Any investors in Gold or Silver Boullion?

[SeaHawkDriver-B]

Anyone own any serious quantities of metals as a hedge on inflation? Who do you buy from and why? :skep:

[Cyberfly]

I wanted to, but never had any 'spare' money to be able to invest.
I still think that if I get money ahead (and if the world doesn't come to an end in December) I may invest in silver coins.

[fd57]

The only metal we invest in:



(Well okay, we do also invest in farming and outdoor equipment.)

[SeaHawkDriver-B]

Are you a lead farmer? :lmao:

That is one big ass stack of ammo. Makes my measly 3000 rounds bad.

[fd57]

Lead farmer ... something like that

Was doing inventory and snapped that before we needed our dining room table for something else.

But remember, never put all your eggs in a single basket ...

[Smithy]

http://www.kitco.com or Jack hunt Coin both sell investor bullion. On a smaller scale, your local coin shop.

[Buffman]

The only metal we invest in:



(Well okay, we do also invest in farming and outdoor equipment.)

Holy Crap

[sabotteur]

Providence metals is where I buy most of mine. They take CC on smaller orders with only a 2.35% increase, which in most cases you get 1% back from your rewards anyway, so it really isn't that bad. I've found that PM has the best prices when you factor in shipping cost. Haven't bought anything since Silver went back up above $30 an ounce, but always look for opportunities when it dips. Most of what I have is pre-65 junk, but I've got several 10 pound bars of copper that I use to weight down my safes at the house.

[M1P90]

It's a good idea to transfer some fiat paper money to gold and silver. I like the "junk" silver since it is already divided into small different amounts. (dimes, quarters, half dollars and dollars). It's like buying insurance against a major calamity. If nothing happens you can always turn it back into fiat money. It is easy to carry and will be a good barter item like brass and lead. :thumb: Ebay is a great place to get coins at a good price.
you can get an idea of current values here... http://www.providentmetals.com/coins.html?cat=369" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[jmz5]

I have a pretty diversified portfolio when it comes to metals.

[PainKillaX]

For someone who has zero metal investments (for now) what sort of market conditions should one look for to both buy and sell? What would you recommend for short term profits and long term investments?

[SeaHawkDriver-B]

Thanks for the info Charles, Provident Metals had some of the best prices I've seen yet, they far outdid the big name brand ones with all the celebrity endorsements. It also looks like they Ship fast and didn't rob me with high commissions and "promises" of buy-backs.

[sabotteur]

NP Winston. I've bought from them a dozen times or so. My only complaint is they pulled one of my comments on a review of a product. I gave the product itself a glowing review but slammed them for the way they shipped it, and I guess they didn't approve. Gotta wonder about putting 8x 10 lbs bricks of copper into a flat rate mailing box and then being supprised when the box breaks open at the post office and the bars get a bunch of dings on them.

[SeaHawkDriver-B]

I finally decided that I'm out of the dollar for good. My funds are coming out of savings plans and into a safety deposit box full of boullion. Until the national debt clock starts running the other direction, I am considering paper dollars as worthless as the roll sitting next to the toilet. I'm not trying to get rich or make a windfall profit, I'm simply putting the money into physical metal to protect it. I may even lose money in the near term, but who cares, it will still be Gold and Silver while everyone else's money will be paper. Here's what made me make this decision.

* QE3/QE4 on the near horizon

* 2015 we will cross the 20 TRILLION dollar debt mark, what seems to me an unrecoverable number

* Obama stands a good chance at re-election, so 4 more years of the same fiscal policies and mega-debt. Even if Romney gets elected, whats he gunna do? The problems with this country are social security, welfare, medicaid/medicare, unemployment, federal pensions, and a variety of other social entitlement programs. Romney and a republican congress won't be able to touch any of it. And if they do, the occupy-hard left will have their scapegoat for the impending financial doom on the horizon.

* THERE IS NO RECOVERY. No matter how much the hard-left tries to paint a rosy picture of financial recovery, its all a crock. Interest rates MUST go up, they don't have any choice anymore. If interest rates rise even a point, its going to trigger another round of home loan defaults and foreclosures. Most real estate agents know that this fall when a lot of the refinanced 3-1 and 5-1 ARMS from the first round of refinances mature, its game over. The public is not going to stand for another round of "bailouts" for ANYBODY. This time, the banks WILL FAIL, and its game over. The Fed will flood the market with more cash to try and stabilize things, and raise interest rates 3% in one day, but once confidence in the dollar is lost globally, forget it.

The question in no-one's mind should be IF, but when. I'm betting we see this start to get really serious by the end of this year, and by 2016 its going to be chaos.

I hope I'm wrong

[SeaHawkDriver-B]

For someone who has zero metal investments (for now) what sort of market conditions should one look for to both buy and sell? What would you recommend for short term profits and long term investments?

Look for silver to fall into the high 20's and buy buy buy. Look for gold to go to $1500 an ounce or lower, silver is the better buy right now, it has more potential, but it also has a lot more volitility.

[Armed Eye Doc]

I am not an expert but I have read that platinum is undervalued. Prior to 2008, it was higher than gold. Then platinum spiked above $2250 and dropped to $800 by the end of the year. It is currently priced slightly below gold.
Again, I am no expert and don't have enough extra money to buy precious metal (except brass and lead ), but this may be a buy opportunity for those inclined.
You can check out the 1, 5 and 10 year closing price charts here. Gold and platinum.

[Smithy]

I am a gold dealer. I buy and sell precious metals and do have an extensive inventory. You can be sure that none of the "experts" can predict what is going to happen to the price of precious metals. There are new players that are moving LARGE quantities metals which help set the price. No one knows what is the new "normal", these are uncharted waters,.

How much metal should you own? At this point I have 2 stashes of metal. One is in my investment portfolio and is not more thah 10% of the total investment. The second is in my personal BOB. I have about 2 oz. of bullion gold coins in smaller detonations and a roll of silver dimes, quarters and half dollars.

The one rule is to find an honest dealer and buy your metals from him. There is a lot of counterfeit metals out there and 1 piece of bad metal can ruin any profit you may make. For example, suppliers have just started selling "silver filled sheet and wire. these metals have a thin layer of silver bonded to a base metal. The total silver my only be 20% pure silver marked to show 92.5% silver content. Gold coins are being cnc processed to hollow out the center and fill with lead. There is also a white alloy used to make heavy chains that look, feel, and test to be gold. They are hot....

One trend I have noticed is that people are using pm's are starting to be used for commerce. I have used pm's to trade for dental services, home repairs, guns, ammunition, and auto repair. In order to protect yourself when making a large purchase, use an escrow service like Insta-pay. It woks by having the buyer deposit the money with the escrow service. The seller then sends the item to the purchaser. If, upon receipt, everything is as described, the seller tells the escrow service to release the funds. If the item is not as described, the money is returned to the seller AFTER the item has been returned to the seller. VERY safe for everyone concerned. AND, it only about $10.00 for this service.,

If you are going to invest in pm's make sure you know the percentages of the karat marking and also how to test for gold. It is agreed among the professionals that the current crop of "gold testers are crap and don't return reliable results.

[Ubetit]

Right now all I have is bullion but I need to pick up some Junk Silver coins too. If I go to barter for something that's $5 and all I have are 1oz rounds valued at $30oz, it's not going to do me a whole lot of good.

[Smithy]

http://www.belleaircoins.com/arts-le...recious-metals


This is a great article on testing precious metals.

[SeaHawkDriver-B]

Smithy, I buy mostly sealed monster boxes, which are supposedly straight from a mint, either US, canada, Austrailia, etc. Do you think I should test metals out of a monster box?