Reasons for PM accumulation

Cladiator

So what are the reasons one might purchase precious metals in quantity and what might be the most appropriate type/size of precious metal to purchase for each category? I've listed a few below. Add on, make corrections, etc...


Pure collecting interest - Any type/size combination
Long term investment - Gold or silver? , Probably best in large sized units
Short term flipping investment - Gold or silver?, Large or medium or small sized units?
Storage of weath / Hedge against inflation - Gold or silver? , Probably best in large sized units
Shit hits the fan / End of the world scenario - Gold or silver? , Probably best in small and medium sized units


To clarify, for the purposes of this thread:

Large sized units = Gold over 1oz ~ Silver 50oz and above
Medium sized units = Gold 1/5oz to 1oz ~ Silver 10oz to 1kg
Small sized units = Gold below 1/5oz ~ Silver below 10oz

Weiss

I'm sorry, what hits the fan?

mhammerman

OK, always good to get perspective on the various strategies folk are using.

Edited to add For Collecting: I love classic US gold and after that is just other stuff.

Quantity and size of accumulation: Smaller is better for barter, small trades, and particularly for inconspicuous holding. Here is where silver has a negative because it just takes so much to do any good and who wants to be carrying around a hundred oz bar much less a kilo bar...the darn things are heavy. Fractional gold sells for so much of a premium that this is a neg for small gold so it's a damned if you do and damned if you don't scenario. I like ASEs for small trades that may occur if there is a financial situation where it is used for goods because everyone knows what they are, they are not of too high a value for someone to chase you down for them and they are easy to get and they come in these very convenient 20 coin tubes that are cool and store nicely.

Long term investment: Silver has more upside but gold is always good. I like tubes of ASEs and classic gold coinage because the ASE's are under valued and the classic gold coins have a chance at appreciating but at worst, they hold their prices well. Either one should be a good long term physical investment.

Short term flipping...nah, not what I do.

Storage of wealth/hedge: The yellow metal in ozers because of the convenience of storage and the liquidity.

SHTF or TEOTWAWKI: Hard to tell, you can be prepared but for what...we don't know what it will be. Will it be Mel Gibson and post nuclear civilization or will it be bands of looters or will it just be some kind of post industrialization Orwellian situation. It's just hard to prepare for any of those things. They say you can't eat gold but you can't eat a house or a pair of shoes either so maybe the gold and silver will be useless but it seems to me that small denominational gold or silver certainly can't be a bad thing to be holding like pre 65 US coinage or little pamp bars coated with lead or maybe some smaller fractional gold that can fit in your shoe.

What about you Clad?

Weiss

Pure collecting interest - smaller units are more interesting and varied
Long term investment - smaller units benefit from the same things larger units do
Short term flipping investment - smaller units are more widely collected and are therefore more widely sought
Storage of weath / Hedge against inflation - smaller units are more liquid
Sh*t hits the fan / End of the world scenario - smaller units are more easily divisible and are therefore more desirable

There are exactly two scenarios where large units win, and I'd love to hear if someone can think of any others:
A) They're cool as hell. No denying it. For pure show-and-tell, attention whore (and I count myself as one) bang for the buck. That shouldn't be discounted--people pay hundreds of thousands for a Ferrari or Bentley--or a 1913 V-nickel.

You're richer than god. Your time is so valuable that messing around with 1 or 10-oz bars of silver or fractionals of gold, no matter how many you have, just doesn't make financial sense. You want to buy $100k or $1M worth of gold, you want kilo bars or even 400 ozers.

Coll3ctor

<< <i>I'm sorry, what hits the fan? >>





PooP

rgCoinGuy

On the flipping example, there is a point where small size doesn't make sense if you are using ebay or some other forum that has costs.

As a unit, perhaps medium or large would be better. In real dollars, I prefer my auctions to be around 100.00 per auction on ebay, at a minimum if I am trying to flip something for profit. Others may have different strategies, of course.

I like the ALL OF THE ABOVE approach myself for my personal accumulation. I need to start buying 90% in dimes and quarters, that is where I have not really started building anything up yet.

cars

<< <i>I'm sorry, what hits the fan? >>





I Use to "Collect" Bullion and still do on a small scale. I've sold most of that stuff and now plan to use bullion as a savings account/a way to store wealth. I plan to purchase bullion when I have extra cash and sell only when I need some green backs. I've found it near impossible to flip physical bullion for a profit unless you can find collectible ingots for sale at normal bullion prices.