What is to much

[Pipers]

Collecting coins or stacking, both are what the hoarder of precious metals like to call themselves. One the collector will search out the special coin up to his or her budget allows or what he considers the coin be worth.  The stacker will pay a % above spot or fix for coins or bars and this varies depending on the said coin the % does not varry unless he believes the spot/fix price is low.  

When buying coins one has to do a bit of research even if you are a stacker, a collector has to research a lot more.  One example is the Perth Lunar series and its popularity it is all the rave and has been for a few years now with Youtuber's raving about the coins, one good point of the Perth mint is the easy reference to mintage figures this allows the collector/stacker to easily check how many coins were minted. 

I am not saying to anyone do not pay well inflated prices as it is up to you  its your money just remember do not think you will get the premium back when you  come to sell your much loved coin.  There maybe a new coin in town thats all the rave on Youtube!!!!

     

[Cornishfarmer]

As a collector I buy what I like rather than what is the rage.    I've paid too much for some coins but because I like them I'm not too worried.     My biggest fear is when gold gets to the price that I've set myself to sell is that I like my collection too much to part with.       If I was a stacker and the gold spot went down by £100 I'd be mad with myself for paying too much.     The thing I like with it all is that a collector coin is only £50/£100 more than bullion and that's only a night out with the Mrs..... I know what I'd rather have... (But don't tell her!!!!!)

personally I think gold is £100 over priced at moment but one thing for sure is if I hadn't been investing in gold I would have as much cash in the bank as I spent on it.

also it's daft to think that I'd pay as much for a 31g piece of metal than I would on a family holiday and still think the coin is good value.

are we all mad for investing in pm's....... Probably but only time will tell

[daz]

same as above , i see myself more as a collector , so i pay what i think its worth to me rather than what its worth in the future . i do realise thats most probably the wrong way to go about things but i do like buying shiny thngs. 

 

[SilverPirate]

You only live once, you earn't the money if it gives you pleasure to own it, and look at i,t buy it i say, if you sell it later because you have too, and you made a loss,tough tits, at least you had something to sell. 

You pay what you can comfortably live with spending.i would not pay £250 for a sovereign, i would not pay £33 for a Silver Eagle now .I would consider paying up for that new Queens beast coin,because i like it, its all relevant to your desire.

I would not buy metals if the wife needed the money  more than my desire to increase the stack. Even if it was a bargain.

[Kman]

36 minutes ago, Pipers said:

I am not saying to anyone do not pay well inflated prices as it is up to you  its your money just remember do not think you will get the premium back when you  come to sell your much loved coin.  There maybe a new coin in town thats all the rave on Youtube!!!!   

If you're buying purely hoping for a numismatic profit, the safer bet is the coins with history behind them vs new series

Old sovereigns and US gold, there will always be collectors for that, they're a part of history, if you can get them at a good price it's not likely you can go wrong

Or a more modern coin, can't go wrong with pandas, nice designs and lots of collectors 

On the other hand, a modern stand alone set like The Gods Of Olympus from the Perth Mint (which was pretty hyped up), who knows if people will care about them in a few years

 

[SilverPirate]

3 minutes ago, Kman said:

On the other hand, a modern stand alone set like The Gods Of Olympus from the Perth Mint (which was pretty hyped up), who knows if people will care about them in a few years

 

I agree i think there is a time span to cash in on products that are all the rage, say two to three years ,take the zombucks silver when that first came out it was like beanie baby's they where going mad for them.

[Paul]

Using a dollar costs average strategy & trying buy regular and often.  Both silver and gold.   

I don't follow a set path of collecting/stacking, I don't go seeking too hard anything in particular.  

But what you find by buying regular and often there is ALWAYS 'something' of interest on given buying day, when you have a few hundred sheckles to spend

This month I'm stacking cash.  Dont need to buy but a few extra £ in the bank will be there for next month, but if something come along in the meantime and catches my eye the cash is there 

Last month, with the big rises in spot I didn't really want to buy anything but a 2012 & 2005 full sovereign (didn't have either) locally for same price as normal sovereigns, so got them

Month previous was a roll of x20 (2005) kookaburras sealed cheap price - bought

Pay day the month before was Christmas so just made a few single silver coin purchases via eBay, but plug some year gaps in date runs

A few month prior I got (x2) x25 tubes of milky maples super cheap for a bit over spot £1.50 via eBay. 

By doing this fairly random approach my stack but has a very good collectable value & variety also have some core silver, some semi numis stuff and some genuine rarities. as it has been like this for several years now i have been stacking/collecting/getting value for money/saving cash/hoarding

You find complete year runs of kookaburras, britannias, lunar series come up quite often over a year.  If it aint there today, doesn't mean it wont be there next month or next year.

ALWAYS go for value first, dont go chasing and paying extra £ for a missing year that is essentially just an oz of silver/gold.

Well thats my 2ps worth anyway  i

[Webster]

Being a poor student I buy whatever is lowest, I like to diversify, junk, kilos, coins whatever contains silver. I pay no more than £15 an ounce, except for one occasion where I have bought for £18.50 an ounce on a v rare 250g bar.

The money you save by buying cheap can be spent on other things like food, which I very much love

[HighlandTiger]

I've said this before, (and I'm sure people will disagree with me), but I'm afraid, that in 10-20 years time people will get seriously burned and will lose money on todays numis / semi numis. I've seen it happen in philately, One minute, every government stamp printer is pumping out the latest commemorative fad and the collectors go wild for them, a decade later you struggle to sell them at face value.

