Buying Silver Bullion

[Kooter]

I seared old forum postings about this, but they are all pretty old and wanted to get an updated opinion about this.

I'm looking to start investing in silver and would rather buy it from a local shop than buying over the internet. I want to be able to hand over the cash and walk out with my purchase rather than waiting for it to be sent.

I'm looking into buying both 10oz bars and 1oz rounds.

What are some stores around the Beaverton area that you would suggest? Is paying in cash the best/only way or could I use a debit card? And anything else I should look for and/or look out for?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Read More

 

[willseeker]

I buy directly from 'AAA Metals' off SE 99th. st. by Mall 205.
It's not Beaverworld though.
They recently dropped the price on silver 1oz. rounds that they mint from $1.80 over spot to $1.20 over.
You have to call daily to find out if they have circulation rounds, which are .80cents over spot.
They only take cash.

 

[nw-edc]

I've been silver stacking for some time and I buy from Northwest Territorial Mint. They allow walking purchases at their Federal Way location, but you can buy online and they ship for free. There is no sales tax on bullion. www.NWTMINT.com

 

[SmawGunner]

AJPM.com has 4 locations. Check out their website. They have 1 in Tigard near intersection of 217 and hwy 99. They primarily deal in bullion. All of their prices are on their website and updated automatically as the price changes 24/7. Call for availability. I really like how these guys and gals are up front with everything by posting all of their prices on their website. They are really friendly people also. Its like they are throwing up a challenge to the other stores to compete against their low prices. Their website says they are currently charging 1.25 over spot for regular bullion. This is typical for a business like this because they have overhead. But its alot better than buying online where you will pay several dollars over spot.

Dont use debit cards. Pay cash to completely cut the paper trail. Eventually your supposed to pay capital gains or the gov eventually might try another confiscation as our countrys debt situation gets worse. So why leave them a easy paper trail. There is a limit per year per person when buying PMs. I think its $10,000. After that the store is supposed to document it to stop money laundering and tax evasion. So with the availability of competition of many stores around here you can spread out your cash purchases to avoid attention. Picking up $5000 worth is not unusual when you go there. Its heavy so bring a backpack because you dont want to be walking around with a big white box because you will draw attention. Come concealed, have a bug, and a friend just in case.

Avoid withdrawing large sums like $5000 from your bank at once because the banker will ask you why you are withdrawing so much and they will document it. Break up your withdrawal amounts to avoid the banks record keeping.

My advice is to get whatever you can get in .999 fine at the lowest price you can find and get as many ounces as you can. I dont like American Eagles and Maple leafs. This is just designer bullion for collectors. Just buy regular bullion because you will end up with alot more bullion in the end. In the end the only thing that will matter is how many ounces you have or how big your stack is. Noones going to care if it has a maple leaf, eagle, or panda on it. And noones going to pay a premium to you for collector value just because its got a nice picture. They are only going to pay you spot unless its a collector who thinks it has some extra value over spot for a picture. Also consider getting some junk silver or 90% silver.

Also there was a crew from Texas a while back that would fly in to Portland, rent power tools from United Rentals, and then break into safes in our area so its best to keep your mouth shut. A smart thief with the correct powertool can cut open any safe in minutes. Somehow they were getting inside info about who had PMs in our area and targeting those people.

 

[Phrank]

Craig's Rare Coins in Beaverton is a good choice as well. He matches or beats AJPM, but doesn't always have a lot of inventory; always worth a call first.

 

[Bajablast]

Craig's Rare Coins is a great place to buy. He is friendly and is always attentive to customers needs/wants. He treats my Son like an adult as well as other young buyers I have seen in his store. He has great prices. He is Cash only.
9880 Sw Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy, Ste 101

Also in Beaverton just off of Hall is Beaverton Barber and Coin.
4620 SW Washington Street
The owner's name is Mark and he too is a great guy to deal with and can likely get what you want at a great price. He will take debit/credit cards, but will ad a small fee, 1-2%.

These 2 stores are pretty much the only local places I will buy from because of the way I and my Son are treated each and every time we go in to look or buy.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Capitalism is BO$$!!!

 

[SmawGunner]

Investing in silver. I thought it was a good investment so I started stacking. But I found out later that the price is heavily manipulated to force the price to be as low as possible. The price is kept low by major banks like JP Morgan Chase through a process of naked shorting. There are also companies out there that hold physical silver for you and offer shares of stock on their silver. This is a form of fractional reserve banking where these companies can create many paper silver contracts for every 1 oz of silver. Nobody knows what the ratio is. It could be 100:1 or 1000:1 or whatever they want. The gold spot price is manipulated the same way. If everyone tried to claim theirs with a bank run then very few people would actually get their silver. So if you dont hold it, you dont own it. Period.

