Few questions for you experts on investing in Silver and buying silver

mkman123

Hey guys, first time posting, love this forum and like reading it.

I visited a coin store recently and got hooked on gold and silver but I don't have the money to even buy gold (too much for me)

Here are some questions:

1. I want to start investing/collecting and wondered, should I buy silver bars or silver coins? Is there a pro/con? Some people were telling me that the coins may have extra collectible value added onto the silver price.

2. Were do you guys buy your silver from? I've wondered were you could even find 100 oz bars, heck a 1000 oz bar, were do they even sell those things at? I've only been going to the local coin store that sells them. Its always above spot price though as they have to make their profit.

Thank you!

SilverBaron

Greetings and

Since we are invisible to each other on the forum...... 2 questions...

How much per week / month are you thinking about investing?

What state / area are you located?

I only ask so as to taylor my response!

tincup

Invest only the money that you will not need for other items..... so that if the investment goes bad, you will not be in trouble with your day to day expenses, etc.

U.S. 90% coinage is probably the cheapest (lowest premium over spot) silver you will be able to get.... may be able to get it around spot price or so in the right place. A known standard and can be easily bought and sold in multiply venues. And.... as you mentioned..... some of the silver that you purchase as bullion may have some better coins in there!

U.S. Eagles are neat.... but premiums are rather high around $3 above spot. Easily bought and sold, but you have that premium to deal with.

Good luck finding bars at this time! Those are being grabbed up everywhere. By visiting local coin shops, pawn shops, etc.... you may be able to find a few.... if you can beat everyone else to them.

Avoid non name brand silver rounds and bars...... while you can purchase them at a smaller premium over spot but it can be more difficult to sell them.

Oh, and BTW....... welcome to the board!

DorkGirl

mkman123

Hi, thanks for the welcome.

Silver Baron I am in Northern California. I was thinking about perhaps 100 dollars a month investing in silver? So 1-2 ounces a week?

Tincup, I'm only buying a little bit so that it won't affect necessities. I will have to think about perhaps US coinage. I haven't bought any silver bars online just have visited the local coin store and they sell them.
Thanks for your tip on buying non brand name silver.

Dorkgirl -thanks!

RedTiger

For someone on a small budget, I would suggest 90% silver, or even darkside silver. Dealers will charge over melt. Collectors sometimes sell at melt, or for darkside sometimes below. War nickels (1942 to 1945) also sometimes go for less than melt because they are a low grade of silver.

konsole

I'll assume your talking about the rounds. There are reasons why I like both over the other but more so the bars over the rounds.

bars:
1. easier to stack
2. dont need a capsule to store them
3. just feel like a raw form of the metal having just metal content value and no other value
4. dinging and scratching them up seems even less important then on the rounds since they have absolutely no collector value (even though the visual condition of both doesnt matter)

rounds:
1. can have a slight collector premium
2. come in all sorts of interesting designs which can be fun to collect

jmski52

I'd save up the money and only buy periodically in order to get a slightly better deal when you do buy.

One thing I consider is that once I buy something, I like to add to my stash with the same stuff, i.e., if I start with 90% silver, I kinda like to stay with 90% silver, but the silver really doesn't care, so I guess that doesn't matter.

1) 90% is good
2) 1 oz. silver rounds are fine
3) silver eagles are fine, recognizing that a premium is always involved both buying and selling
4) silver bars are fine, if you know that they are legit - major brands preferred
5) rolls of 90% silver on ebay is fine, if you stay within your cost parameters and don't overpay

Whether it's a small amount or a large amount, keep it like a savings plan. The price will fluctuate.

Oh, and welcome!

57loaded

fwiw look at 40% kennedy half dollars and war nickels, if your budget is tight.

the 40% are 1965-1969 and in the bicentennial sets, but most all bicentennials kennedy are clad.

do not go to coinflation to get your melt values or you will be paying too much

go to Apmex and see what their "buy price" is and if you can score somewhere between the buy and sell price you are doing fine at that time.

mkman123

thanks everyone for your suggestions! Gonna think things through.

Now tell me this, what is this Darkside you are talking about? Is that a silver company or ???

Thank you!

fc

<< <i>thanks everyone for your suggestions! Gonna think things through.

Now tell me this, what is this Darkside you are talking about? Is that a silver company or ???

Thank you! >>



darkside is foreign coins.

for example! think about all the canadian silver coins that are out
there that do not get as much respect as US silver. I often see them
for sale for slightly less then US silver yet you can easily look up how
much silver is in each date in price guides.

if it was me, i would start with 90% US silver, like a roll of silver
US washington quarters or .999 fine silver bars, 1, 5 and 10 Oz.
engelhard, J&M, AMPEX, sunshine, etc...

please look over and memorize this website:
coinflation website showing values of junk silver

if you live in an area that has a lot of antique stores... just walk in
and buy every mercury dime you see for 90 cents to a dollar knowing
that is pretty darn good to start with.

mkman123

fc -thanks for the suggestion. I will check the pawn shops and other antique shops. I hope they sell coins cheaply because I know in the past many places like that like to overcharge and want like $5 a coin, etc just because its old.

A pawn shop in my area had some morgans and wanted 25 each. I was like WHAT!!!, I've seen them for 15 each. The pawn shop just wanted to charge more for it.

also thanks for the coinflation website. Very good info.

I think what I might do is get a combination of some 90% silver coins and some bars/rounds.

Greatly appreciate everyones advice!

Bullish

Go with the bars, or eagles! If u can find them! There really easy to get rid of. I'm not in to the 90% stuff, cuz it's not all silver, and don't carry much premium. Just buy a couple of silver eagles, or 1 ounce bars a week

Joflax

Open a Kitco account with $100 per month , Buy silver or gold in their pool account and you can take delivery ( for a small premium) any time that you like

Deadhorse

<< <i>Open a Kitco account with $100 per month , Buy silver or gold in their pool account and you can take delivery ( for a small premium) any time that you like >>



I'd avoid Kitco. They are stiffing people and putting you on hold for months if you want to take delivery,

Right now, avoid nearly all the internet sellers. They don't have the stock, but they will take your money and hang you out to dry for months.

I'd save up for a couple of months and probably look for 10 ounce bars. They are getting rarer but you don't have to have the top brand names, Engelhard or J&M.

The way things are, the generic bars are really a better deal in terms of investment as when silver spot goes back up, and it will, you will see your profit.

People are just charging premiums that are too high for the top names these days. The spreads are higher than normal due to the shortage in all .999 bullion.

You might want to go with 90% melt coins, even those are getting rarer. However, as spot goes up, melt coins don't keep up with .999 bullion.

Stick around here for a while, check the BST board, other members often sell bullion. Take some time and learn what you are getting involved with.