Downsides to precious metals?

[Camelfilter]

I saw several videos today on YouTube claiming that Costco is now selling Royal Canadian Mint 1-ounce silver dollars, $675 for a 25-coin tube. That's $27 per coin, so $27 per ounce. I was interested in this, but I couldn't find any reference to it on Costco's web site. Several news articles on the Internet about this, though.

Some buyers were quoted as complaining that their coins were scratched. Hey, this is bullion, not coin collecting. They are still getting 2023 or 2024 uncirculated silver dollars. Coins frequently get scratched in the minting.

A month ago Costco was selling gold bars, but I think they sold out after about six weeks.

Thanks on the heads-up. Appreciated!

Am a fan of Canadian silver Maples, have a "bunch". Easily recognized, have features making it harder for scam artists to forge. Normally lower premiums than Eagles.

 

[hongkong2]

I just checked, it's goodluck johnathan of nigeria.

Close enough for .gov work

 

[Burt Gummer]

PMs definitely have their place but the most simple and small 'denomination' trade item are bricks of 22lr.
Seem to always be going up; and at a better rate than PMs. Easier to trade and has a USE while PMs just look pretty.

Went to a gun shop in Sweet Home that was having a clearance on CCI 22lr in 2000rd ammo-can-like containers.
"I'd like to purchase your CCI 22LR over there." "One or two?" "All" In my best terminator voice. Sadly I've gone through all of it since then.

 

[Bacchus]

Ammo is good too, although some here might complain that you can't eat it.

And I particularly like .22 as a trade item. I figure almost everybody has a .22 if they have at least 3 guns. Maybe 9mm or a shotgun are more common?

OP was asking about "downsides" and we've been talking "upsides." I think one downside to keeping PMs would be the opportunity cost of not converting it to something else, like food storage and water storage. If he doesn't have stored food and doesn't have the resources to easily acquire it, he might want to consider cashing in his PM if that is a bigger concern.

I try to cover all the bases. I can't predict what will be in short supply that I would most need in a collapsed society, so I like to be prepared on as many fronts as I reasonably can. Food, ammo, barter goods, medicines, alternate power sources, gasoline, radio, etc.

 

[Alexx1401]

Ammo is good too, although some here might complain that you can't eat it.

And I particularly like .22 as a trade item. I figure almost everybody has a .22 if they have at least 3 guns. Maybe 9mm or a shotgun are more common?

OP was asking about "downsides" and we've been talking "upsides." I think one downside to keeping PMs would be the opportunity cost of not converting it to something else, like food storage and water storage. If he doesn't have stored food and doesn't have the resources to easily acquire it, he might want to consider cashing in his PM if that is a bigger concern.

I try to cover all the bases. I can't predict what will be in short supply that I would most need in a collapsed society, so I like to be prepared on as many fronts as I reasonably can. Food, ammo, barter goods, medicines, alternate power sources, gasoline, radio, etc.

The old line about all your eggs in one basket is still wise. I only started playing with metal when inflation was getting so bad. Money sitting in bank was losing value by the week. My 401K was losing money every month. So I figured why not buy some metal. Its only a VERY small part of what we have set aside though. Not sure what the people who run my 401K are finally doing as it is (for now at least) finally actually making money again. Who knows how long that will last though.

 

[WEE]

This is my version of DEI - Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:

House, car, truck and kid's college paid off.
Traditional and Roth IRAs.
Cash savings in 3-month CDs.
Significant stash of silver and gold coins bought over the last 40 years.
A wide variety of rifles, pistols, and calibers.
A good stash of ammo.
Survival food and water.

 

[Burt Gummer]

Significant stash of silver and gold coins bought over the last 40 years.
A wide variety of rifles, pistols, and calibers.
A good stash of ammo.
Survival food and water.

In Terminator Voice: "Give me your address there."

 

[Bacchus]

In Terminator Voice: "Give me your address there."

No reason, just curious.

 

[Burt Gummer]

Meant in jest as in I want to come rob you. If you are like me, it would take days to find anything I have. My PMs are tucked away at 4? (lol) addresses and NO I don't keep such things in a SAFE. A safe means you might get a weapon in your face and 'you have 20 secs to open this thing.' Happened to a friend in Milwaukie the other night, made the news.

 

[Cavedweller]

Cash savings in 3-month CDs.

Where do you find a good rate on CDs these days?

 

[WEE]

In Terminator Voice: "Give me your address there."

