I have some very basic questions.

28$ an ounce today…good buy? Let it drop to 22’ish? Is there a sweet spot?

Are people tinfoil chatting saying 1000$ an ounce some day? That seems a little doomsday. I’d prefer to just keep it in the realm of part of an investment. Is the overall outlook for the next 10-20 years positive?

https://www.longtermtrends.net...-vs-gold-comparison/

The link is to a long term comparison with diversified stocks, gold & silver.

My opinion is one should be diversified, nothing wrong with a ‘portion’ in precious metals. One could ‘play the trend’ if there was an interest.

I can think about more valuable items than bars of gold or silver should chaos take over.

Of course it’s always easy to look back and think how you could have potentially made great gains.

Thanks for the link! Really shows the difference.

Apmex has a decent graph of price. I was thinking like you. Should have pulled the trigger mid February I think.

https://www.apmex.com/silver-price

If you're expecting a pullback, yeah, it will probably happens, that's usually how these things go, like 2020, silver just tapped on $30's door, it's been on a roller coaster since then with premium swings and supply/variety limitations. Late last fall there was low premiums and Eagles were finally the better buy. Try to save up the dry powder and take advantage of the dips to dollar cost average. Considering how important silver is strategically, $28 is still a good buy depending on premiums. The next 10-20 years is positive but guaranteed to be a bumpy road.

$1000 silver? As they say, you probably won't like living in that world. It's more a play on the golver/silver ratio. Silver will lag gold but eventually out preform. Gold is getting a little pricey so silver demand will increase. I like SD Bullion and Scottsdale Mint offerings most of the time.

I believe the silver market is highly manipulated on the short term. Very volatile! I do own about 10% of my portfolio as silver (PSLV).

Physical silver is less volatile because you pay a premium, which seems to smooth out the bottom line purchase cost a bit. But you do lose a sizeable % due to the premium. For shtf zombie scenarios, physical silver is worth it.

For pure profit investing, I am satisfied with Sprott PSLV. Other silver funds worry me that they don't actually have the metal fully backing the fund.

I think today $30 is full price, and would look for a dip to buy. But I also think there is significant upside over the next few years.

Metals really are no sure thing any more than any other investment class. Dollar cost averaging makes sense to me. Just like I would not go big into any sector of stocks (tech, energy, medical, transportation, banks, etc), I would not go big into silver all in one gulp. Define your timeline and why you're buying it, too.

One nice aspect is it can be very private to buy and sell physical silver and gold.

I wouldn’t call myself truly educated in precious metals. That said, I think of them more as a hedge against inflation than an investment.

If you think that the borrowing that the Federal Government is doing has to result in inflation and/or loss of value of the US dollar, then parking some single digit percentage of your assets in physical precious metals held by you may help you sleep more comfortably at night.

I say physical precious metals held by you as any “paper gold” or “paper silver” has counterparty risk that may not be easy to quantify / evaluate. There are storage vaults, and maybe at some level that might be the way to go, but you would want to choose someone who keeps “your stuff” segregated and identified, not someone who ”has a big pile over there and some of it is yours.”

Go for it. Been buying and selling silver and gold since the 70's. Email in profile.

quote:

Originally posted by pace40:
Go for it. Been buying and selling silver and gold since the 70's. Email in profile.

My point is, precious metals 70’s until now, compared to the S&P 500, was it a better investment?

quote:

Originally posted by sourdough44:

quote:

Originally posted by pace40:
Go for it. Been buying and selling silver and gold since the 70's. Email in profile.

My point is, precious metals 70’s until now, compared to the S&P 500, was it a better investment?

The numbers don’t lie SD, I agree there, but I think having a little bit serves a good purpose. At least that’s what I’m trying to confirm, I don’t know enough yet to trust that thinking. I’ve got my TSP heading in the right directions for retirement.

I was thinking it would be better to have silver instead of cash in the safe.

I’m in no danger of becoming big time in this, just don’t wanna waste money.

quote:

Originally posted by sourdough44:

quote:

Originally posted by pace40:
Go for it. Been buying and selling silver and gold since the 70's. Email in profile.

