Buying silver, where to start

It depends on the SHTF scenario.
If the other world powers abandon the dollar or everyone is believing a rumor creditable or not and it triggers a massive international dollar sell off it could cause massive inflation.
Then the useful idiots who don't understand how the financial system works all run to the bank and pull out all their money because that's what everyone else is doing. And now the banks are closed, so even if you had money you can't get it.
Here if the 1st or 15th falls on the day before a 3 day weekend you can bet every bank owned ATM in town will be dry by the first day of the 3 day weekend. The only ones that will still have any cash are the privetly owned ones that charge you $10.

The only time PM would be more or less useless is in a total devastation scenario where everything is wiped out like initially after a real bad earth quake, huricane, tsunami or solar flare emp.
Eventually when trade is restored people likely won't want cash.
At least with gold and silver you will have something tangible after SHTF. Which you can't say the same for all that money you had in your bank or 401k.

By any chance do you have buyers remorse because you panic bought silver while it was high and now regret it?
If so lean from it and don't so it again.
You can resell it and will have less to show for it than when you started out.

Realistically you should only be doing large buys of gold and silver at most once a year, or roughly every 2 years when the price is at least a 1 to 2 year low.
For some reason when the price gets high everyone wants to panic buy, human nature I guess.
If you have a good stash built up it will temper the urge to panic buy, hell you may even want to sell like I did when the price shot up.

Unless you like to buy a little each month and generally ignore the market highs and lows, then go for it but I do recommend not buying and holding off for a month or 2 during price spikes when everyone is panic buying.
Then just buy more when the crazy settles back down to a normal level.

 

I'm in the camp of "It's not for SHTF".
PM's are for time of economic uncertainty. Say Hyperinflation, financial crisis caused by say your government demonetizing your bank notes.

One could even use it now as a store of wealth and cash it in if you have an emergency and don't have 'Cash' and need it fast and don't want to go nor can afford to use credit card debt. I'll provide a personal example. I needed to get out of town to be with a dying family member. No cash, maxed out credit card. Called someone in my network that is in the PM trade, grabbed a few rolls of silver, 30 minutes later I've got 600 dollars in my wallet heading out of town.

You can use it to barter with now as long as you have someone willing to take your PM's in trade. Another example would be I was looking for some brass for my 110 year old gun. A monkey here had some, he sent the brass, I sent a shiny American Silver Eagle.

During full-blown societal SHTF, you are going to be at the mercy of the Money Exchangers. You may be able to get a square deal with those willing to barter (those in your network) but probably not with the exchangers. That is when you should barter with trade items (food, fire, water, shelter, your skills) to obtain what you want. PM's should be saved for time when society recovers .. and it might not be in your lifetime .. and should be saved for your kids and grandkids to make a start in the new post-shft economy.

But this is just my opinion, take it for what it's worth to you.

 

Yeah my PM is my savings account now.
Banks only want to deal in electronic fiat money especially for large amounts or fiat cash.
Think of PM as off grid finance.

 

it's like BitCoin without the internet.

 

PMs are a hedge against worthless fiat currencies...nothing more, nothing less. Just like firearms, I'd rather have some and not need it than not have any and need it.

 

Yesterday I went by the place I used to pick up silver from when I was in the neighborhood. The vendor was in the middle of explaining her reason for her pricing to someone offering or explaining the current $17/oz...she had bought some silver (high) so she would have some to sell, not realizing or thinking about the current downward trend. Now she's stuck with $21/oz metal that no one will buy...and asking $24!!!
Some folks just don't get it. Having it to carry wealth through bad times is one thing, but speculating is an easy way to lose value.

 

I couldn't agree more @techsar

The biggest problem with such a generic question is.... there are more important follow up questions.

What is you goal? and what is your exit strategy? What is the trading rang for last 5 years of the pm.

 

Thanks for responding. While I did buy my silver in the 2011 to 2013 range when the price was in the $20-$40 range I definitely don't have buyers remorse for doing so. I'm more of a long term thinker and readily accept that there are up and down cycles. And while it would be great if the value went up I'm not concerned. I bought because I felt it was a good idea to have some PM. My second guessing comes into play with regards to priorities. Like most people I have a limited supply of cash and my preparation is done over time as I can afford to purchase things. I don't regret buying at all but I am wondering if I should have put my priorities elsewhere, that's all.
Obviously hindsight says if I had spent my cash on other things at that time then I could have bought silver now at a lower price. But, on the other hand, I've had a cushion of PM for the last five years that I never had before so I feel good about that. I met someone recently who has about 900 bushels of wheat stored in around1500 5 gallon buckets. His stated purpose for it is to use it for bartering if needed. I hadn't thought of doing that and I can see where that might be a good idea.

 

We all should have plenty of portfolio diversification.
Some people's idea of prepping is to only hord guns and ammo. Then they forget they won't last more than 3 or 4 days once they run out of water.

 

Speaking of silver it looks like it's headed towards a 1 to 2 year low. Time to buy soon.

 

The price is slowly coming down. But silver in small amounts are still running about $20 an ounce to your door even with the trade price around 16 and a half.

 

Yes im thinking about getting more silver now even though my moneys mighty tight. As for my silver 'portfolio' (lol i use that term loosely) it could probably use some smaller amounts like those bullion that breaks into quarters or even the small weight one i think i seen some down to as low as a gram. i don't think a gram of silver worth the cost in my current situation but more junk silver and smaller denominations would be nice. I can feel the itch coming on,lol.

 

Don't buy any silver smaller than an ounce, or you will be paying crazy spot fees.
For example 10 single ounce bars should cost around $190.
If you bought 10 ounces in less than 1 ounce bars you could be paying $250 to $300 for 10toz.

 

The small silver (less than one toz) isn't too bad if you stick with half ounce.
BUT you are going to loose your ass if you buy 5 and 10 gram or quarter ounce.

For example one would be paying $60 an ounce to make 1 ounce out of 5 gram bars when one ounce bars even bought in small quantities can be had for less than $20 each.

 

Silver is treading water at the $16 an ounce mark. I think it could sink a low as 14 to 15 dollars an ounce.
And just maybe 12 an ounce if we are real lucky or unlucky depending on if you're looking to buy or sell.
I think gold will go lower but doubt it will drop below a 1000.

 

That will be spot price. Tough getting any where near spot. Demand is to high .. and so are the premiums.

 

I have found a few sellers on ebay selling silver with 0 or near 0 spot fees.
A pretty good indication that the dealers are sitting on piles they paid around 16 an ounce or more for and are worried it will go lower.

Demand can't be that high because apmex for example had secondary market bars available in fractional, 1, 5, 10, kilo 50 and 100 ounce which I can't remember the last time I have seen that much secondary market selection. I always buy secondary market from them if they have it and they usually dont.
Of course apmex is charging about a dollar an ounce over spot, because they are apmex and many people will gladly pay a extra dollar an ounce to get the real deal from them.

 

All the 1 and 10 ounce sunshine mint silver on ebay that was going for just about 0 over spot is gone.
Then the price fell another 25 cents.

 

This is a great thread, and exactly what I was looking for. I've been considering the option of buying gold and silver, and also started looking into the world of crypto currencies. This has been most helpful, thanks.

 

Hold off on buying for now.
The price is at the upper normal level at the momemt.