Precious metals vs unopened.

BossierBill · January 23, 2014 7:52AM

With all the talk of unopened as investments lately, it got me to thinking which is a better investment, precious metals or unopened? I think bitcoins have the potential to blow unopened right out of the water. Anyone agree?

Stingray · January 23, 2014 8:19AM

Linky

Downtown1974 · January 23, 2014 8:26AM

Diversify. Put a little metal and unopened in your portfolio.

grote15 · January 23, 2014 9:15AM

Silvers been in the toilet since bubble burst but I'm hoping it will rebound at some point. Miss the days selling circulated silver quarters at 35x face.

WhiteTornado · January 23, 2014 9:51AM

I wouldn't consider Bitcoins and precious metals the same thing. I've read about Bitcoins and understand how they work. I think the whole thing is a pyramid scheme that is going to collapse on itself someday, leaving a lot of Bitcoin holders very unhappy. Just one person's opinion of course. So I don't get too far OT, I'll limit my take to precious metals (such as bullion), versus unopened material.

For me it depends on how much stock you put into a "doomsday" type of economic scenario. If the needle is pointing more towards doomsday, then precious metals. If it's pointing more towards "sunny skies ahead", then unopened should do fairly well.

As Downtown1974 points out, diversity is good and it wouldn't hurt to have a bit of both.

And as grote15 points out, yes, I sure would like to see silver hitting $30+/oz again. I would move some and reinvest in cards.

Southsider · January 23, 2014 10:06AM

Tulips, definitely tulips.

jmmiller777 · January 23, 2014 11:02AM

Bitcoins would be a fun novelty collectible type of hobby. I would not consider putting investment or retirement money in them, not at all. I like unopened 70's and maybe up to mid 80's but this stuff is getting harder to find and is commanding top dollar right now. I'm sure you can pull up a dozen threads discussing this topic with a full range of pros and coms. I don't know enough about the commodities market, but I have purchased 1 oz silver ingots. The swings up and down don't bother me as my holding period is long term.

vols1 · January 23, 2014 11:24AM

Buy Wal-Mart stock. They have the biggest supply of precious metals & unopened cards.

BossierBill · January 23, 2014 11:27AM

I tried the silver market not that long ago, didn't quite work out the way I had planned.

akuracy503 · January 23, 2014 12:45PM

<< I tried the silver market not that long ago, didn't quite work out the way I had planned. >>

If you tried it post mid 2011 then that would not have been a good experiment.
That bandwagon started years before and it was a great run, could not miss.

ndleo · January 23, 2014 1:20PM

Unopened Boxes is a better investment. You don't have a crooked Federal Reserve trying to devalue your investment so more people buy their worthless paper money.

I think I hear the helicopters......

Estil · January 23, 2014 2:59PM

This is most definitely NOT the time to invest in precious medals. They're about as sky high in value as they can get already, so they don't have much room to go anywhere but down.

Remember the fundamental theorem of investing: Buy low, sell high.

As for the whole Bitcoins thing, I only just recently heard about it and well, it just sounds WEIRD.

miklia · January 23, 2014 4:46PM

<< I tried the silver market not that long ago, didn't quite work out the way I had planned. >>

Hah. that's one way to defang a tiger...

I like silver, mostly because it has uses other than wealth storage. bitcoin's not a precious metal, it's a 1999 dot.com stock. And it's the unopened market that's bubbly (all time highs! can only go up from here! justifications of ever-higher prices! echo chamber!). PMs are more post-crash, and might take a while to get interesting again.

Downtown1974 · January 23, 2014 6:45PM

<< I tried the silver market not that long ago, didn't quite work out the way I had planned. >>

Did you sell, or are you just underwater?

vladguerrero · January 23, 2014 9:14PM

monopoly money.

Dpeck100 · January 23, 2014 9:22PM

<< This is most definitely NOT the time to invest in precious medals. They're about as sky high in value as they can get already, so they don't have much room to go anywhere but down.

Remember the fundamental theorem of investing: Buy low, sell high.

As for the whole Bitcoins thing, I only just recently heard about it and well, it just sounds WEIRD. >>

The metals are not even remotely close to their highs. Silver is down nearly 60% from its blow off top in 2011.

Gold is down nearly $650 from its peak.

The cost of production of the major gold miners in many cases is above $1,100 per ounce so there isn't that much downside.

WinPitcher · January 23, 2014 9:38PM

<< I tried the silver market not that long ago, didn't quite work out the way I had planned. >>

It helps to have it on hand when you are selling it.

