kimchi

You can always buy from me in confidence.
As the saying goes You cant beat a bit of bullly....
NO caravan nor speedboat included - terms and conditions apply!
Stay out of the black and in the red and nothing for 2 in a bed! 

All I'm known for is the pants down specials lol where I sell at a loss, on this basis I'm probably not the best to give advice lol 

If you have that feeling, don't do it. Should be a trust relationship both sides. 

If your nervy I would say no, simple as. 
Plenty of fish in the sea 

Yes if I could reserve that bar that would be great. I would also need my name taking off the reserve list then please. 

@BackyardBullion hello, I have just purchased 2020 #61 from @kimchi so I would like to reserve the same number for 2021, and take me off the waiting list if possible, please.
Many thanks
 

Hello everyone. @ChrisSIlver and I are very happy to announce the official release of the 2021 1 oz Silver Forum Bars!
We would also like to thank everybody for their patience in the build up to this release - it has been a busy year to date and it is no easy task to bring a project like this together. 
There is a lot of information to disseminate so please bear with us, some of this might be relevant to different people. I have broken this post up into different sections for ease of reading. 
If you have any questions please feel free to ask here on this thread or via PM. 
First, here are some glamour shots of the 2021 1 oz forum bars!



Changes for 2021 
2021 does not see any design changes for the 1 oz Silver Forum Bars other than the year date stamp.
2021 does, however, see the first increase in mintage for the 1 oz bars (more information on this later in this post).
We think these are by far and away the best iterations of the 1 oz forum bars to date and I am very honoured and privileged to continue to work with @ChrisSilver, The Silver Forum and ALL OF YOU WONDERFUL MEMBERS out there!
There are a lot of different aspects to tell you about so I have split this post up into various sections, hopefully this will cover most of your questions but if there is something I have not covered then please feel free to get in touch or comment on this thread. 
What are The Silver Forum Bars all about?
The Silver Forum hand poured products (in all their sizes) have been created as a way to draw the silver forum community together but also as a fundraising and brand awareness raising exercise. Some of the proceeds from the sales goes directly to the forum and helps greatly with running costs and keeping the forum the way we have become accustomed to. Silver Premium, Gold Premium and Platinum Premium and now platinum plus memberships go a long way to helping the running of the forum and to help keep the membership prices as low as practical, The Silver Forum Bars we make help a lot too. 
In addition you are supporting the Backyard Bullion brand and poured silver from us. This is our 5th year producing hand poured silver for the silver forum and 6th Year pouring silver - it is because of the support we get from members on and off the silver forum that keeps us doing what we do and striving to do better every year. 
These bars are all hand poured, stamped and finished by myself meaning each and every bar is unique in some way. The weights will vary bar to bar (although none less than 1 ozt) and the cooling patterns of the silver will also be unique and different for each one. 
The allure of hand poured silver is growing stronger year by year and these bars are a brilliant way to start collecting hand poured silver and at the same time supporting The Silver Forum and the Backyard Bullion brand too. 
These bars are ready to be shipped immediately.
In previous years we have done a pre-release reservation period - we have moved away from this model of business and now any releases we make are only announced when they are finished. 
The bars are all finished and can be dispatched as early as the end of this week.
Hallmarking
As with all of my Hand Poured Silver products these bars have been Assay Tested and Hallmarked by the Edinburgh Assay Office. 
Hallmarking is a very good addition to any poured silver. It is your guarantee that these bars are indeed 999 fine silver and made by me in 2021.
Mintage
The mintage for 2021 will be: 250 bars
Previous years we had mintages of 200 (2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020). 
This is the first mintage increase for this product line and reflects the growing popularity of these bars and the expanding silver forum membership. 
As with previous years members with bars from a preceding year have first right of refusal at the same serial number in the current year. This often leads minimal bars available for new members. 
This year, there will be at least 50 new bars available for new members to have a chance to get a bar. 
Serial Number reservations & previous bar ownership
Questions regarding serial numbers and securing a bar are the most commonly asked questions I get. 
The rule of thumb has been and always will be if you own the previous years serial number you have first right of refusal for taking up the bar in 2021. 
For new members or people without a 2020 bar this might seem like you have no chance of getting one - there will always be people who do not/cannot take up their 2020 bars and as such there is always a batch of bars available for new members.
In addition we have increased the mintage, so there will certainly be bars to go around for new members. 
Deadlines to secure bars
To claim your existing serial number and bar (if you own a 2020 bar) please contact me and confirm (and pay) before the end of May. After this date we will not be able to guarantee your purchase and will offer these serial numbers out to members on the waiting list. 
Waiting list for new members/owners
If you would like to purchase a bar past experience has showed me that there will be a lot of demand. As such, we will be operating a waiting list which will ultimately end up in a random lottery to see if members will be allocated a bar. It is the fairest way to do this. 
We will be restricting this waiting list to 1 bar per member to ensure as many different people get access to a bar as possible. 
To be placed on the waiting list, please comment on this thread and we will make sure you are added. 
We will not be contacting people on the waiting list until the first week of June to collect payment and distribute bars. 
Pricing and shipping details
Prices are as follows for the different Silver Forum membership levels
Standard or Non member price - £40 per bar
Silver member price - £39 per bar
Gold member price - £38 per bar
Platinum member price - £37 per bar
Platinum plus member price - £36 per bar
UK Postage & Packaging: +£3 via Royal Mail Signed for delivery or £7 Special Delivery
International postage: +£10 tracked and insured, +£5 untracked and limited insurance
A few notes on pricing
These bars are not cheap bullion. They are not advertised or sold as investment products but as unique collectable items.
Some of the proceeds from the sales of these bars goes directly to The Silver Forum. 
Every bar is UNIQUE. These bars are hand poured, hand stamped and polished by me. They take a lot of time and energy and equipment to create. These are premium hand poured silver products, not cheap bullion. They are a way to support the Backyard Bullion business, my brand and most importantly, The Silver Forum. As I said earlier, proceeds from the sale of these bars go towards the upkeep and running costs of this forum. This helps keep membership prices as low as possible for premium and gold premium members and ensures that standard members can still use this forum for free. 
The price also incorporates the Hallmarking costs, this includes postage of these bars to and from Edinburgh and the application of the hallmark.
Forum membership and pricing 
As you can see there are some very good savings to be had for upgrading your membership - so take a look at all of the benefits that are available for Premium Members today!
 
