Where to Start

[Miganto]

6 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

When the price is right and I'm ready to buy then I will upgrade to the Silver membership, I'm going to be collecting Gold Britannias I think, with a few nice pieces of Silver

I was thinking the exact same with some sovereigns thrown in for smaller chunks of money which are just over spot to trade away if i need to cash in a little.

[Smoggy]

30 minutes ago, Miganto said:

I was thinking the exact same with some sovereigns thrown in for smaller chunks of money which are just over spot to trade away if i need to cash in a little.

However I could buy now at £1200 and if it Drops to £1000 buy again and my average would be £1100
Cost averaging it down

[Miganto]

3 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

However I could buy now at £1200 and if it Drops to £1000 buy again and my average would be £1100
Cost averaging it down

That's a very.... specific way of looking at it

[DarkChameleon]

If what you want is a government known pension and not some pot you can draw out of to boost your state pension then I'd say to get onboard a pension device more then silver or gold, if your heart is set on precious metals then maybe an etf which is owning the value but not the physical metal because stashed can be stolen then you lose it all...and most home insurance policies won't cover it unless specified and categorized.

if buying now then it's swings and roundabouts for generic or bullion or collectable precious metal, you pay.more but get more back, collectables are the highest risk because they are not based on precious metal prices but rarity and demand.

Gold is a higher price which means you have to.hit larger sums to buy it and avoid the fractionals because their premium is too high.

You can buy sovereigns which ate internationally known but some dealers prefer .999 content over historical coins, Britannias are best for Britain as Eagles are for America...you pay premiums over generic but get much of that back if selling privatly, you can also get much the same for poured metal with paying slightly over spot and selling for the same price over spot if private selling.

Silver sounds great but if you are keeping it at home it's going to add up bulk wise compared to gold...think how many ounces of silver it's going to take to hold a £10,000 stash, now think the same for gold, and dont.think about converting it later on, the sell to buy ratio with dealers will.cut you to pieces.

There is another option which is to buy and sell jewelry, you can buy cheap, near spot, in fact if your willing to keep powder in your keg and hold for the right deals you can get significantly under spot which is good because most dealers only pay 70%-80% Of spot when buying jewelry so you need to find good places to buy and sell to make the most return....the benefit is you can buy solid gold at 9k, 14k,18k as you finances allow, gold takes up less room, you should avoid stones until.you are able to judge their weight against your offer and if you have an eye for it them find some good pieces and have them consigned (checking and allowing for consignment commission when buying as in, is this piece worth 50% more then I'm paying if sold in retail to cover the commission which can be 30% and make me money on top?).

It's all choices but expect that this is going to be a supplement to your pension not the whole thing because starting at 40 is 20 years too late for a full pension.

You might want to look at selling things you don't use now while they still have value and putting that into your pension device be it a fund, ETF , silver, gold, jewelry etc....but one rule, d ont have more then 20% Of your pension in metals...they can sit dormant for decades while the market makes high returns...i would say if the market hits a recession and you have metals then wait till around 18 months to 2 years after the recession begins to sell out of your metals as this is usually the highest for metals to market ratio. then reinvest in metals when the markets are high because that's when metals are at their lowest.

I hope all that helps.

So in conclusion

cheapest way in is generics, second hand  jewerly or ETF.

Cheapest way out is private sales and ETF.

Best way to make money is trade often which profits allow you to walk away with enough and have replacement deals ready to jump at quickly.

Find a good jewelry shop and start a relationship for free testing and consigning and to learn from especially if buying to consign.

Get to know refiners and their purchase cost for when a deal.comes along and you need cash fast to take advantage of it, better to lose a little to make a lot.

Don't buy what you like but what others will like, your not going to be the final buyer others will so buy what they like and wait to get that deal, even on eBay, you can sort out newest listed and offers on buying style then offer quickly before the main buyers even see it...i have got jewelry for under 80% Of spot that could be sold on the same day it arrives.

 

[silenceissilver]

It is 20 years too late as DarkChameleon has point out,  that's why there are these options:

You earn enough to compensate for it.

You speculate and risk to have even less or nothing, in the worst case.

You put up with a small pension.
 

Another thing to consider with PMs as pension - you don't know for how long you will live. Maybe you save for 20 or 30 years and then you happen to become the oldest person alive. Even if you don't, we don't know how old we get, some get older than others.You might save for x years and live y years, additionally.

So with PMs it might be worthwhile to swap them into something else at the start of your pension, either an incoming producing asset (but that would be a small regular income if you have an average income) or into  a private pension pot that will give you a pension till you die, regardless of when this happens. What would be the point, not to do it now but to buy PMs now? The demographic situation in the West is bad (in two ways, not enough children plus replacement level migration with the possibility that the inter generational contract will be revoked (a nightmare scenario, let's hope we will see a resolution to our existential demographic problem starting soon - even then it will take a long time to be fixed but it would avoid the worst)), the economic outlook seems to point towards a reset which could mean private insurances that offer you a pot to pay in, might go bankrupt in the next few years or at least before you will have reached your pension age, plus if this happens, PMs might go up in value considerably in the course of such a reset while they are still not nearly as risky as paper or digital assets - that can go to zero. This being said and not knowing how much you earn, I would consider splitting it between PMs and cryptos - I think they will go up very strongly (at least some of them) but of course there is the risk they might go to zero. Thus I would mainly invest into PMs and a small amount into cryptos. This is no financial advise, there are pros and cons to every possibility. It's just my opinion and what I do for myself anyway, PMs and cryptos. In terms of PMs, I would also mainly go for gold, simply because silver for you whole pension would take a huge space.

