Interesting Day At The Old Coin Shop

I never liked those guys. Nay saying is just too easy. It's a lot like the guys who never played the game but somehow "know" all about it. Not.

FWIW, I agree with you, Junior. Steadily buying even small amounts over time is the way to build up your own personal PM hoard.

My silver collection is small but growing slowly. My interest in PMs goaded me into investing some IRA money in the silver ETF (SIVR). So far, that is working pretty well. Also bought some shares of the copper producer Freeport-McMoran (FCX). They also produce some gold as a by-product from their copper operations. It is up nicely this week as well.

Silver is showing remarkable strength in the market these days. Percentage wise it is up WAY more than gold or the other PMs. It looks as if it has some room to run as well. If it were to go to that silver:gold ratio of 16:1 that everyone talks about and gold were at $1600/oz., we would have $100/oz. silver. It could go beyond that, though, because the world-wide demand is high and production is not keeping up with it.

agreed.....also still buying silver here and there (when I can afford to)...but if prices even hit 75-80 I may have to sell a lot of it....thats a nice profit in a very short time......but odds are if silver were to fall back to the 40's or 50's id end up buying back in haha just as explained by junior I'm all for stickin it to the MAN since he is so often sticken it to us and us not being able to do anything......BOUT TIME WE STAND UP!

Makes sense, sort of an informed gamble. Do you take some of your disposable income to the silver dealer each week, buy a bit each time? Or, are you going to take a big hunk of your savings, or your 401(k), and take the plunge? Just curious, sounds tempting when you describe it that way...

I just don't see it. There really isn't a good explanation for the current price of silver.
Production is soaring. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:S...n_trend.svg)

Uses in photography and the medical industry, which accounted for almost 30% of the market a few years ago, have dropped to almost zero.

So, production is up, useful applications are down. Where is the demand coming from?
I say it is global fear of the current and continuing recession. As soon as consumers have confidence in the market, the silver bubble will burst.

That is a big "as soon as." A number of things need to line up for that to happen, and it won't be overnight. There is still worthless paper to be made investing in PMs. My 4 cents (inflation, thoughts cost more).

@junior_e: At what point does silver stop being the poor man's metal? What should an ounce actually cost, in other words? It all depends on the person, like you say you'd be happy with $100. For others it may be lower.

So junior_e, what are your thoughts on gold? For gold and silver are tied to the Federal Reserve, yet gold is at a high and still poking higher. Which one is in a bubble? Or are they both, or none? I think the solution is we have to stop thinking in terms of dollars and think in terms of ounces and tons of real things.

junior e
Very Well Put in your original post

I feel that silver is not in a bubble. The reasons behind that
feeling are as numerous as one can imagine.
Silver has been artificially manipulated down for decades
that is no longer just a theory it is a matter of fact.
(Proof of JP Morgan price suppression scheme coming to light
in March of 2010).
China becoming one of the largest importers of silver and gold
on the planet after decades of being a major exporter of gold.
And actually pushing their population to purchase gold and silver
This being a communist country where usual communist goals
are to keep the people from building ANY kind of wealth.
Today we have the ability to very easily communicate with each other
about these topics with people from around the planet.
and research all of them on our own. Whereas back in the 70's and 80's information only came from the nightly news and magazines
and hanging out at the local coin shop.
There has been a fundamental shift in the way and the shear amount
of information available to people and the speed in which
subjects are communicated. The do not have a monopoly
on information to shape opinions anymore.
Example: Tunisia,Egypt,Libya. Heck the whole Middle East
There are a number of States here that have voted in the use of
gold and silver as money again.
Yes silver production may be up but I do not think they have ramped
up to the point of re-supplying the planet yet.
every one of those little gadgets we carry around and can not
live with out (Cell Phones, I-pads, and the like) have a small amount
of silver in them that at current prices makes it un-recoverable
and it ends up in land fills and is gone. There is a story going
around that there is up to 500 ounces of silver in every
Tomohawk Missile, Not sure how true it is as to the amount
But even if is 1/10th of that amount it would mean that
there is 50 ounces of silver being blown to bits and unrecoverable
every time we let one of those off the chain.
And when we turn loose Tomohawks we tend to let them loose
in large numbers. And with just the toys we carry and the Tomohawks
we turn loose that is an awful lot of silver being being taken out
of the market to never return. On top of that with what I feel
is a fundamental shift back to gold and silver as money slowly
happening. As evidenced with China's actions along with
some of the States actions here in the U.S.
Not hear say or opinion but actual events taking place
I feel I should put this statement in my signature line
"I don't think silver is in a bubble,
I think it is just racing to find it's historical value
of 16 to 1 ratio with gold"