 
A few notes on pricing
These bars are not cheap bullion. They are not sold as investment products but as collectables.
These bars are hand poured, hand stamped and polished by me. They take a lot of time and energy and equipment to create. These are premium hand poured silver products, not cheap bullion. They are a way to support the Backyard Bullion business, my brand and most importantly, The Silver Forum. As I said earlier, proceeds from the sale of these bars go towards the upkeep and running costs of this forum. This helps keep membership prices as low as possible for premium and gold premium members and ensures that standard members can still use this forum for free. 
Standard members - The difference in price is as a way for you to support the forum in a one off style payment rather than signing up for membership. But also please feel free to upgrade your membership to take advantage of the discounts available. 
The price also incorporates the Hallmarking costs, this includes postage of these bars to and from Edinburgh and the application of the hallmark.
Payment Information
We can accept payment via PayPal, Banks Transfer or Credit/Debit card (Phone call will be required to complete the transaction)
If you would like to order a bar please PM or reply to this thread and we can link up with payment information. 

This release taught me that there is a lot of value in being active in more than just one community. The morning of this release the silver forum was down but the Facebook groups were going strong giving members a heads up and allowing those of us not in the know to get in there in time. The Royal Mint email was a joke arriving well after all the coins had sold out so you can't rely on that.
With regards to the silver 1oz proof - I really think its worth keeping in mind that most people who collected this series (based purely on what I've seen people collecting over the years) collected the 2oz bullion silver coins. This coin will be released as a 2oz bullion allowing everyone who collected them in that format to complete their sets. There is no point scrambling for an overpriced 1oz proof when you've collected the bullion set knowing the bullion version will be out soon.

