*waves* from the Netherlands

[Sybilla]

Hi everyone! 

I am very new, but also very enthusiast about all the new things I am learning. I am mostly gathering information at this point and thinking about what I want to do for my first purchase. Does anyone here remember the thrill of their first purchase? Feel free to share stories! 

 

I would really enjoy finding some people to talk to, I hope I came to the right place for that

[stefffana]

Hi, @Sybilla! Welcome!🤗

Yes, you are in the best place possible if you are entering in the precious metals world!

 

 

[Dakaras]

Welcome 

[Gordy]

Welcome aboard

[ChrisSilver]

Hello to The Netherlands 👋 and welcome to The Silver Forum  

[daca]

Welcome aboard!

[bilko]

welcome my friend

[Norskgeld]

Welkom.

[Oddjob]

G'Day and welcome.

[LawrenceChard]

1 hour ago, Sybilla said:

Hi everyone! 

I am very new, but also very enthusiast about all the new things I am learning. I am mostly gathering information at this point and thinking about what I want to do for my first purchase. Does anyone here remember the thrill of their first purchase? Feel free to share stories! 

I would really enjoy finding some people to talk to, I hope I came to the right place for that

 

1 hour ago, Gordy said:

Welcome aboard

 

48 minutes ago, daca said:

Welcome aboard!

Be very careful going onboard.

TSF members are notoriously unlucky with boating accidents!

😎

Edited June 25, 2022 by LawrenceChard

[Agpanda]

Hi and welcome from Sweden!

[Sybilla]

Thank you all for the warm welcomes

[StackerBritt]

Hello and welcome 

[James32]

Welcome aboard and enjoy the journey. 

[Happypanda88]

Hello! Welcome to the forum.

[Agaumac]

Hello and welcome to TSF, enjoy 

[BackyardBullion]

Welcome to the forum!

[Rashka]

Welcome to the forum! dit is de beste plaat om meer te leren over zilver en goud!

[FourNinesFine]

Welcome.

I remember my first purchase very well. That feeling of being like a child on Christmas morning, unwrapping something shiny, special; while simultaneously feeling all grown up... making investment decisions and spending my money 'sensibly'.

Have a good look around the forum, there's plenty to help new stackers. Special mention for the threads that detail different members' thoughts on the merits of gold over silver and vice versa.  Concepts such as 'VAT', 'CGT', 'premiums', 'liquidity' etc. It helped me a lot and was a good early grounding in the world of PMs. One example:

 

 

FNF.

[LemmyMcGregor]

Welcome to the asylum 🤠

[Sybilla]

1 hour ago, FourNinesFine said:

Welcome.

I remember my first purchase very well. That feeling of being like a child on Christmas morning, unwrapping something shiny, special; while simultaneously feeling all grown up... making investment decisions and spending my money 'sensibly'.

Have a good look around the forum, there's plenty to help new stackers. Special mention for the threads that detail different members' thoughts on the merits of gold over silver and vice versa.  Concepts such as 'VAT', 'CGT', 'premiums', 'liquidity' etc. It helped me a lot and was a good early grounding in the world of PMs. One example:

 

 

FNF.

That is a very intestering topic! Thank you for sharing it with me. 

You are also the first one to share his first experience with buying silver. The whole market seems a little bit overwhelming to me. There are so many things to learn still. 

[LemmyMcGregor]

Get your feet wet and focus in one direction, because if you ask 10 people in here you'll get 11 different answers, possibly more, as we all different budgets, goals and taste.

In my case it's very simple.

Discussed precious metals with some friends over the Winter and got curious, in March I decided to buy a couple of Silver Britannia to get started and I started researrching the market to understand what better fits my goals, in my case, I'm a stacker that would mindn't being a collector, but I just don't have the money for it. I mean, silver is pretty and have you seen those Korean shield!? 😍 I still can't afford them, so I try to ignore those threads, but they are so pretty...

Anyway, at this point is when I decided how to move and I wrote the above post, Strategy, I don't like Silver, am I wrong? For my perspective, late to the game and on a budget, I felt served best by low premium items, which means gold, as Silver premium are ridicolous and they are topped by VAT. I reached a compromise by buying mostly gold, occasionally getting the odd Silver coin (presently decided to focus on the Tudors) and then looking around for silver scrap, that's how I fell in love with half crowns and florins. I then got some some copper rounds, but that's because I grew up playing D&D, WoW was a good chunk of my life and I really want to have coppers around the house, also, decided to display some coins on a shelf and I thought they looked nice.

And they do look pretty, I've seen a nice Mayan copper round that I want to get at some point.

Also, I think many are not sharing because they have shared time and again, there ar plenty of good threads around

 

[FourNinesFine]

49 minutes ago, Sybilla said:

The whole market seems a little bit overwhelming to me. There are so many things to learn still. 

Yes, it can feel like that.

You mention silver so I'll assume that's what you're intending to as your first purchase(s). I'm also going to assume that you're using money that is specifically for this purpose (I mean, as the age old saying goes... only using money you could afford to lose).

If that's the case, you really can't go wrong.  I'm based in the UK where buying silver currently incurs VAT at 20%. This isn't helpful from an investment perspective. However, I don't believe you should have those issues. Therefore, what you'll need to be mindful of is the premium - the difference between the silver spot price and what you're paying for it (generally calculated per troy ounce (ozt)). And that is quite high - especially when compared to gold. Buying 'bigger' items - 5oz / 10oz / 1kg etc. usually brings the premium down but also pushes the unit price up depending on your budget. I believe there's usually a lower premium on bars compared to coins and rounds too... but I'm not an expert in that field. All this said..., as long as you're mindful of these factors and you're doing your due diliegence on price and vendor, then you shouldn't have too many things to worry about.

Just go at your own pace and buy things you like.

For what it's worth, I started with a view that I wanted to invest solely in silver as I believed gold to be too expensive to be viable. I've now changed my mind on that and I pick up fractional gold (individual items that weigh less than 1ozt) for my long term investment goals, whilst still buying very specific silver items that I like. Shout out to the Somali Elephant and St. Michael's shield.

You're definitely in the right place. And you're doing the right thing. Keep asking questions. This forum loves a specific question... but even a vague one is OK because we've all been where you are. And some of us aren't that far in front. 

[LemmyMcGregor]

23 minutes ago, FourNinesFine said:

I believe there's usually a lower premium on bars compared to coins and rounds too...

I have looked much into this, but obviously, being that low premiums is my goal I did investigate the lower end of the spectrum, Sovereigns have a lower premium that any bar that I have seen in that range, matter of fact, I think that you need a 50g bar to get a premium lower than a Sovereign. Popularity probably has a lot to do with it.

[FourNinesFine]

Thanks @LemmyMcGregor. I was referring to silver specifically.

In terms of gold though, I pretty much stack sovereigns exclusively given their 'best value' status from what I can gather, across many different metrics.