So it's back to square one for me.
I’m in for the recommendations.
Personally, I always look to Wal-Mart parking lots for all my precious metal buying needs.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2497020/posts
SnakeDoc
A little something I picked up a long time ago. When everyone is buying, sell. When everyone is selling, buy.
Also beware Gold plated tungsten.
There are several mints on the internet where you can buy bullion in coin or bar form. Ebay is also a good place (if you are the winning bidder). Most of the gold and silver on eBay that sells at a “Buy it now” price is over priced.
The mints on the internet usually charge $0.79 to $2.99 over the current spot price of either gold or silver. Sometmes, if you create a userid on their sites, they will also send you emails when they have something on sale.
I watch the spot prices continually and only buy when I sell a good size fall in the price, since the precious metals market can fluctuate by good sized amounts on any given day.
Hope that helps...
also www.tulving.com
assume $40 over spot for American Eagles 1 oz, depending on how many you are buying.
I’m an avid coin collector, and would say buying at a coin show from a reputable dealer US Eagles and Can Maples is your best bet. Always try for a better deal, the dealer paid above spot for the coins so you will pay more per ounce but it isn’t bad. I think a roll of Silver Eagles was $400 last time I checked about a month ago. Gold...Well, Nobody can buy much at these prices, but you can try for 1/10 oz. and 1/4 oz. coins, but they go fast. Also try picking up some Peace and Morgan silver dollars. They are easy to come by, and usually aren’t too expensive.
I also wouldn’t waste my time on slabbed and graded coins unless you are a collector. They look awesome, but you pay a premium and the price of the grading is added on to the top. You won’t get a return if TSHTF.
Small size Silver coins are also good choices, they sell $1000 face bulk US Silver at many shows and they go for a few thousand dollars, but they are the old SILVER Coins not the clad fakes we have now. (Check article 1 section 10 of the Constitution for coin language!)
Coin magazines have some BS Ads in the back, beware!
Online is scary these days, Beware!
I buy from www.royalcoin.com but I live near enough to make the hour drive into that part of Houston. They are a good legit dealer and have been good to me. Otherwise, ask around and you will hear from buyers and sellers who you can trust and who you can’t.
Most coin dealers are old dudes trying to make a living. They make a slim profit if lucky, and horse trade often. Many make money by doing collection values of gradpa’s collection after he is gone for the family.
Good luck.
LOL!
What a coincidence. That happened to me too!
I am not an expert. I bought some silver American Eagles from APEX on line. They delivered it- no problem. I then took to safety deposit box.
Note: Check your homeowners policy- it may have limits on how much is covered if stored at home for things like gold, silver, jewelry, guns, and computers etc. which you may want to increase.
Where are the better places to buy these assets?
With a Large National firm or a local retail outlet?
- You’ll pay a huge premium at local pawn shops, not quite as much at local coin shops, but it’s cash and carry and no paperwork whatsoever. That will be important eventually. For now, I myself like http://www.blanchardonline.com
How much should I buy of Gold and Silver?
- It’d be a fool’s errand to try to find a generally agreed upon balance for silver vs gold. I personally believe that silver will outperform gold going forward. The knock on silver is that it takes a lot of space to store a lot of value, but hey who are we kidding with that — a stack of eight one-ounce Silver Eagles is an inch high and less than two inches wide; it’s worth $144 or about $75 per cubic inch. $150,000 in silver would take 2000 cubic inches which is, as one example, a box 10” x 10” x 20”. Plenty of room for that in a safe.
- Bullion or coins?
I say coins. They’re harder to counterfeit, they’re more cool to look at and to show (trusted) friends, and they’re more readily available.
All IMO.
Search for keyword “gold” to find articles related to gold and silver, and mail me to get onto the Goldbug Ping List.
Goldbug ping: “Questions on the best way of buying Gold and Silver (Vanity)”
Mail me to get on or off the Free Republic Goldbug Ping List.
One thing I’ll reco is to watch/listen to some of the videos on this site www.goldsilver.com = Mike Maloney, for the reasons to buy the various forms. I used to work with Mike, I don’t any longer, nor do I have an affiliation. He explains things pretty well.
Another thing is to peruse a forum. Like this one over on Denninger’s site: http://tickerforum.org/cgi-ticker/akcs-www?forum=Metals
All of your questions have been asked & answered a million times before, that’s why I am not directly answering your questions.
You have to do your own research as to why you wish to own this stuff, and how deeply you want to get into it. I happen to own a lot of silver, but I own about all I want to own and I’m not buying any at present.
A lot of people want to own PMs for misguided reasons. Many people claim that the government is “printing money like crazy”. Well, that’s really not true, even though it is a popular saying. So...if that happens to be your reason for buying PMs, then your reasoning isn’t very sound.
Sources: APMEX, Tulving, CNI = www.golddealer.com or goldline.com. All = excellent, flawless (AFAIK) reputations. Watch your shipping costs. Purchases under $1K are taxable in some states, under $2500 in some other states. The APMEX site is excellent for comparing prices, plus, you can buy late at night when severe price drops have a habit of happening. If you like silver, they probably have 50 differnt forms. ALL of these sites have a lot of educational materials, which I encourage you to absorb.
Jewelry is the safest if you plan to use it for bartering. You can easily break a chain necklace into small pieces. Can’t do that so easily with bullion. Also, if you try to barter with bullion or bars, you’re pretty much advertising that you have gold stockpiled. But, if you pull, say, the wedding band off your finger and use it to but necessities, you look like just another desperate person. No one has to know that you have 5 more identical wedding rings in your pocket :p
Stores that sell jewelry making supplies usually have good prices on chains and bands. Try and get it as close to the market price-per-oz as you can find.
Another way would be to buy it as bullion or whatever, then learn to make it into jewelry. Again, simple wedding bands are easy and inconspicuous to use.
Walk down almost any dark street in any poor section of a major city and tell everyone you see that you’re in the market for some gold and silver—and have the cash on you.
The sellers will find you. Or you may be approached by middlemen who will take your money and promise to return with the goods. Be prepared to wait for several hours.
Some coin and bullion dealers have been showing up at the local shows and have some silver/gold to sell (coins and small ingots).
Another thought: go here www.coinshows.com and if any are reasonably near you, you might blow off a Sat-Sunday afternoon and $2-$3 admission to check out the waters, as it were.
Now this is coins, and if you want bullion, you do NOT want [rare] coins, you want JUNK coins. However, you’ll usually find a bullion dealer or two at a typical coin show. You do NOT want to pay for excellent condition. And above all, do not make the mistake of thinking that one coin can be both numismatic AND bullion: If you melt it down, it is no longer a fine coin. If you put in a display case, it isn’t bullion. One or the other, not both, do not add the values together!
Anyway...the exercise might give you an opening idea of what you’re dealing with, and you might make a contact or two. Coin show buys, you rarely pay sales tax and obviously no freight on small buys and you walk out with goods in your hand...but you DO need to know your values bec you’re not there with your computer.....unless you are mobile.
Worthwhile going to one or two, no question IMHO. Take note of how many gonzillions of silver dollars there are. That never fails to blow my mind.
Here’s a link I heard about just today,
= = =
= = =
here’s one I have known about for a while,