The buying and selling of all the paper contracts has the biggest influence on the spot price of the physical. How do we know this is what is happening? Well when the price drops by $2 or $3 instantly for no reason at all then we know there is huge amounts of paper being moved. We certainly know that theres no way millions of ounces physical silver can change hands instantly. Once you realize the game they are playing with the spot price then you can take advantage of it by buying the dip. Or BTFD. Just have your cash standing by until you see a big dip of $2 or $3 and buy at the discount. It happens approximately once a month. This is a good method to accumulate a nice stack. But remember the price is always kept low which means as long as they are in control it will be a terrible investment. If they lose control and the price is allowed to rise to its true value then it will be a great investment. It just comes down to whether or not you think they will lose control some day. I am starting to think they will never lose control no matter how bad it gets and its a bad investment. Now I am looking at it more as a store of value instead of investment.

 

[twa2471]

Junk silver(coins) and bullion are the best option and are sold at lower premiums and as other have said "rounds" aren't worth any more in the grand scheme of things,, just fancy ,,and anywhere from $2.50- $5.00 above spot if not more in many cases, silver eagles are closer to $8-10 more. If you have sales tax in you're area you'll have to add that in too if you buy local.

Buy off line @ increments of less than $10K and sales won't be reported to the gubermans either and 99% of the time they come direct from the minters reducing the chance of counterfeit products. Several places offer free shipping too. Just keep an eye on yearly charts to figure out when it's a good time to buy,,just buy when's it's low of course.

I started stacking years ago and it has turned out to be a very good thing for me, just buy it right. I'm not rich by any means but if you take a few spare bucks each month and set it aside it really adds up and it has helped me out when things got tough. I started by not buying coffee's & breakfast sandwich's and lunches each day at work, just brought my own from home and I put those $$ aside for investing instead. That ends up being 2-3 oz of silver EACH WEEK, at today's prices, more back in the day when I first started. So anyone can do it if you do it right.
After I fell at work and broke my neck, and having no income for almost 2 1/2 years other than workers comp. It pulled me through, and with just those couple "life changes",,bringing my lunch from home,,, it didn't hurt my income at all, and actually made it stronger.

In 10 -12 years I've been able to accumulate well >200 lbs of silver and >50 lbs of gold without even noticing a dent in my budget, and what I spent on it all came from what I saved by having breakfast at home and bringing a lunch. Bad part is that I now have to have 2 large safe deposit box's at the local bank, but annually,, that only equals 1 weeks worth of what I would have spent on chow at a store.

$$bills and stocks are just paper, and gold and silver has been tender used in barter for thousands of years. With all the shuffling of the economy and printing of paper bills with nothing to back it up, in the long run ,,,if SHTF,, what do you think will be worth more,,,paper or gold and silver???

 

[SmawGunner]

Tracking the price of silver. I like interactive charts on kitco for watching the price. I wouldnt buy from kitco because its expensive but they do have some nice charts and some good material for learning. Their charts overlay all the exchanges from around the globe and you can select whatever time period your interested in. Silver just started trading again almost 4 hrs ago and its still low at $19.7. The lowest spot price I remember getting some at recently was $18 so this is still a good buy.

 

[Member 34319]

A few rounds a month is how I like to do it.

Like ammo I buy once a week. 20 in ammo and 20-40 in silver.

Every once and a while I'll buy a bulk amount like a sleeve of 25 maples.

Over time you'll have a good amount.

 

[SmawGunner]

Spot price just dropped to $18.9. I havnt see it this low since July of last year. Im going to go pick some up today while its still on sale.

 

[cookie]

I should buy some precious metals but the price is kinda high. I still remember in the early 1080s when gold was $855 ish and then dropped like a rock. It is good to have some though. Everything these days is manipulated. The big corps know the consumer is an easy target.

 

[mrblond]

I should buy some precious metals but the price is kinda high. I still remember in the early 1080s when gold was $855 ish and then dropped like a rock. It is good to have some though. Everything these days is manipulated. The big corps know the consumer is an easy target.

1080? Holy crap, how were the Crusades? I think I remember gold being down to $330ish back in the 80's Never had money to invest and neither did the family really.

 

[Doc In UPlace]

,,,if SHTF,, what do you think will be worth more,,, paper or gold and silver?

I have yet to see any good recipes that make metal and silver into edible food.

SHTF means no stores, and no stores means no food to buy, so metals and paper become building materials.

