NJSilver

"It's probably a mistake to buy anything right now. Buy low, sell high. Don't buy high."
Yes in theory buy low sell high, not everybody can get the dips like we saw 12 months ago. 

There's 2 schools of thought wait and HOPE for a pull back, or BUY in before the run, while things are sideways, set a window of entry.

Now as the market is experiencing cracks and the price is strong sideways support, that bottom may be in, but without the crystal ball it's a case of - If you want to buy buy as best as you can, I'm still buying for a long position, I was buying all the way from the recent run over the last 12 months, and I would even consider a wager that it will not dump without a black swan, and without that in the near term I don't think it will do anything other than gain, of course this all depends of sentiment in the market.
You see if you go into the ETF's you do nothing to help the price grow, that's just the problem that has made this commodity a so called bad investment, which is way more than a commodity and has most uses of any other commodity. Investing in physical is nothing like the ETF investing which I assume you refer to, but hey 35-50 percent in 2020 is not a bad investment if you executed the trade to perfection, and that move to me is just a earth tremor to the big move to come, a sign if you will.
You shouldn't buy silver physical for the short term anyway it's not an investment for the anxious or the weak handed people who cant wait, but of the other investments out there it would have less long term risk and considering the market manipulation is still in tact it's a cracking good buy of the century for the long term.
Yes the premiums are a bother but this represents the current price considering the supply issues, the spread of the premium is a good thing to consider if your not thinking long, the answer is not paper silver, in that case the answer may be gold as premiums are lower, or buy from Australia or Canada or somewhere where the premiums are not too bad, if your order is big enough to make it worthwhile. Buys can be found privately closer to spot, some people will still be selling to buy Crypto's, which they may regret one day as I have.
We won't know the amount of Silver Eagles made in 2021 till this time next year maybe, I'd ask then can you confirm they are up and running and their issues at the US Mint are sorted.
And what price would you call the bottom in the next 12 months for Silver, what price spot is your signal. I think we are there and while I don't call being realistic and trying to join the dots of what is and may be afoot as a conspiracy theory, whilst conspiracy facts abound and get blown off as conspiracy theories is so common now, so it will take more than that to convince me otherwise as everything I see and a strong sense of intuition, and a long time waiting for this time, I think something is happening and time will tell, all I can say is there's some concerning things happening for a good while that are strong indicators. And of course I hope we all make the wise decisions that give us maximum benefit of what may be about to happen.

The second train of thought is, get in while you can cause when it breaks the manipulation and takes off and the every man and his dog want on the moonshot rocket ride, there wont be an oz of silver to be had at any sane prices, the sanest price you may ever see is today's prices and premiums, or maybe things settle a bit for a while but I don't think you will see a sell off of physical and I think you will see a lot more demand on supply.

Bear in mind 50% world supply goes to industry, and the remaining jewelry and bullion, with the short manipulation scam becoming more exposed more and more demand will be placed onto physical bullion supply, and I'll be very surprised if that doesn't make price break eventuality
If and when it does break the suppression of the short selling on Comex, and there is a huge migration into all metals which there already is growth in, and hedge fund managers get onboard, we are likely to see the growth it deserves.
Your posts also make me question why we invest. To back and stack something you believe in because it's sound and based on principal, not necessarily for profit but as a hedge against the scam of fiat debt based money inflation, and to be exposed to the opportunity of a lifetime if silver revalues, is my reason.

Gold should not be overlooked in this case too, and when SHTF all the elite are in Gold, property and less cash as liquidity. This stimulus c**p is the reason everyone wants to dump their $ and treasury bonds, it's not sound it's increasing the tension on the rubber band being stretched too far, and it will snap sooner too the more money they print. The main point is it will snap and nobody will know what hit them, then being well positioned will mean everything, and it will be too late to do anything.
The terms good and bad in terms of silver investment don't tell the whole story. Maybe seemingly bad if you base your logic on today, but it's sensible to think of tomorrow, next year, 5 years, 10 and so on. Physical PM's are a sensible place to secure your savings today, an investment for the future, and a solid one at that.

So lastly, if silvers not the best investment, then what is?

Interesting discussion, some of my thought's anyway.

There's more than enough digital currency floating around to buy every cheap ounce of silver not bolted down and some. Elon needs it to build cars/space ships and nvidia needs it to make more graphics cards so kids can mine buttcoins.
It's the future and we don't need silver as currency anymore because it's worthless and gold is a relic of the past. So stop buying it so the banks and ultra rich can have more for themselves to produce and sell electronics that need to be updated every couple years. They sell you electronic junk to distract you from reality.  
In reality there is a physical shortage and you all have to be lied to because it would become a huge issue for the companies building the spy devices... I mean cell phones...or run out of silver that they need to use for guidance systems in their cruise missiles to bomb countries into submission into only accepting the US dollar in exchange for oil. 
Don't be surprised if this ends up being my last post and last day on earth for speaking the truth. God bless you stackers and i hope you all have a healthy long life.

It turns out that even before WSB got in the act, there was a run on Silver. The various Silver ETFs hold their silver in London, and have managed to soak up >85% of all the actual physical stocks there. The LBMA states that c1 billion ounces of silver, in its various forms (bars, coins etc) is held in London, and 900mln ounces of it are held by ETFs.
https://www.bullionstar.com/blogs/ronan-manly/houston-we-have-a-problem-85-of-silver-in-london-already-held-by-etfs
Meanwhile, it was only a matter  of time, but whilst we're at it: