I have a small 401K from a place I worked only a few years. Since I’m sixty, I was thinking about cashing it out and buying silver 1oz bars. If I do, I want the physical bars and not a paper certificate.
There are several places in my city to buy silver bars if you give them advance notice but I am leery of being cheated.
I’m thinking of buying 500 ounces.
Any advice?
Either that or 90% "junk silver coins".
Not advice, just what I would/have done in the past. :)
1. Know the spot price of silver when you buy.
2. Expect to pay a few dollars more per ounce than the spot price.
There are very trusted dealers with whom I work who can get prices better than through the online sites. I would be more than happy to point you in the right direction if you’re interested.
Don’t trust the silver bars would buy Gold and Silver Eagles instead.
I buy silver from JM Bullion.
They are reputable, they are easy to deal with, and they have bought stuff from me as well.
My guess is they are going to be cheaper to buy from—and better to sell to than your local coin dealer.
The flip side is that your local coin dealer is local. If you think the S if going to HTF, then you might want to stick with someone who knows your face.
In the end if it gets that bad, they won’t be looking at your face...They will be looking at what is in your hand.
I bought several 100 ounce bars yesterday. Heraeus, Pan American, etc. $2575 each. I’ve been trading silver and gold with one guy for many years. He usually sells for spot plus $1.00.
www.texmetals.com
They will ship it to you, or store it in their vault and keep an online account for you like other brokers; but unlike paper silver it is an inventory of your holdings in their vault.
You would have to be screaming out of control bullish on silver to do that; because you’ll produce a 10% penalty on the 401K withdrawal and pay maybe a 7-8% premium on your physical silver.
500 oz silver is under $15K. I don’t consider that a life changing amount of money. But if you like having 35 pounds of metal sitting around.....
Don’t get me wrong; I love silver and gold and I own both. I wish I owned more, although I am selling some silver these days. I also consider them ordinary commodities, like wheat. They just don’t go bad.
Provident Metals is the place I go to. They test their supply to make sure it’s not counterfeit and there is a TON of counterfeit silver from China on the market these days.
I recommend buying rounds or coins because people are mentally conditioned to view such things as money. Meaning someone who will accept a one ounce Eagle for a sale may well refuse a one ounce bar for the same transaction because they do not view it as ‘money’.
And in a SHTF scenario you’ll need people to accept your silver as currency and not just a commodity for trade.
Get a “Monster” box of
Silver Dollars.
I have a small 401K from a place I worked only a few years. Since I’m sixty, I was thinking about cashing it out and buying silver 1oz bars.
I don’t claim to have much experience in silver markets but I suggest buying 10 oz bars for at least part of your investment. They are easier to keep track of and still useable for trade because they aren’t tremendously valuable lik gold krugerrands for example. Just my two cents.
If you are just buying bars, that's the cheapest. You pay the lowest 'premium' over the spot price for bars. You can get bars from one ounce to 100 ounces, or possibly more.
If you want coins, things get interesting. You can buy bullion from one of several different private mints as either 'coins' (which really are just rounds of .999 silver), or you can buy bullion coins from major mints around the world.
American Eagles are produced by the U.S. government, and carry the highest premium over spot. You can also buy various weights of coins from Canadian, British, Austrailian, or even German mints. Each of these will have slightly less of a premium per ounce than Eagles. Some have rally interesting designs on them. I have bullion from all of the above mints.
Then again you can buy what they call 'junk' silver. This is actually just pre-1965 silver coinage, i.e., dollars, halves, quarters, and dimes. You buy these in bags with a specific face value. That is, you can buy a bag with $100 worth of face value for a set price. A lot of people like junk silver. Everyone knows what it is, and the value is pretty good in a lot of cases. U.S. silver content was 90% pure back in the day.
I would not advise buying one 500 ounce bar. You can, but the damn thing is going to obviously weigh a lot, and will be harder to unload. I'd never buy a bar that is more than 10 ounces, but that's really just personal preference.
Here's the thing to remember about silver: do not expect it to appreciate a lot over time. Gold and silver are really just a way to store value, not to make a boatload of money on the price of silver, unless something really weird is going on in the market. This kind of event might be coming soon, so it might not be a good time to get in.
I've been buying in small quantities for years. I just like silver. IMO, I consider the 'natural' price of silver outside of major market manipulation (which happens from time to time), to be about $20/oz. If you can buy between $15-$22 per ounce, you'll be OK in the long run as far as value goes. Chances are you'll be able to sell in that range.
When selling, bullion bars are the least desired by buyers. Eagles are the best, which is the 'why' of the differences in premiums above spot.
Finally, you might check out these two sites. Browse around and look at prices for different things. Right now, with silver jumping up suddenly is probably not the best time, but if you look at the price/oz listed and then compare it to spot, it will give you an idea of relative price of each type.
Apmex is at https://www.apmex.com/
JM Bullion is at https://www.jmbullion.com/
I've done business with both of the above companies.
One last thing. If you buy 'commemorative' coins, do NOT expect to make money on them unless the price of silver is going bonkers. If you want to buy something pretty for a niece or nephew, that's a completely different thing, but it's not really an investment. It's not a real 'commemorative' coin IMO unless it's potentially a circulating coin, and none of these really are.
Try apex, or kitco.
You normally gotta pay sales tax, which puts you in an immediate loss situation. Go to a gun show, where there's always a coin dealer or two. Take him aside and mention you want to buy big amounts of silver and ask what his best price is, "including sales tax" (cough). They usually take the hint and work with you.
I would prefer American Silver Eagles. You can get bars or Eagles from Apmex.com