Silver coins

[iliketosavemoney]

Any thoughts on these silver coins.

As an investment or even just keep for a long time and pass them on.

(Yes, I bought them. I don't know why, I just did.)

[QuarterMillionMan]

Very nice indeed. You did a lot better than I did when I bought about $8000 worth a few years ago when the price for each was $45. I paid twice as much as you did. Dollar cost average and buy what you can afford every so often.

[autoxer]

I bought some silver bullion last year, but I'm not so sure it is a good investment. I was recently just thinking about selling a majority of it. I bought it for ~$30/ounce and it would now sell for $20/ounce.

[greenskeeper]

silver (or any precious metal) is a long term play. Once the shenanigans at the COMEX come to fruition silver prices will return to the traditional gold/silver ratio.

[bjl584]

Those would be nice to pass down to someone, but they probably aren't a very good investment. I think those are a fairly common and abundant coin. They'll probably never be worth much more than they are now.

[Spiffster]

eBay is the LAST place you want to go to buy coins. Try http://www.providentmetals.com/ or for larger orders http://www.monex.com/

[cardtrick]

silver (or any precious metal) is a long term play. Once the shenanigans at the COMEX come to fruition silver prices will return to the traditional gold/silver ratio.

It's always someone rigging the system, isn't it? When prices were going up back in 2011, I'm sure COMEX had nothing to do with it. It was all because silver, a metal that just sits in a safe deposit box not earning any interest income, was undervalued. But now that prices are falling, someone is conspiring against all those silver investors.

[cardtrick]

Those would be nice to pass down to someone, but they probably aren't a very good investment. I think those are a fairly common and abundant coin. They'll probably never be worth much more than they are now.

Silver doesn't earn interest income or dividends, or growth. It just sits there. On the plus side, precious metals are very volatile. They make great short to medium term plays. And at the end, you always have suckers you can dump it all on.

[Dsquared513]

tl;dr

I'm a few days late in replying but I had a little bit to add and to clarify. When people say that precious metals are not an investment, they are technically correct in one sense, where an investment is the purchase of real estate or equities with the capability of generating revenue in the forms of dividends or rent, or that the revenue generating abilities of a company will increase which will increase the valuation of the investor's stake in that company. In this way precious metals investing is more of a speculation, buying something at a lower price in the hopes that supply and demand, market psychology, and/or global economic forces will increase the price in the future so that you can sell for a profit. This is why things like your home, car, artwork, etc. aren't really investments in the truest sense, since you have to sell them in order to realize a profit, unlike investing in a business or dividend paying stock. A nice way to think about buying silver or gold is as a hedge against inflation, or I just think of it as a glorified savings account. Over time gold and silver have historically matched or slightly beat inflation, but the metals market is volatile so they can be speculated on in the short term. To answer the OP's question, you could do worse than to put 240 bucks into a shiny little savings account. American Silver Eagles are well recognized and easy to sell, although boring. 99% of the time you will overpay for metals on ebay, Provident is a good place to buy that was mentioned, I also like silvertowne for single or just a few rounds or bars as they often have free shipping. The spot price of silver is under $20 right now. It has been almost $50 before and will be again, whether that's in 5 years or 50 who knows? Don't think of them as an investment, just hold onto them and use them as motivation to learn about and build true wealth and financial security. Worst case scenario, your great grandchildren can inherit them and sell them to buy some space heroin and robot hookers.

[steveMQ]

It is a good way to store value, but I wouldn't recommend any precious metal as an investment.

[iliketosavemoney]

Thanks for the replies and the links to the sites.
I probably won't be buying anymore but its good to know.

So I won't be thinking of these as an investment. If silver prices go up, good for me I can make some money. But if they don't, I'll hold on to them and pass them on to future generations (for space heroin and robot hookers ). Just glad to know I wasn't totally ripped off or anything.

I wouldn't normally buy something like this but I had a Starbucks limited edition gift card sitting around and it was selling on Ebay for $500+. So my thinking was "I'd rather hold onto silver than some gift card". Although I probably should have taken the money and put extra payments into the car..

[~bs]

precious metals are, in general, a speculative investment.

My opinion is that they're more of an inflation/fear hedge than a real investment.

Buy it if you can get it for reasonable prices near spot price, and you find it interesting in general. I would not sink a significant chunk of your net worth in it.

[jackmiller]

Too volatile for me- I like nice easy predicable earnings/dividends/growth.