Does J6P have any gold/silver left?
Weiss
Posts: 9,941 ✭✭✭✭✭
The 1980s run-up saw people emptying out their silverware drawers and selling class rings, grandma's coffee can coin collection, grandpa's 33rd degree lapel pin.
I know: I was there. I was all of 12 in 1980, but I was already buying and selling gold and silver. I talked my parents through their own drawer siftings, advised them what was worth selling, what was worth keeping, and the only place in town I'd let them take their stuff to be sold (there were gold buyers on every corner).
Silver had been circulating just 10 years prior (40% halves). People still asked for and received real silverware and candlesticks for wedding presents. Silver American Indian jewelry had been a huge fad a few years before. People still wore class rings, and ID bracelets were making a come back.
But that was 30+ years ago.
Silver has been out of circulation for a lifetime. Nobody asks for or even wants silverware. The few kids who bother to get class rings buy Lustrium (non-PM junk), or would you believe it, "Solaris Elite"--a 6k gold offered by Jostens. And they pay out the nose for it.
Maybe more importantly, older people who had PMs in one form or another probably sold them during the 1980s run-up and probably didn't replace what they had. Add to that the fact that the economy has been bad for people for a few years now while metals have risen. So it stands to reason anyone who had anything left who was going to sell has probably already sold by this point.
My own anecdotal experience says that the metals didn't come out of the woodwork at $1200 & $25--and that was with people hurting financially.
So are the J6Ps holding on for higher prices, or is it just that they don't have anything left?
I know: I was there. I was all of 12 in 1980, but I was already buying and selling gold and silver. I talked my parents through their own drawer siftings, advised them what was worth selling, what was worth keeping, and the only place in town I'd let them take their stuff to be sold (there were gold buyers on every corner).
Silver had been circulating just 10 years prior (40% halves). People still asked for and received real silverware and candlesticks for wedding presents. Silver American Indian jewelry had been a huge fad a few years before. People still wore class rings, and ID bracelets were making a come back.
But that was 30+ years ago.
Silver has been out of circulation for a lifetime. Nobody asks for or even wants silverware. The few kids who bother to get class rings buy Lustrium (non-PM junk), or would you believe it, "Solaris Elite"--a 6k gold offered by Jostens. And they pay out the nose for it.
Maybe more importantly, older people who had PMs in one form or another probably sold them during the 1980s run-up and probably didn't replace what they had. Add to that the fact that the economy has been bad for people for a few years now while metals have risen. So it stands to reason anyone who had anything left who was going to sell has probably already sold by this point.
My own anecdotal experience says that the metals didn't come out of the woodwork at $1200 & $25--and that was with people hurting financially.
So are the J6Ps holding on for higher prices, or is it just that they don't have anything left?
We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.
--Severian the Lame
--Severian the Lame
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Comments
<< <i>Judging by the bullion sales on eBay and Bullion dealers....I would say J6P is buying & selling PM's by the truck load. >>
I hear what you're saying. But again, just from my own experience: I don't see a statistically significant percent of non-bullion people buying. Maybe a few here and there. A venue like eBay or this PM forum can twist perceptions by making it seem the norm. I don't feel that's the case.
I would wager the number of people who are hurting financially and who need to sell what metals they have is an order of magnitude greater than the same type of people (that is, non PM geeks like us) who have the knowledge, interest, and $$ to buy PMs right now.
--Severian the Lame
<< <i>
<< <i>Judging by the bullion sales on eBay and Bullion dealers....I would say J6P is buying & selling PM's by the truck load. >>
I hear what you're saying. But again, just from my own experience: I don't see a statistically significant percent of non-bullion people buying. Maybe a few here and there. A venue like eBay or this PM forum can twist perceptions by making it seem the norm. I don't feel that's the case.
I would wager the number of people who are hurting financially and who need to sell what metals they have is an order of magnitude greater than the same type of people (that is, non PM geeks like us) who have the knowledge, interest, and $$ to buy PMs right now. >>
Your assessment might be overblown somewhat. Even if 20% of the population is hurting, there is still 80% that is not.
And the youngest of them? (18-30) They basically have no idea what a PM is and why someone would want to have any (other than for jewelry). They will put a silver quarter in the junk food machine without a thought - they don't even recognize it. They come to me & ask "why didn't the machine take my quarter".
<< <i>I interact with about 75 people at my workplace. A mix of ages. I'm known to have coin knowledge, so people bring me wheat cents, foreign coins, etc they find in change for evaluation. About once a year someone finds a silver dime or quarter and sells it to me. I don't believe ANY of these people have a stash of PM's. If they came into some, I think all of them would just sell it. They could care less, they just would want the greenbacks.
And the youngest of them? (18-30) They basically have no idea what a PM is and why someone would want to have any (other than for jewelry). They will put a silver quarter in the junk food machine without a thought - they don't even recognize it. They come to me & ask "why didn't the machine take my quarter". >>
Must be the baby boomers who are doing all the buying & selling.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
roadrunner
Of course, that was the day when the middle class housewife stayed home and polished same, and/or had a maid to do that.
A function of the quietly eroding economy is that this tradition is no more. Wives have gone to work, few have that sort of "polishing" leisure or inclination, and people sold their silver during the 70s boom, or for peanuts since, because no one (until this latest silver boom) wanted it.
This was the middle class's investment in PM heretofore. Now, it's reduced to wedding bands.
Here's a warning parable for coin collectors...
<< <i>In my parents/grandparents generation, silverware and a silver set was de rigueur; it was a dowrey, that became tradition.
Of course, that was the day when the middle class housewife stayed home and polished same, and/or had a maid to do that.
A function of the quietly eroding economy is that this tradition is no more. Wives have gone to work, few have that sort of "polishing" leisure or inclination, and people sold their silver during the 70s boom, or for peanuts since, because no one (until this latest silver boom) wanted it.
This was the middle class's investment in PM heretofore. Now, it's reduced to wedding bands. >>
I am trying to quietly buck the trend. My wife and myself grew up in families that could not afford real silver sets and silverware.
These days I buy her sterling items as gifts. Since my business brings in enough cash she does not have to work, and she likes polishing silverware.
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/gold/liberty-head-2-1-gold-major-sets/liberty-head-2-1-gold-basic-set-circulation-strikes-1840-1907-cac/alltimeset/268163
aint over yet. In the future, that 80%,will be getting some hurt
on them.
Camelot
aint over yet. In the future, that 80%,will be getting some hurt
on them.
Camelot
No. But they do have a ton of widescreen TVs, digital cameras and iphones.
I understand some of these products have silver in them though.