Gyroscopic Investing

College-aged, yes. :-) We'll see how it goes.
In the meantime, it was nice to be able to order online, i.e. to not have to use the phone, and then to drop a check in the mail. Dangerously easy, and might lead to future purchases. I have a blue box half a block from my front door.

I was always under the impression that online orders required a wire transfer & fee or a credit card and the expensive surcharge that comes with it. I'll report on delivery when it happens.

Apmex does charge a surcharge for credit cards. Use web bill pay to avoid it.

MachineGhost wrote:Apmex does charge a surcharge for credit cards. Use web bill pay to avoid it.

I used a personal check.

Got the coins today. I didn't realize silver was also very heavy - almost like lead - because I've only bought a few collectibles from the mint here and there, with each coin in a box. This tube is damn heavy. I like it.

P.S. from a gold thread today -

Cortopassi wrote:I have a slightly modified holding of 25% gold and 5% silver. So overall precious metals >25%

The markup on silver is really high, isn't it? Thinking about the cost of buying it and then selling it reminds me of some (Chinese) renminbi-denominated traveler's cheques from American Express. The banks in China that would take them charged an 8% fee and I paid something similar to buy them. Gold...under 4% markup.

The markup is why I use ETFS for silver. Also it's too bulky, I don't have the space in my safe.

It is bulky indeed.

Interesting strength in silver but weakness in gold. My silver buy orders are going unfilled, my gold orders are hitting. I hope the silver train hasn't left the station for good.

ochotona wrote:Interesting strength in silver but weakness in gold. My silver buy orders are going unfilled, my gold orders are hitting. I hope the silver train hasn't left the station for good.

How about now? I just got (yet another) marketing email from Apmex, touting the 5.88% drop in silver's spot price.

dualstow wrote:

ochotona wrote:Interesting strength in silver but weakness in gold. My silver buy orders are going unfilled, my gold orders are hitting. I hope the silver train hasn't left the station for good.

How about now? I just got (yet another) marketing email from Apmex, touting the 5.88% drop in silver's spot price.

Being an aimless dreamer, I set my buy for silver at $15. My gold buy was $1260. But I won't buy more gold until it gets back to the Dec 2015 lows. I'm done for now.

I ran across this interesting bit, discussing the possibility of India shifting more of their gold purchasing to silver. Could mean big changes to the silver market if it materializes.

http://qz.com/851315/is-silver-replacin ... 100-years/

Very interesting!

The gold : silver ratio exhibits variability, and over an extended period of time it reverts to its own very long-term moving average. One argument is that silver is relatively cheaper than gold right now. It's a way to allocate money that you're going to put into metals anyway. You could make an argument that gold:silver > 55 means "buy silver". Right now it is 70. At the extremes, like at ratio > 80 you'd overweight silver, at ratio < 40 you'd overweight gold.

Doug Eberhardt, a San Diego metals dealer, advocates 75% gold / 25% silver allocation for the metals part of one's portfolio. The GLTR ETF is 56% gold, 29% silver, 8% platinum, 7% palladium.

Maybe if we get some economic growth back in the world, silver will become more dear, supposedly it's used in solar panels. With economic growth, "risk-off" sentiments, and higher interest rates, the gold:silver ratio could fall.

ochotona wrote:~29% silver, 8% platinum, 7% palladium.

ETFs aside, does anyone buy physical platinum or palladium? Probably not too practical, but I love that one can store so much wealth in such a small space. Non-digital space.

dualstow wrote:I'm thinking about buying some 1oz silver coins, although not as an investment.
I want to give them out to the kiddies as part of a stocking stuffer this Christmas.

Gave one to a manager/waitress who treats me and my friends well.
She loved it.

dualstow wrote:

ochotona wrote:~29% silver, 8% platinum, 7% palladium.

ETFs aside, does anyone buy physical platinum or palladium? Probably not too practical, but I love that one can store so much wealth in such a small space. Non-digital space.

Platinum still cheap compared to gold. I don't buy into EVs killing catalytic converters and therefore platinum narrative. Platinum has been cyclically cheap way before anyone cared about Telsa, but this low platinum to gold ratio range is way to the left in the histogram. Last bucket, actually. Golddealer.com has a great price on the platypus coin.

Some silver monetary history, courtesy of Hugo Salinas Price.

http://plata.com.mx/enUS/More/331?idioma=2

Like the Eagle story at the beginning....

Hal wrote:Some silver monetary history, courtesy of Hugo Salinas Price.
http://plata.com.mx/enUS/More/331?idioma=2
Like the Eagle story at the beginning....

Good stuff.

I'm back to thinking about silver. I am thinking lately that if we get another recession in a few years, the price will go down, due to the industrial demand, which will be suppressed. So I like the idea of silver, I don't like the absolute price, regardless of what the gold:silver ratio is doing. So I kind of scratch my head and wonder about it. I like a little bit just for art's sake.

ochotona wrote: ↑Thu Jan 25, 2018 10:17 pm I'm back to thinking about silver. I am thinking lately that if we get another recession in a few years, the price will go down, due to the industrial demand, which will be suppressed. So I like the idea of silver, I don't like the absolute price, regardless of what the gold:silver ratio is doing. So I kind of scratch my head and wonder about it. I like a little bit just for art's sake.

Did you finally end up buying silver ? I am now wondering whether to buy a good enough portion of it, for my VP. Scratching my head, reading articles (avoiding sites that are anyway selling gold/silver/other PMs), trying to use my common (?) sense .. I know it might sound overly simplified, but how much lower can it go down in price from now - 10%, more..? If it goes up, that's another story. Gold to silver ratio is just a very nice data-mining exercise for me. Supply/demand figures for its industrial usage may sound sensible, although still wondering why after so many years of shortages the price is still at those base levels..

Vil wrote: ↑Wed Jan 15, 2020 11:15 am .. I know it might sound overly simplified, but how much lower can it go down in price from now - 10%, more..?

It’s not even at its 52-week low. How low could it go? I think it could go very low indeed. Why not US$2?

dualstow wrote: ↑Wed Jan 15, 2020 12:32 pm Why not US$2?

According to various sources, the mining cost is approximately 9 to 12 USD. But ok, you have a point, I guess.

I don’t think it will drop so precipitously, but it certainly could.