The main pont in this thread is to move out in an affordable way I think as you seem to have everything else sorted. 
You live in bournemouth which is not only a student city but also a very seasonal tourist city. 
To me that signifies that a lot of landlords properties might be vacant for a parts of the year. 

Have you thought of the following: 

renting out a whole house in your name & subletting the rooms. 
Maybe you can get one with a decent garden and section off a large area for you both.
Ideally a private arrangement where the person is happy its been managed properly & getting a bit of profit also. 
I have done this myself and rented out 4 other rooms including the living room as a bedroom. 

Managing property as an air B&B agent.
I know a lot of people manage mutiple properties for one or many clients. 
They may have properties with several rooms and give you one for free. 
Or you will be making so much profit it will pay for the rent on a nice house. 

Trailer park housing.
There are some lovely places near you, towards Ringwood & edge of the forest. 
You have said your strong and fit, so offer to be a free handyman in exchange for accommodation. 

Wait. 
I cant see house prices getting much more, a housing price collapse is inevitable at some point. 
But that might also include an increase in rates?? 

Buy and flip properties, whilst living in them. 
Take the profits and buy a home in cash after a few years. 
Buy a house that has an annex or space to create a separate building and rent it:
Even a large shed can be transformed into a 'chalet'. 
I have stayed in many very strange garage conversions & even a hut built into a hill over the years!! 

Longer term solid dwelling lets are preferable.
Maybe build two of them or two in one - make them plush, but compact. 
Charge £700 a month and thats your mortgage paid - job done! 
Parking included, side access so you dont even have to see them. 
Direct debit = free money with next to no effort (vs air b&b). 

Rent a room or two in your own house. 
I used to do this with one room and they were largely paying my interest only mortgage!! 
You need to not have kids and be very cautious who you let live with you!!! 
I tended to favour girls as they are tidier, quieter & more thoughtful. 
But one other guys left at 6am, came back 9pm and went away every weekend!!
Dont allow couples, its a pain in the ass. 

Make more money. 
As has been suggested do side hustles that dont take up too much ongoing time.
Like online courses, drop shipping, buying and selling things that people throw out (regular dump runs). 
Affilate links, services on Fiverr etc.

Farming - Microgreen production is massive cash cows selling to local restaurants. 

Set up or buy into a business that you dont actively have to manage much. 
Vending machines for example. That will pay for your rent. 

Build a camper van: 
You can easily do this with £15k and immediately have an asset worth in excess of £35-40k. 
You can live in it for free & save up money in the process. Long wheelbase Sprinters can be quite large! 

Build a cabin in someones garden, field or convert a garage. 
Easy to do, cheap, might not need planning and fun. You can also grow your own food and live off grid. 
Maybe even your parents house? Sling them a bit of cash or even the produce you grow?? 

As long as your not in the way they will be glad of the income & extra value to thier property, when you move out. 

I am sure you have seen these two, but you have all the answers you need here: https://www.youtube.com/c/MoneyUnshackled/videos 
 
 
 
 

@watchesandwhisky two very worthy books i would really recommend to you to read to reshape your mental outlook on life, jobs, earning and potential are by MJ De Marco "The Millionaire Fastlane" and "Unscripted"
They are not preachy or some flash in pan get rich quick scheme 
It turned my mindset & direction in life full circle and for the better. Sadly we are all programmed to be one of the herd, working for someone else with always with a ceiling on potential earning power.
A phrase to bear in mind with your current situation, "if you always do, what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got"  
These books teach you to reshape this outlook and give you every reason to bring success into your life