My point is, precious metals 70’s until now, compared to the S&P 500, was it a better investment?

I don't consider silver and gold an investment, merely a place to park cash that would otherwise be spent unnecessarily. Indexed funds were my go-to investment and seemed to do better but that included dividend reinvesting. Never really broke it out head-to-head. I'm sure one of the internet gurus has though.

If you want a local shop with a long history check out Golden Eagle coin in Laurel. They are pretty good folks and can get you started out.

Once you figure some things out check Vermillion Enterprises on youtube, they are running some great deals one or two times a week and will ship (they are in FL).

Andy has managed to maintain sanity these last 4 years, as well as Chris. His favorite analogy of floating down an unknown river that is slowly going faster, "little by little by little then all at once" is starting to manifest. Stacking takes time and patience. Buy what you like for the lowest premium possible. It's crazy how old vintage bars from Engelhardt are becoming collectible.

I started small. Just some dime rolls. Then added quarters. Then silver dollars. Now some bars.

Bars are cheaper for just silver. Google Walmart silver coins. The price is not horrible

Since gold is not a form working capital as far as I know, it seems the point of gold is to use as a temporary hedge to minimize anticipated losses in other investments known to be heading down.

And if it's not working capital, how can it possibly be an investment if it can't be used as a factor of production ?

Is that about right ?

When people ask about a good gun forum, I tell them about SIGforum. When people ask about precious metals, I tell them about goldtentoasis.com I have been a member there, and in its earlier incarnations, since 2003. There are friendly and knowledgeable people there as there are here, albeit quite a lot fewer, at least as regular posters. Also like here, they talk about other things besides precious metals and the markets. It's a good place. My email is not listed in my profile, but I'll send you an email if you want to talk about it and/or my take on pm's.

I got in in march of 2023. Silver acquisition was about $28 with the premium, gold was around 2k with premium. I have been adding incrementally when stocks surged. I have been able to find some local purchases of 20 oz tubes on reputable forums like this one for between $20 and $25/ oz.

I do not have a significant percentage of my portfolio in metals, somewhere around .5% at present. For me, it's a hedge in a diverse portfolio. 22lr will be a very valuable commodity if SHTF ever happens.

I should have entered in December of 2015, but I was waiting for prices to drop (and an inheritance to settle).

Gold and silver manipulated? What? The Friday smack down to keep gold below 2400 and silver below 30. Who knows what Monday will bring. Main reason I try to avoid obtaining metals on the weekends.

I look at metals as insurance and inflation hedge. Not an investment. Doesn’t pay a dividend, has no ‘earnings’ I already had a gun safe so it’s not costing much extra to store it but some folks may need to pay for vaults /safety deposit boxes. And generally the commission to buy or sell is terrible compared to most any online broker for stocks/mutual funds. You will rarely be able to buy and sell for spot price.

I do like to hold it and look at it up close but otherwise I have physical metals as a single digit percentage of my net worth. I do have a small bit of money in a miners/producers stock mutual fund as well.

It’s insurance against inflation. More really hyper inflation. Some people like Dave Ramsey really poo poo it. I’d posit that his investment advice of debt free real estate is very similar except costs money even if not productive

In next 5-10 years my prediction is gold 3k and silver back to $50 at least. Sooner if FJB wins. If DJT wins it will just take longer.

US fold and maybe a few other counties bullion coins are legal to put in IRA but I’m pretty sure you can’t have physical posession of it in an IRA. IRA company must hold it.

Been buying off and on since late 90’s. Wish I had bought as much as possible back then. I buy mostly US eagles silver and fractional gold. But some of the online retailers will have specials with very low premiums over spot for foreign so sometimes I will buy foreign. US, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Britain and Austria are the countries I will buy. I like the Chinese coin designs artwork but don’t buy from CCP on principal whenever I can avoid it. Never have seen good prices on Mexican.

Lastly it doesn’t degrade and is can be easily divided. Silver will tarnish but an ounce is an ounce. And you really need to try hard to destroy it. Ship wrecks hundreds of years old are found and the gold is as good as the day it went down.

This country is adding 1 Trillion in debt roughly every 100 days right now. I don’t see that trend reversing or even really slowing down.