RookieWax · January 23, 2014 10:44PM

I believe the unopened market in general still has plenty of room to grow. In fact, it is hard to believe that even lesser known, slighty-oddball boxes from the 1970s and 1980s that I used to be able to buy any time I wanted on ebay for pretty cheap are rarely even showing up anymore. And when they do, they sell for 3 or 4 times what I used to typically pay for them.

ReggieCleveland · January 23, 2014 11:13PM

Does anyone know a person that became wealthy investing in sportscards? I don't just mean personally, has anyone ever heard of a person that became wealthy investing in sportscards?

jradke4 · January 23, 2014 11:46PM

<< This is most definitely NOT the time to invest in precious medals. They're about as sky high in value as they can get already, so they don't have much room to go anywhere but down.

Remember the fundamental theorem of investing: Buy low, sell high.

As for the whole Bitcoins thing, I only just recently heard about it and well, it just sounds WEIRD. >>

the time to have invested in gold was the early 80's. i know some one that was accumulating gold coins in the late 70's early 80's. he eventually got his hands on 150. still has them. too bad it wasn't me, but as a 5-8 year old at that time there would have been no chance for me to have purchased them. it was fun to look at them last spring.

mtcards · January 24, 2014 1:48AM

I think silver has a bit of room to grow as it is used in a lot of industries where gold is still mainly a luxury item.

Bitcoins? Not really an investment....I think something tangible will be far superior. Like was said earlier, it has the same type of problems a pyramid scheme does, although not the same...eventually you run out of people to buy them and there just isnt enough use for them and I can guarantee you, when/if it gets a little bigger and starts competing with US currency, the government WILL put an end to it, at least here

ndleo · January 24, 2014 2:09AM

<< Does anyone know a person that became wealthy investing in sportscards? I don't just mean personally, has anyone ever heard of a person that became wealthy investing in sportscards? >>

The only two are Shorin at Topps and McWilliams from Upper Deck. This is an expensive hobby, you need to have a few disposable dollars just to play the game.

Stingray · January 27, 2014 8:01PM

Well if you were not sure about investing in Bitcoins!!

LINKY

bishop · January 27, 2014 8:50PM

<< Does anyone know a person that became wealthy investing in sportscards? I don't just mean personally, has anyone ever heard of a person that became wealthy investing in sportscards? >>

Carlos Slim has said he got his start in business as a kid trading baseball cards, of course he has since gotten into some other stuff

Estil · January 27, 2014 11:15PM

<< I believe the unopened market in general still has plenty of room to grow. In fact, it is hard to believe that even lesser known, slighty-oddball boxes from the 1970s and 1980s that I used to be able to buy any time I wanted on ebay for pretty cheap are rarely even showing up anymore. And when they do, they sell for 3 or 4 times what I used to typically pay for them. >>

THAT I believe is the only true investment worthy material as far as the sports card hobby goes. After all, PSA 10's, 9's, etc can only go up in supply as more and more people send theirs in and "try their luck and hope to hit it big". But with unopened packs and such, that supply can only down over time as more people open the packs (after all look at how much people love doing and watching pack rips here). Of course one must make very sure the packs/boxes/etc are truly unopened and not compromised (like opening and resealing) in any way.

Estil · January 27, 2014 11:18PM

<< Well if you were not sure about investing in Bitcoins!!

LINKY >>

Makes no difference, I thought the whole Bitcoin idea in general just sounded too weird...like that Riddler guy who was on the commercials peddling his gov't grants book.

Wanna know something even more strange? You know all those people that do those online role-playing video games like War of Warcraft and such? Would you believe people will pay REAL money for GAME currency??? I'm not so sure if Feebay allows that anymore but sheesh...

MrNearMint · January 28, 2014 12:21AM

<< Does anyone know a person that became wealthy investing in sportscards? I don't just mean personally, has anyone ever heard of a person that became wealthy investing in sportscards? >>

What about Alan "mr. Mint" Rosen? Has anyone seen his house? It's not a mansion by no means but it's pretty damn nice. But I guess It depends on what your definition of "wealthy" is. Anytime you can pay bills by buying, selling and trading sports cards and memorabilia, then that's pretty cool!

WFFL · January 28, 2014 2:21AM

Buy S & P 500 Index Fund and Index Bond Fund based on your age. Rebalance (buy low, sell high). This will, with patience, be a winner as long as you have a long time frame. If you so want a card buy it with expendable money you have set aside. No secrets. Discipline.

Precious metals vs unopened.

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