Wow what great responses, thank you everyone for taking the time to do that! 
Paul those are some great ideas, An actually I have invested in my fitness this last year, I dropped 6 stone and gained muscle, it was actually doing that - that enabled me to apply for this job , its really physical, im walking about 17/18k steps a day and moving heavy stuff like paving slabs and bags of gravel a lot of the time, I could not have dreamed of doing that before so its very true. I actually sort of do another one and thats bulk buying special offers for my lunch. 
I don't have the time to further invest in skills really, my work is so hard I go into low power mode the moment I get home, But I am enjoying it, and I think that enjoying your job is so important - I can see myself doing it long term even though its hardly above minimum wage. I just love being out in the van being my own boss. My partner is at home doing the self employed stuff, shes actually doing some of the other points so I think we are quite well covered overall. 
Pete thats very true and its whats concerning me, prices are rising faster each year than I can earn, its as simple as that. But I hope with a decent deposit i can get somewhere, my parents could lend me a sum of cash, but not enough and I do not yet have the work history to be approved - , they are letting me live here rent free (just pay 50 a month towards some bills) that alone is going to make the difference of what I can save. essentialy my entire wage is saved and live from partners self employed earnings. 
Cadmium - thank you I really appreciate the kind words, I am trying hard to get stuff done as I know its now or never really and I want to make sure im not a never person! 
Auric I think thats a great plan, 50K seems a great deposit and goal - in 18 months I have a "help to save" plan maturing too so that will add 7k. I will go with that and get selling some of my other investments, whisky, watches ect...
Joseph, the 5% deposit I can easily do, the part I am struggling with is as far as i can see places only lend 5X salary, and our combined salaries are about 22k - giving a 110k mortgage tops - Im in Bournemouth , prices are pretty steep.. But who knows, maybe they will start lending more than 5x salaries - My lisa provider is skipton building society, I went for them for the cash lisa even though their interest is a bit lower than alternatives because they are also mortgage providers, and I hope it will raise our change of getting a mortgage if they can see how well we save the sizable deposit. 
Sixgun, very true, it is much more common now! still embarrassing though, kenesis sounds interesting but really need to stay cash on this one.

As a black sheep of society, your question gets asked every so often, folk never seem to suggest to investing in "YOURSELF " 
and is always the best answer in my opinion
* Get that next skill, take that next course, a more skilful YOU makes YOU stand out from the crowd & be more more valuable to other employers
* Invest in a gym membership or personal trainer to improve YOUR health.  If you are able to live & work an extra x10+ years due to better lifestyle will earn you £100,000s+
* Invest in YOURSELF learning how to cook. learn batch cooking. learn how to cook great food for less.  learn how to cook the food that is good for you. your family & extended social circle will thank you for it. learn to not have to rely on fast food or processed food 
* Invest in YOURSELF with private health tests and food allergy tests to check you are not deficient or lacking or you are not eating stuff that is bad for you or affecting your day to day function/performance. Invest in water purification for your home, cleaner water with the extra oogly-booglies removed your body will thank YOU for it every day
* Invest YOUR time better, listening to audiobooks instead of watching football or soaps
* Invest in yourself every day with meditation and positive direction & choices = FREE but how many folk do it
* Invest in a pack of "post it notes" to say what you want from the day, week, month and where you want top be.  Visual affirmations daily make them far more likely to happen/succeed 
* Invest in YOUR business - Purchase the better camera to take better shots, Get the higher PSI pressure washer for your business, to do dirtier jobs easier and faster, invest in learning niche marketing or FB ads
* Invest in marketing YOURSELF further with a bigger social network on LinkedIn. Improve YOUR social circle. Your life will resemble the folk YOU are closest to. Investing your time with losers will result in loser results
* Invest in improving YOUR house to lower utility bills & costs, invest in a ultra efficient boiler to lower your energy costs
* Invest in DOING rather than saying, the path to success is not a straight road and it is the mistakes you make along that road that make you succeed when you choose to learn from them 
* Invest in the highest speed internet so YOU can do YOUR job faster
* Invest in YOUSELF by becoming a "people pleaser", don't be a money ££ chaser leach.  Seek greatness/ By being a people pleaser, solving peoples needs & problems, make something or service that is faster/easier/tastier/smaller/better/nicer/softer/cheaper/shinier than your competitor(s).  By being a "people pleaser", money will naturally gravitate to you & happily THROW money at you by simply solving peoples needs better than the next
Note every suggestion has YOU in the the content.
No-one is doing this for YOU - YOU are doing it for YOU 
Investing £5,000 in yourself and self-betterment, will brings dividends many multiples of value far higher than having it sat in a 0.00001% bank, in premium bonds or a useless yellow metal  

