top makes it look like a drain pipe, you would never know it is there ...it has a combo lock ..although capacities are limited .....and it would not be ideal for huge bags of silver ......better for gold coins .
Another option is a pvc tube buried in your back yard .....you can probably find plans for this on the internet .

Good Luck

[skiracer]

gun and viscious dog/dogs. two champion dobies.

[IIC]

A floor safe can be installed by you in your basement or garage.....It is basically a cylinder which is placed into the ground and cemented in. a cover on top makes it look like a drain pipe, you would never know it is there ...it has a combo lock ..although capacities are limited .....and it would not be ideal for huge bags of silver ......better for gold coins .
Another option is a pvc tube buried in your back yard .....you can probably find plans for this on the internet .

Good Luck

Yeah...but you would know it's there

[peanuts]

gun and viscious dog/dogs. two champion dobies.

It seems like I need several things:

1. A floor safe with large storage capacity.
2. A combination that only I know (with the combination in a sealed envelope attached to my will)
3. Several .44 and .357 mags stored strategically around the house
4. 2 Dobies, and 1 Rottweiler (just in case)
5. A trusting woman that knows how to shoot a gun and can watch the dogs while I'm away.

Am I forgetting anything?

[billyjoe]

It seems like I need several things:

1. A floor safe with large storage capacity.
2. A combination that only I know (with the combination in a sealed envelope attached to my will)
3. Several .44 and .357 mags stored strategically around the house
4. 2 Dobies, and 1 Rottweiler (just in case)
5. A trusting woman that knows how to shoot a gun and can watch the dogs while I'm away.

Am I forgetting anything?

Something to put in the safe.

------------billy