There seems to be some kind of fantasy collapse that exists on internet forums, where food stores like Safeway and car rental agencies still exist. Historically this has not been the case.

Some bic lighters and MRE's will be worth a lot more than some pounds of inedible metal when the lights go out, the heat stops, and the shelves are empty.

 

[erudne]

I have yet to see any good recipes that make metal and silver into edible food.

SHTF means no stores, and no stores means no food to buy, so metals and paper become building materials.

There seems to be some kind of fantasy collapse that exists on internet forums, where food stores like Safeway and car rental agencies still exist. Historically this has not been the case.

Some bic lighters and MRE's will be worth a lot more than some pounds of inedible metal when the lights go out, the heat stops, and the shelves are empty.

You'd be surprised what gold can buy:

Not to say that a store of food aint good but it's hard to run W/a years worth of food.
BTW the quote I was looking for from the Warsaw Getto was "There was always food, if you could afford to buy it"

 

[forefathersrback]

I have yet to see any good recipes that make metal and silver into edible food.

SHTF means no stores, and no stores means no food to buy, so metals and paper become building materials.

There seems to be some kind of fantasy collapse that exists on internet forums, where food stores like Safeway and car rental agencies still exist. Historically this has not been the case.

Some bic lighters and MRE's will be worth a lot more than some pounds of inedible metal when the lights go out, the heat stops, and the shelves are empty.

Doc, I agree.

 

[tpigskin]

Ditto on the post about Northwest Territorial Mint. Absolutely reliable, free shipping. Be advised that it is currently taking 8-10 weeks for receipt, but in an emergency you can sell your contract back to them prior to receipt, guaranteeing liquidity while awaiting shipment.

 

[AMProducts]

If you want to "invest" in anything, you need to buy low and sell high... Silver has some good uses, coinage is not one of them.

If you wanted to invest in silver, I think you should learn to become a silver smith, because then you can buy base metal for whatever it costs, and then sell a manufactured artifact with your labor for the base price of the material, your labor, and your markup.

I have invested heavily in steel... I buy it for about $.25-2/lb and then I turn it into things that people want to buy, usually at many multiples of what I pay for the base material. So far this has been a phenomenal investment for me as the returns are great, and I don't have to wait for shifts in the market. The last time I invested in silver I bought coins for about $5/ea back in the 1980's. A few years ago I sold them all for $35/oz. It was only a markup of about 7x, which over 25 years is pretty crappy. I can buy steel today, and turn it into parts and sell them tomorrow and make 10x my investment.

 

[SmawGunner]

SHTF means no stores, and no stores means no food to buy, so metals and paper become building materials.

I agree that with SHTF, PMs are not worth anything. But I think this scenario is highly unlikely and internet sayings like "you cant eat gold" are bad because they encourage preppers to ONLY prepare for SHTF. A good prepper will be ready for other scenarios too and PMs are very important tool for this. So what if the situation is purely economic? Like the great depression, weimar republic, zimbabwe, or like in Argentina right now where that government is making the economic situation worse by meddling with the economy and they are dragging out the economic problems for years while they desperately cling to power. PMs will help you transition through the period of economic upheaval where all other financial instruments are worthless. You cant call yourself a prepper if your only ready for 1 situation.

 

[AMProducts]

The problem is under a weimar republic, zimbabwe, or argentina, you tend to be left with two problems, a major one is you're trying to buy groceries and toilet paper with a 1oz gold piece... well I don't know what your normal grocery bill is, but mine is much less than $1300 each time I head to the store. It might be worth it if you need to buy that last tank of gas heading out to your retreat. The second, for nearly all but the most dire of circumstances gold and silver are poor investments, as their value only fluctuates in relation to the currency and the amount of faith people have in it.

In a way I've taken a page from Karl Marx... "the workers must own the means of production", however I turn that on it's head somewhat, in that I must own the means of my own production. In general, the value of something is determined by it's form, the cheapest way you can buy something is in it's base raw form, that is to say, if you buy copper ore, you will pay less for it than you do copper metal, at which you will pay less for that than you do say, wire or bullets. The value of copper wire and bullets is determined by what the market is willing to pay for it, the materials to make it become a small fraction of the labor it took to make it into that form. Which is why while copper was at a low price last year, bullets were at an all-time high.

If you look at "the alpha strategy" (a book commonly pushed by JWR and many others) in chapter one, it points out: the only source of wealth is individual effort. With the use of tools, machines and knowledge, all individual effort is magnified many times, thus the source of your wealth (individual effort) will be magnified.