Gold vs Silver maths fun.

[smokestack]

Ok , i have way too much time to think about things lately and this is the result. I know for sure that i want to have my savings in pm rather than cash, however i am constantly debating in my head if it should be gold or silver or both, so for a bit of fun i decided to run some figures. Now before we go any further i am looking at this from the point of view of a saver who hopes that my money will at least keep up with inflation over time and maintain it's purchasing power. My worry is that if i had to sell my stack i would lose a lot of my money on silver whereas on gold you do not seem to lose as much , however on the other hand i would also kick myself if i bought all gold and silver went to the moon as we all hope it does. So for a bit of fun i decided to do some maths and see what percentage the loss would be on some items of silver and gold if they were bought and sold straight away. This is only something i have done out of boredom and not something i am too worried about. I just thought you guys might be interested in the results i got. i am no maths genius and so may have made some errors while doing this so please feel free to correct me if you spot any errors. I would also love to here your own views on the pros and cons of silver versus gold. So the comparrisons were about equal i based each purchase around one thousand pounds. The first calculation was on a purchase of 71 silver maples bought from silver to go, the price would be £1000.28 including shipping. Bullion by post say they would pay me£815.70 for them, a loss of £184.58 i get that to a loss of 22%. I then tried it with twelve 5oz  sunshine mint bars from Atkinsons at a cost of £1008 bullion by post say they would pay £861.64 for these, a loss of £146 OR 14.5%. Next up is the gold, two 20g metalor gold bars from Atkinsons comes to £1052.84 Bullion by post will pay £974 for these a loss of £78.84 or 7.48%. lastly i went for 5 gold sovereigns from Atkinsons at a price of £983 Bullion by post will pay £891 for these, a loss of £92 or 9.3%.  So the smallest loss percentage wise seems to be gold bars. Of course the metal with the best potential seems to be silver at the moment. I have not included numismatic coins in my calculations as i know so little about their value. As i mentioned earlier i would love to hear your thoughts on the drawbacks and benefits of gold and silver.I know my study will have loads of problems with the way i have done it but i just went for the easiest to get at figures so please don't beat me up too much on my methods, as i said i just did it for a bit of fun and did not intend to take the results too seriously. My hope in posting my results is that it maight give me an insight into the way other forum members/stackers think about precious metals.

[Kman]

But this is just based on selling back to a dealer. 

 

You would obviously get a much better price selling to another stacker or on ebay etc

[mr-dead]

If you had a few hundred oz's of silver or a few monster boxes how would you sell them quickly?  A dealer wont take in to account the VAT you paid so 20% down for a start so your stuck with piecing the lot out on ebay or forums.

 

With gold those few hundred oz's of silver or monster boxes equate a few oz's of gold that any dealer will take with a minimum loss.

[smokestack]

But this is just based on selling back to a dealer. 

 

You would obviously get a much better price selling to another stacker or on ebay etc

Agreed Kman, but by using only one dealer i thought that it would still give some sort of comparison, i know it is not a great way of doing it, but as i said it was just a quick bit of fun.

[smokestack]

If you had a few hundred oz's of silver or a few monster boxes how would you sell them quickly?  A dealer wont take in to account the VAT you paid so 20% down for a start so your stuck with piecing the lot out on ebay or forums.

 

With gold those few hundred oz's of silver or monster boxes equate a few oz's of gold that any dealer will take with a minimum loss.

Very good points mr-dead,food for thought,i just realized on the vat front , my maples were from silver to go so no vat, but the other silver bars were from Atkinsons and so include vat. A far from scientific study i know .I take it your more a gold man then.

[Ares]

Very good points mr-dead,food for thought .I take it your more a gold man then.

I take it you've not seen his gold stack pics then, he's 3oz off a kilo of gold!

[smokestack]

I take it you've not seen his gold stack pics then, he's 3oz off a kilo of gold!

Holy cow Ares, just checked out mr-deads full gold stack list, that pretty much says which side of the fence he is on, that is one serious stack, i bet his mattress is a bit lumpy to sleep on .

[Stretch]

Just to add. Ideally if possible PM's should be held with strong hands ie cash in the bank so as not to be forced into selling in a deflationary environment only for PM's to go to the moon some time later.

[HelpingHands]

Did you notice whether the dealers give a better rate when trading (silver for gold)?

 

There has been some trader talk on you tube recently about going long silver and short gold to play the potentially closing ratio. 

[mr-dead]

I think if you want to play the GSR game the best bet is to use bullionvault.

[smokestack]

All great comments from everyone, i am still a bit unsure which way i will go with my future purchases, i am not very well off so my purchases will be quite small in comparison to some of the forum members, i will most likely go for a bit of each, as i mentioned i am more a saver than an investor or coin collector. This was just something i did for fun and is in no way accurate or something i will base my future plans on. Thanks again for all the points of view. Now how can i pass some more hours away?Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..........................................................................

[mr-dead]

If your more of a saver have a look here -

 

http://www.goldline.co.uk/goldsavers.page

 

buy little and often then convert to a nice bigger bar/coin

[smokestack]

Thanks for that mr dead, do you know what their delivery charges are, i cannot seem to see them on the site.

[mr-dead]

cost me £6.25 on a 1/4 oz gold panda and £7.50 on a 1oz gold Angel (RM special delivery used)

[smokestack]

cost me £6.25 on a 1/4 oz gold panda and £7.50 on a 1oz gold Angel (RM special delivery used)

Thank you their prices look pretty good, i have not looked at this company yet.