[DarkChameleon]

1 hour ago, silenceissilver said:

It is 20 years too late as DarkChameleon has point out,  that's why there are these options:

You earn enough to compensate for it.

You speculate and risk to have even less or nothing, in the worst case.

You put up with a small pension.
 

Another thing to consider with PMs as pension - you don't know for how long you will live. Maybe you save for 20 or 30 years and then you happen to become the oldest person alive. Even if you don't, we don't know how old we get, some get older than others.You might save for x years and live y years, additionally.

So with PMs it might be worthwhile to swap them into something else at the start of your pension, either an incoming producing asset (but that would be a small regular income if you have an average income) or into  a private pension pot that will give you a pension till you die, regardless of when this happens. What would be the point, not to do it now but to buy PMs now? The demographic situation in the West is bad (in two ways, not enough children plus replacement level migration with the possibility that the inter generational contract will be revoked (a nightmare scenario, let's hope we will see a resolution to our existential demographic problem starting soon - even then it will take a long time to be fixed but it would avoid the worst)), the economic outlook seems to point towards a reset which could mean private insurances that offer you a pot to pay in, might go bankrupt in the next few years or at least before you will have reached your pension age, plus if this happens, PMs might go up in value considerably in the course of such a reset while they are still not nearly as risky as paper or digital assets - that can go to zero. This being said and not knowing how much you earn, I would consider splitting it between PMs and cryptos - I think they will go up very strongly (at least some of them) but of course there is the risk they might go to zero. Thus I would mainly invest into PMs and a small amount into cryptos. This is no financial advise, there are pros and cons to every possibility. It's just my opinion and what I do for myself anyway, PMs and cryptos. In terms of PMs, I would also mainly go for gold, simply because silver for you whole pension would take a huge space.

That's one reason I recommend jewelry, it's worked for women and Jews for millenia, to collect at spot and then sell as you need after or if you come by a quick return now then sell items as the deal comes along, starting with gold and no stones now, if you feel it's risky then invest in a neodymium magnet, a professional gold tester and acid test set,they might add up to $900 equivalent but will pay for themselves in just one case of buying 20 grams of junk which really is junk...as you get more experienced you will know what sells and can consign with little cost added to sell for sometimes double or triple what you paid then keep on reinvesting, gold is easier to buy, sell or stash, I can walk around with $10,000 of gold in my pocket which takes up less room then $10,000 in $100 bills...you never take all your stash out when taking to the jewelry stores to shop around for consigning (you can easily take clean pictures to show the shop to see if they are interested)so you don't lose the lot in a mugging and can hold the lot in a small sdb....unengraved wedding ring can sell for 2 times its gold content from a shop, a nice necklace easily twice and when your paying 10% commision that's 90% profit in a few days or weeks...oh and they are looking after your gold then, not you....play that game for 40 years and you will, if never touching the profit for more then reinvesting will make a tidy little pension to draw down o  when you want and not be forced to buy an annuity in one given year wether the market is up or down.

Another thing is when you're buying from ebay you can often tell value by the feedback of the highest bidder, if it's 1500 or over then it's probably a dealer so just outbid them to get a nice profit, a dealer requires 100% profit on deals to pay for their costs, you dont, you can cope with 95% profit...lol.

[Serendipity]

I stack both silver and gold but always try to prioritise buying gold over silver. Gold is the go-to precious metal.

[DarkChameleon]

6 minutes ago, Serendipity said:

I stack both silver and gold but always try to prioritise buying gold over silver. Gold is the go-to precious metal.

Gold is a great hedge, it is nowhere near as volatile as silver, my main stash is gold, my dealing stash is gold too, but I have 300 oz of tradable silver too...if it's for investing short term then silver is more likely to jump another 50% then gold is, it seems the public will buy silver when they want a few hundred in 'just in case' things...women though will opt for old faithful, jewelry, cos they tend to not buy it for themselves and can leverage some sweet pieces of it...I should know, I've bought enough of it off them when they kick the old hubby out for the new one...lol.