If you are part of the movement then it is just propaganda in my opinion. Members should be free to discuss any opinions they like with out fear of appraisal. Your movement are attempting to manipulate the market (and good luck to them) but leave our minds alone. Every day all of us are faced with one sided bias views that guilt us into not thinking any other way. I thought this place may have been a safe haven but sadly I was wrong. There were many new faces at the beginning of this thread having a "discussion". Wall Street bets was never mentioned, wall Street silver was never mentioned. Now it is just a platform to promote political ideologies. The new members come to the silver forum with a great deal of enthusiasm and should be seen as refreshing. So it is probably best not to dictate the narrative. 
 
 

A real sneaky move by the RM.
The greyhound was the LAST Queen's Beast coin ref -
"The 2021 UK Queen's Beasts The White Greyhound of Richmond 1oz Gold Coin is the tenth and final release from the exclusive Royal Mint bullion range. "
So you completed you set and bought a nice wooden box.
Then out pops an ELEVENTH coin with this text -
The 2021 UK Queen's Beasts Completer 1oz Gold Coin is the eleventh and final coin in the highly popular Queen’s Beasts series of bullion coins from the Royal Mint.
Mea Culpa !!

Don't know why but I'm really annoyed at the mint for charging £9 delivery on a 2k+ item. Anyone else?
 
Still showing as an open order for me- in fact my account and open orders pages are very buggy and wont load correctly. The menu on the left hand side flashes up and then disappears. Still, I'm confident of receiving one after having been through the same Three Graces angst.
 
And my credit card has been debited woohoo we are in Coinsters 

Royal Mint missed opportunity.
They should have issued one with an issue limit of 666

I think the Falcon is taking liberties by stretching out his wings into the personal space of the 2 Beasts either side. Feathers will fly.

Sounds like the last night I had out in Leeds, had a hell of a hangover about three weeks later when I woke up on a beach in Belgium, no idea what happened to the gun...

I don't like manipulating at all. Either in one or the other way. I don't need noone telling me what and when to buy. Just hope the premiums doesn't go higher as they allready are, thanks to the silversqeeze. 

Sounds like the last night I had out in Leeds, had a hell of a hangover about three weeks later when I woke up on a beach in Belgium, no idea what happened to the gun...

Sounds like the last night I had out in Leeds, had a hell of a hangover about three weeks later when I woke up on a beach in Belgium, no idea what happened to the gun...

They were most certainly not his asterisks!  The asterisks disguise the fact that he actually spelled the 'f' word incorrectly, which in my book takes some doing!
Yes, you are probably correct about the language.  I experience utter horror from some American guests when at a celebration gave everyone champagne. The thimbleful I gave a 17 year old (not one of their children) caused genuine horror.  Most amusing.
Best
Dicker

@LawrenceChard Indeed - it is very very easy to source items from the offending websites in China.  I purchased a batch of Shortwave radios (hard to get in the UK these days).  Cheap as chips and delivered in two weeks.  Coins are no different at all.
The thing I have noticed over the last 2 or 3 years is that fake silver coins are turning up at antiques fairs - seen everything from boxes for Morgans to much rarer silver coins priced at (say £50) but anyone who knows would find this very cheap.

I'm pretty sure he didn't sell them. It's all clickbait. Every time I show people I know a pretty single oz silver coin and ask them how much they think it's worth they're blown away by how cheap pure silver is.
He's just taking advantage of people's natural instinct to refuse a deal 'too good to be true' on the street from a stranger.

I added this as a note in my Stack.xlsx 

Troy Ounces (Grams)
Full Sovereign 0.2354 (7.9805g)
Half Sovereign 0.1407 (3.9940g)
5Kg 160.7540 (5000g)
1Kg 32.1507 (1000g)
500g 16.0754 (500g)
250g 8.0377 (250)g
100g 3.2151 (100g)