Buying Gold or other precious metals

[Hoji]

 

[Tnhawk]

During my working years I purchased some silver and gold but most of my precious metals investment was made in lead, 9mm, 45acp, 556.

 

[SA_Steve]

Friend of mine put a lot of money into physical gold (1 oz coins). This was almost 40 years ago and he did well on the appreciation (and ability to hide his money from several pending lawsuits). But he got killed on the spread converting back to cash. He used several dealers in Houston over the past 10 years, not by choice, somehow they kept going out of business. If SHTF will there be any buyers ?

 

[Tex929rr]

Friend of mine put a lot of money into physical gold (1 oz coins). This was almost 40 years ago and he did well on the appreciation (and ability to hide his money from several pending lawsuits). But he got killed on the spread converting back to cash. He used several dealers in Houston over the past 10 years, not by choice, somehow they kept going out of business.

Even though we have a fair amount (at least as I see it) of physical silver I never thought about how I could sell it. I always figured distribution to heirs (or whoever) when we get to the appropriate age.

 

[TheDan]

Help out a precious metals investor dummy to check my logic please:

- From what I’ve gathered, the market value of precious metal coinage is the numismatic value and is way more then the spot price value of the precious metal weight. Therefore one who invests in such coinage does so without consideration of SHTF because I expect when/if SHTF happens the market value of such coinage would immediately drop to near the spot price value.

- When investing in bullion/bars/etc, the market value is still higher than the spot price, sometimes considerably higher but still much nearer the spot price than numismatic coinage. Therefore investing in such bullion makes far more sense for someone considering SHTF.

- Without consideration of SHTF one can expect the market value of coinage to stay fairly stable, while the market value of bullion can vary far more. For example, if Africa digs up their supposed huge tonnage of gold, one can expect the market value of bullion to plummet, while the coinage market value would remain steady.

- How does one purchase bullion/bars/etc nearer the spot price?

School me please.

Numismatic value only applies to collectible coins. If you're a seasoned collector you can make out well trading them. I find the historical provenance of collectibles interesting, but don't really understand why they command the price they do. I'll leave that game to the collectors to sort out.

Spot is the the price of contacts on the exchanges. It's possible these contracts can be delivered and loaded out, so the spot price does influence the physical market, but often the metals in those contracts are never loaded out. If fact, the exchange can just call an oopsie and pay out the currency value of a contract if they don't want to (or can't) deliver.

The spread between spot and physical prices is partially the logistical overhead of dealing with a physical product, but it more accurately reflects actual supply and demand. It usually tracks pretty close, but occasionally you'll see spot crash as a large number of contracts sell off. That has no effect on the actual supply of physical so the prices don't change at your local coin shop. The coin shop might even raise prices because because demand usually shoots up in those scenarios.

If you want to get PMs as close to spot as possible, you'll have to bid on a futures contract, and then go through the rigamarole of delivery and load out. I'm assuming you're not an accredited investor registered with an exchange, so you'll have to go through a broker and pay their fee. You'll also have to pay Brinks to pick it up for you because they won't let you just walk into the depository to collect what you already paid for. I'm sure the depository will start charging a storage fee as soon as you notify them you intend to load out, too.

 

[Grumps21]

I shopped some metals today from sellers I’ve never bought from before (Provident Metals, APMEX) but backed out of the sale because they use a service called Plaid that requires the buyer to provide login information for their bank in order to do an echeck. Does anybody here use that service? I don’t see how that would ever be a good idea. The sellers I typically deal with just require me provide routing number and acct#

 

[ZX9RCAM]

I shopped some metals today from sellers I’ve never bought from before (Provident Metals, APMEX) but backed out of the sale because they use a service called Plaid that requires the buyer to provide login information for their bank in order to do an echeck. Does anybody here use that service? I don’t see how that would ever be a good idea. The sellers I typically deal with just require me provide routing number and acct#

I've only used APMEX.
I always sent in a check because I was patient enough to wait.

 

[Grumps21]

I've only used APMEX.
I always sent in a check because I was patient enough to wait.

I suppose that’s what I’ll need to do then..

 

[rotor]

I have some numismatic coins because I like them, not for making money. To me, and I may be way off, precious metals are like crypto except crypto is easier to store and move. Neither is dependable for me. Primers may be a better investment.

 

[TheDan]

I shopped some metals today from sellers I’ve never bought from before (Provident Metals, APMEX) but backed out of the sale because they use a service called Plaid

I've bought from both of those places before. I don't recall if I used Plaid with them, but I've definitely used that service before. Low risk for me because my personal checking account is always empty unless I'm in the middle of buying something or paying bills

 

[gll]

Gold seems to be making a move upward, passing historical highs...

$2067 moments ago.

 

[OutlawStar]

Gold seems to be making a move upward, passing historical highs...

$2067 moments ago.

Yeah but who's buying?

 

[gll]

Not me... not selling either! Just noting a potential run, most like by big national players like China and Russia.

 

[perfor8]

Yeah but who's buying?

Everyone who wants Au at $2067.

 

[gll]

Everyone who wants Au at $2067.

That could be anyone holding lots of dollars...

 

[OutlawStar]

Not me... not selling either! Just noting a potential run, most like by big national players like China and Russia.

Probably repeating myself from earlier in the thread but that seems to be how PM "investing" goes. Lots of people talking about how good it is keeping up with inflation, it always holds its value, yadda yadda but nobody ever seems to be buying or selling it in reasonable quantities. Its always trillion dollar banks or entire countries buying it by the tons. I'd almost bet a donut if I put up 100 ounces of silver in TGT's classifieds at spot price (varying bars from 1 to 10ozt) nobody would buy in the next month. I only have 1 oz of gold I'd part with and that too I think would be a tough sell.

 

[Gordo]

And if you have an emergency, and absolutely have to dump some, expect a return of 25 cents on the dollar...

 

[OutlawStar]

And if you have an emergency, and absolutely have to dump some, expect a return of 25 cents on the dollar...

Close: in casual conversation I've talked to 3 pawn shops and its usually $1-2 under spot cash today is better than shipping it to apmex, or waiting on a forum classified. I still have regret being in the black with my PMs.

 

[kbaxter60]

That could be anyone holding lots of dollars...

Joe, Hunter, Xi, Zelenskyy

 

[AlteisenMkII]

I do keep some silver. I heard some people barter silver bullion for all kinds of things like barbecue pits and other utilities. However collectable silver is harder to move than stuff like Silver Maples and Britannias even generics so I had been told.