[silenceissilver]

39 minutes ago, DarkChameleon said:

That's one reason I recommend jewelry, it's worked for women and Jews for millenia, to collect at spot and then sell as you need after or if you come by a quick return now then sell items as the deal comes along, starting with gold and no stones now, if you feel it's risky then invest in a neodymium magnet, a professional gold tester and acid test set,they might add up to $900 equivalent but will pay for themselves in just one case of buying 20 grams of junk which really is junk...as you get more experienced you will know what sells and can consign with little cost added to sell for sometimes double or triple what you paid then keep on reinvesting, gold is easier to buy, sell or stash, I can walk around with $10,000 of gold in my pocket which takes up less room then $10,000 in $100 bills...you never take all your stash out when taking to the jewelry stores to shop around for consigning (you can easily take clean pictures to show the shop to see if they are interested)so you don't lose the lot in a mugging and can hold the lot in a small sdb....unengraved wedding ring can sell for 2 times its gold content from a shop, a nice necklace easily twice and when your paying 10% commision that's 90% profit in a few days or weeks...oh and they are looking after your gold then, not you....play that game for 40 years and you will, if never touching the profit for more then reinvesting will make a tidy little pension to draw down o  when you want and not be forced to buy an annuity in one given year wether the market is up or down.

Another thing is when you're buying from ebay you can often tell value by the feedback of the highest bidder, if it's 1500 or over then it's probably a dealer so just outbid them to get a nice profit, a dealer requires 100% profit on deals to pay for their costs, you dont, you can cope with 95% profit...lol.

What clearly puts me off jewellery is I wouldn't know how to be sure how much gold ( or silver) it contains and if it's even real. With coins (and bars), I can do a specific gravity test or in my case I even have a Sigma precious metal verifier pro. Jewellery often has so much clobber tightly connected to the gold, it seems to me you are much more reliant on your gut feeling. One part might be made of base metals with a seemingly fluent transition to the PM part and so on.

[DarkChameleon]

4 hours ago, silenceissilver said:

What clearly puts me off jewellery is I wouldn't know how to be sure how much gold ( or silver) it contains and if it's even real. With coins (and bars), I can do a specific gravity test or in my case I even have a Sigma precious metal verifier pro. Jewellery often has so much clobber tightly connected to the gold, it seems to me you are much more reliant on your gut feeling. One part might be made of base metals with a seemingly fluent transition to the PM part and so on.

One thing I'd do to begin is start a relationship with a jeweler and they could test your items, my first buys were wedding rings, one color, no attachments or stones to worry about, a simple gold price calculator can tell you the weight to karat price...you can have it open on,your phone when you buy, get a small set of scales to double check the weights that is claimed is right and don't buy wedding rings or any piece of jewelry that's monogrammed or engraved, get a neodymium magnet to test on the fly, the magnet and an acid test set can be used for silver too, you can get a cheaper gold tester if you don't want you local JS to test for you...but a relationship with that place can give you a foot in on having a sale sman to sell your stuff under consignment, try buying a nice bracelet, don't pay anymore then spot, that's including the shipping costs...look for those for sale on ebay with offers and then if you like it to offer 90% of spot for that karat, then go to a shop you already made sure do consignment and allow for their commision and see if they can sell for your cost plus their fee and make you a nice profit as a percentage of your cost to buy, even a 20% is acceptable because if you held onto gold or silver and wait to get to a 20% profit your might be waiting for a long time....try it...one piece, that appeals to your wife or your daughter and check with your local jeweler and make sure they know that if your not there to ask that they sell for no less then the equivalent of their fees and a minimum of 20% more then your cost Inc s&h.....you get a good eye for what people want and see what's good and not beaten up...no scratches or bent or worn out.

[silenceissilver]

19 hours ago, DarkChameleon said:

One thing I'd do to begin is start a relationship with a jeweler and they could test your items, my first buys were wedding rings, one color, no attachments or stones to worry about, a simple gold price calculator can tell you the weight to karat price...you can have it open on,your phone when you buy, get a small set of scales to double check the weights that is claimed is right and don't buy wedding rings or any piece of jewelry that's monogrammed or engraved, get a neodymium magnet to test on the fly, the magnet and an acid test set can be used for silver too, you can get a cheaper gold tester if you don't want you local JS to test for you...but a relationship with that place can give you a foot in on having a sale sman to sell your stuff under consignment, try buying a nice bracelet, don't pay anymore then spot, that's including the shipping costs...look for those for sale on ebay with offers and then if you like it to offer 90% of spot for that karat, then go to a shop you already made sure do consignment and allow for their commision and see if they can sell for your cost plus their fee and make you a nice profit as a percentage of your cost to buy, even a 20% is acceptable because if you held onto gold or silver and wait to get to a 20% profit your might be waiting for a long time....try it...one piece, that appeals to your wife or your daughter and check with your local jeweler and make sure they know that if your not there to ask that they sell for no less then the equivalent of their fees and a minimum of 20% more then your cost Inc s&h.....you get a good eye for what people want and see what's good and not beaten up...no scratches or bent or worn out.

Thanks for the adivce. It's not for me but it's good to know a bit about collecting gold in this form. Who knows, maybe in the future.

[DarkChameleon]

25 minutes ago, silenceissilver said:

Thanks for the adivce. It's not for me but it's good to know a bit about collecting gold in this form. Who knows, maybe in the future.

It's not for everyone but like anything if you enjoy what you do the work is half as hard.