Are You Buying?

From what you are saying, it is likely that he is waiting for a customer to come along who does not know much about silver prices so he can back out of his high priced inventory. OK, that may be a viable business strategy but I am willing to bet that he has long-time customers who do not get this same treatment. OTOH, if he treats all of his customers this way, he may not have any long-term customers.

Good plan on your part to walk, though. There are plenty of places selling silver for less than he charges.

Gold is still way too rich for my blood (except for the small number of historical coins I purchased for my collection when prices dipped to around $1600 earlier this month). I have purchased a fair amount of silver in recent months, however -- mostly in the form of AU Morgan and Peace dollars, but also some 40% Eisenhowers and Bicentennial sets.

The problem is that I really haven't purchased enough silver to make much of a difference in the long run. I mean, let's say I have $5000 worth of silver that I purchased at $30-40/oz. If prices some day go up to $50-60, I could double my money. But we're only talking about $10,000. Not really enough to fund my son's college tuition, retire comfortably, or even buy a new car. In order to make it worthwhile, I'd really need to buy something like $100K in silver. I'm not even sure where I'd store all that even if I had the money to buy it.

And yet...

I keep hearing about how we may be nearing peak silver, that silver -- unlike gold -- is an industrial metal, and that we may be looking at price ranges in the $100-1000/oz range some time in the next 5-10 years. Maybe. Possibly. If this is true, though, the $5000 of silver I have today could be worth $50,000-$100,000 in 10 years, and suddenly we're talking real money here.

I'm still not prepared to mortgage the house and buy a literal ton of silver, but after talking it over with my wife I think I will continue to keep buying a little here and a little there. Maybe a few hundred dollar's worth every month or so. The only question is whether I want to keep buying coins (I am first and foremost a collector, after all) or whether I want to really buy into the whole "silver will be the new gold" mantra and just start buying either pure bullion or scrap silver coins. Obviously, bullion or scrap silver would provide the best return on investment if silver prices do skyrocket, but I just get no joy holding a lump of silver in my hand or staring at a worn, damaged coin. Looking at a prooflike Morgan, on the other hand...

Maybe I should have made myself a bit more clear...




That was just an example of the type of dollar amounts involved and what I could reasonably expect in a best-case scenario. In fact, my son's college education is fully funded and I'm looking to invest some of the "extra" money we have been saving toward retirement 20+ years down the line.




Oh -- I agree 100%. That's why I was talking about spending a few hundred every month or so as opposed to buying $50K of silver at once.




That has certainly been the conventional wisdom in the past. I'm not so sure it really holds true these days, however. I've know too many people who have had their entire retirement funds disappear overnight multiple times over the last 10 years or so to put much faith in the market right now.




Again, I agree 100% that buying PMs is a bad way to make a fast buck or become very rich. My point, though, was that if people are right about peak silver being around the corner (and I really have no idea if they are or not), then buying a significant amount of silver over the next 4-5 years may very well be a wise move after all. In hindsight (isn't it wonderful), I wish I had bought $50K of silver back when it was $4-5/oz and could sell it now for $400-500K. And if silver really does explode and hit $500/oz in 10-20 years, I'll really wish I had stockpiled it back when it was "only" $30-40/oz. The real question is simply how likely that scenario is.




Again, total agreement. At most, I am talking about diverting a portion of the money we normally put into savings every month into silver. The rest would still go into savings and we wouldn't be touching any existing assets. And we're looking for profits 10-20 years down the line, so no instant road to wealth for us, that's for sure! I figure at worst, we'll end up with slightly less savings than we otherwise would have had when it comes time to retire along with a whole bunch of useless (albeit pretty) metal. At best, we'll have a really nice supplement to our retirement income (or something really nice to pass along to our son).

Sounds good to me... but... knowing your kids, do you think that they will keep these or cash'em in ASAP?



OTOH, it is the result that matters and that seems to be just fine.

I've started buying silver again yesterday and this morning. Mostly rolls of BU coins such as Kennedy and Franklin halves. Silver has dropped over $2 per ounce since yesterday morning, so I'm watching the market and every time it dips back down I buy a little more as a hedge against it going back up again in a hurry.

Yes and that's the reason we all buy with different intentions. Actually in the summer and spring when silcer was high just before the proofs were taken off the mint website I did buy some basically at the 'junk' price but I had proofs. It seems to me we are in very unstable times so silver and gold are good investments in my opinion. I also think nickels are worth having a few hundred dollars of just for when they are finally debased. No loss on those buy at face and if they appreciate due to all metals prices going up great, if not spend and no premium over face

That would be a good assumption, IMO. A $100 bill from 1960 is still worth $100 today but $100 doesn't buy today nearly what it did back in 1960. 100 US silver dollars from 1960, however, are now worth around $2500 in paper dollars.