An underground bunker, deep in the Bitterroot Valley. Look for the WEE signposts.

 

[Bacchus]

Burt, if you're talking to me, I got your joke the first time, I thought it was funny. My response was meant to be funny, but I went back and added a smiley just to be sure.

 

[WEE]

Where do you find a good rate on CDs these days?

I have an account at my local Edward Jones. My current 3-month CDs are at 5.3%, no fees.

 

[Alexx1401]

Where do you find a good rate on CDs these days?

It may well depend on both where you bank, and how much they want your business. I am sure all of them must advertise what they are offering to the public. Both the one bank we use a LOT, and the one credit union we had one car financed through have a few times given us a pitch offering slightly more that the rate they were showing on the web.

 

[esbshaw]

I'l be very surprised if this hasn't come up yet in the 300 posts in this thread, but on the off chance it hasn't:

Opening Narration

"Introducing, four experts in the questionable art of crime: Mr. Farwell, expert on noxious gases, former professor, with a doctorate in both chemistry and physics; Mr. Erbie, expert in mechanical engineering; Mr. Brooks, expert in the use of firearms and other weaponry; and Mr. De Cruz, expert in demolition and various forms of destruction. The time is now, and the place is a mountain cave in Death Valley, U.S.A. In just a moment, these four men will utilize the services of a truck placed in cosmoline, loaded with a hot heist cooled off by a century of sleep, and then take a drive into The Twilight Zone."

Episode Summary

To escape the law after stealing $1 million worth of gold bricks from a train on its way from Fort Knox to Los Angeles, a band of four gold thieves, led by foreign-accented scientist-mastermind Farwell (Oscar Beregi, Jr.), hide in a secret cave in Death Valley, California. Farwell has designed suspended animation chambers and set them for approximately 100 years, figuring that by 2061, no one will remember the robbery, and the gang will be in the clear. When they wake up, things begin to go awry. All that remains of Erbie is his skeleton, his suspended animation chamber having been breached by a falling rock. Greed soon begins consuming the others. Brooks demands that DeCruz drive the getaway car. DeCruz kills Brooks by running him over with the getaway truck, but then finds that the brakes no longer work and barely escapes before the vehicle crashes into a ravine. Now Farwell and DeCruz must walk through the desert in the summer heat, carrying as much gold as they can on their backs. Farwell, who is older and heavier, loses his canteen, and DeCruz offers him a sip of water from his canteen, for the price of one gold bar. When the fee goes up to two bars, Farwell strikes DeCruz with the gold bricks, killing him. Farwell then continues to a highway, lugging the gold that he refuses to abandon. Finally, weak and dehydrated, he collapses. A futuristic car drives up, and Farwell offers his gold to the couple inside in exchange for water and a ride to the nearest town, but dies a few moments later. As the man named George gets back into his car to report Farwell's death to the police, he quizzically remarks to his wife, "Can you imagine that? He offered this to me as if it was really worth something." The wife vaguely recalls that gold had indeed been valuable at some time in the distant past. The husband replies, "Sure, about a hundred years or so ago, before they found a way of manufacturing it," and tosses the gold bar away, landing next to Farwell's corpse.

Closing Narration

"The last of four Rip Van Winkles, who all died precisely the way they lived, chasing an idol across the sand to wind up bleached dry in the hot sun as so much desert flotsam, worthless as the gold bullion they built a shrine to. Tonight's lesson - in The Twilight Zone."

 

[billdeserthills]

Meant in jest as in I want to come rob you. If you are like me, it would take days to find anything I have. My PMs are tucked away at 4? (lol) addresses and NO I don't keep such things in a SAFE. A safe means you might get a weapon in your face and 'you have 20 secs to open this thing.' Happened to a friend in Milwaukie the other night, made the news.

Happened next door last month, dude with an AR walked right in, bashed the guy in the head 6 times with the buttstock, which pissed the renter off enough to start wrestling for the rifle. One shot was fired and the criminal ran off

 

[Certaindeaf]

This is gold right here.

 

[Bacchus]

Silver jumped to $25/tr oz today:

Kitco silver price

 

[Burt Gummer]

I might want to buy more - down boy, down!

 

[Burt Gummer]

A few years ago I picked up 500 Buffalo rounds for a friend's wife at $16/oz. She called this morning and asked how much she paid and I remembered. "Is that all they've gone up??!" No good dead goes unpunished or neglected. Told her I'd buy all them back at $18 no problem if she regrets it and she just may sell them back to me.