As more and more governments cotton on the the fact that money can be made by pumping out silver and gold coins, and all you have to do is 1.stick a chinese zodiac figure on it, 2. Stick on an ancient god of your choice, or 3 a nice cuddly animal of your choosing, and people will lap it up, desperate to complete their set. The problem is that there will never be enough demand from new collectors to both collect the hundreds of new sets AND want to buy the tons of old sets at a premium. Peoples pockets are just not that big. 

Collect what you like for sure, but you'll be deluding yourself if you think your collection of shiny white metal coins will be a good investment long term. If you collect modern issues you will only make a profit from short term flipping. Holding these coins long term and you'll see their relative value to spot fall each year. 

If you are buying silver to invest in, then buy the cheapest you can get your hands on, don't rely on the whims of collectors to ensure the premiums hold their values. Stick to silver where the only variable is the spot price, and all you have to worry about is timing your sales. 

[Guest]

Diversification is key here in terms of silver/gold old/new. I buy only what I like and avoid high mintages and commemoratives generally.

One has to understand that fashion plays a part and that can work for you or against you.

What I try to do is maintain 50 to 60% of everything I have over 80 years old and up to 200 years old.

It is unlikely that I will experienced massive growth in these coins but I believe that the numismatic premium will be maintained generally. These items have a much much longer track record behind them to establish value.

I also believe in buying slightly better than average condition items. I get more enjoyment from owning these items and I believe that in a market with thousands of similar things the condition will show a premium.

[Roy]

Value is subjective. An allegory.

Let’s say I go to an off licence and buy a bottle of Fosters for a pound. I can't say that the beer is worth one pound, as if they are two items of equal value. If it were true that the value of the beer and the value of the pound were the same, there would be no point in making the exchange; I’d be no better off for having bought the beer than I would be if I had kept the pound.

Consider the previous owner of the beer, the shop-keeper? Why would the shop-keeper give up a perfectly good beer in exchange for something of the same value, the pound? What would be the point?  For me, the beer was worth more than the pound, or else I wouldn't have gone to all the trouble of going to the store and making the exchange. For the shop-keeper, the beer was worth less than the pound, or else why would he have gone to all the trouble and expense of operating a business exchanging beers for pounds?

So, instead of values being absolutes, values fall on a scale, a scale of relative values.  For my scale of values, Stella was above Fosters, which was above pounds. The store didn't have any Stella but they did have Fosters, and I did have a pound. How much higher was the beer than the pound on my value scale? It's a meaningless question. Perhaps above pounds but below beers there were hundreds of things; things I valued higher than a pound but lower than a beer.

All that matters is that as I was standing in that off licence, looking at the beer and the £1 price tag, the quid in my pocket was worth less than the beer in front of me, and I made the exchange.

[KDave]

But Roy - which is worth more in 10 years - the beer or the pound? 

[Roy]

That's just it, everything you desire, be it beer or happiness, is worth more than the pound in your pocket.

[Webster]

The fact the central banks are constantly pumping more money into the system devalues the value of the pound. Look back 40 years, sure you could have bought silver cheaper, but the buying power of the pound was MUCH higher back then. I was born in the 90s, so I don't have the experience. But I do know that you cannot but much with the same amount of money as you could back in the day. Inflation and currency devaluation is just another form of taxation, so that our standard of living goes down. And this is only happening exponentially. So buying silver now before the purchasing power is completely destroyed and people lose faith in the currency, a new currency should be set up, backed by silver/gold. Silver is ridiculously cheap now. But yea I do not pay more than £15 an ounce unless it is ridiculously rare.

 

[vand]

On 06/04/2016 at 08:51, HighlandTiger said:

I've said this before, (and I'm sure people will disagree with me), but I'm afraid, that in 10-20 years time people will get seriously burned and will lose money on todays numis / semi numis. I've seen it happen in philately, One minute, every government stamp printer is pumping out the latest commemorative fad and the collectors go wild for them, a decade later you struggle to sell them at face value.

As more and more governments cotton on the the fact that money can be made by pumping out silver and gold coins, and all you have to do is 1.stick a chinese zodiac figure on it, 2. Stick on an ancient god of your choice, or 3 a nice cuddly animal of your choosing, and people will lap it up, desperate to complete their set. The problem is that there will never be enough demand from new collectors to both collect the hundreds of new sets AND want to buy the tons of old sets at a premium. Peoples pockets are just not that big. 

Collect what you like for sure, but you'll be deluding yourself if you think your collection of shiny white metal coins will be a good investment long term. If you collect modern issues you will only make a profit from short term flipping. Holding these coins long term and you'll see their relative value to spot fall each year. 

If you are buying silver to invest in, then buy the cheapest you can get your hands on, don't rely on the whims of collectors to ensure the premiums hold their values. Stick to silver where the only variable is the spot price, and all you have to worry about is timing your sales. 

OTOH, why buy generic when a beautiful kookaburra, libertad or elephant in the current year can be had for less than £1/oz more? Current year is the key. Of course if you go looking for the 2008 Panda to complete your collection then expect to pay through the nose. But hey, the person selling you that £50 panda.. he is the one who bought for £1 over the generic silver when people were making the argument that you are making. 

Point taken about Zombucks, but imo stick to the govt minted coins, avoid rounds, and you won't go far wrong in choosing current year semi-numismatic bullion and holding onto it for a few years.

[HighlandTiger]

On 4/8/2016 at 22:07, vand said:

OTOH, why buy generic when a beautiful kookaburra, libertad or elephant in the current year can be had for less than £1/oz more? 

I can buy generic flatware silver for around £11 an ounce at the moment, , I'm not sure you will find any of those coins for £12, not even if you buy a monster box.