Investing in silver

ondik

Czech Republic2908 Posts

October 24 2011 18:10 GMT

Hey TL. I don't have any real friends who would invest in metals so I thought I would ask here.

How do I go about investing in silver? I have already decided I want to invest in it, but what is the best way to do it? I'm leaning towards buying "physical" silver, what are the biggest pros and cons compared to other silver investments like ETF? I read it's also possible to buy silver at swiss banks where you don't have phyisical silver but instead a claim against the bank?

If I wanted to buy physical silver, what are the main things I should look at to not get scammed? I don't want to buy it in Czech republic because we have 20 % tax on silver, which sucks. I guess I should buy it somewhere in (mid-west)Europe? Is it possible to buy it directly from "source" so I don't need to pay extra money to resellers? Could you tell me about some estabilished and reliable companies?

It should be a long-term investment, +- 5k euro.

Thanks a lot!

ChinaLifeXXL

United States365 Posts

October 24 2011 18:24 GMT

This is actually a really smart idea with everyone buying up all the gold eventually everyone will turn to silver, raising the prices thereby.

Sorry I can't help with the actual investments, but gl man. gl

Simplistik

2139 Posts

October 24 2011 18:58 GMT

Are you aware of the difference between investing and speculating? If not, then you should probably just use your money to get some fixed term bonds, or a savings account.

ondik

Czech Republic2908 Posts

October 24 2011 19:09 GMT

On October 25 2011 03:58 Simplistik wrote:
Are you aware of the difference between investing and speculating? If not, then you should probably just use your money to get some fixed term bonds, or a savings account.

where in my post do i mention anything about speculating?

micronesia

United States24775 Posts

October 24 2011 19:23 GMT

Buying the physical silver is probably less profitable for you...

I just bought an ounce of silver recently for fun though XD

Why are you investing in silver by the way? What's your reasoning?

ondik

Czech Republic2908 Posts

October 24 2011 20:22 GMT

We have money in an investment fund consisting of czech+eastern europe companies' assets. The fund is already -20 % down for this year, and with eurozone going down (i believe it will happen in next 5 years) I can't see the situation getting better. That's why I want to diversify and invest part of money into metals. I will buy (if I manage to buy it, there's sick excess of demand over supply) few golden coins from limited edition emitted by our national bank, because the price for the coin is only about 10 % higher than the price of "pure" gold in it AND there's pretty good collector value which exceeds those 10 % before the coin is even made. However, I want to invest more in silver than gold because I think it will grow more in future. So if I wanted to invest only in gold, it wouldn't be a problem, unfortunately I don't know much about silver. It's one thing to deal with small gold coins bought directly from czech national bank and other to deal with 5kg silver bars which I have to buy abroad because as I said, 20 % tax on silver here is pretty stupid.

Nesto

Switzerland1318 Posts

October 24 2011 20:51 GMT

well, just make sure you don't delude yourself considering the safety of silver.

Silver surged the same way as Gold did during this year, but then dropped sharply by about 30% twice, once in late april and once in september. If you check the historical silver price for the past decade you might say that there still is a downward potential (up to 50% ). On the other hand, if the currency crisis worsens silver may surge a lot again.

As for the source: Well in Switzerland most large banks sell physical precious metals at market prices directly at service desks in some locations, and since your looking "only" for 5k worth in euros, I don't think you would be required to prove where you got that money from (due to money laundering regulations). I'm pretty sure the banks in nearby Austria offer the same (think I already read about popular silver coins or something like that), so best try to get it there instead of looking for some shady resellers.

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