Investing in physical zinc or nickel?

[EdwardTeach]

The reason we invest in gold, silver and platinum is because we’re expecting the price of these metals to rise faster than inflation due to a commodities bull market over the next decade. Bearing this in mind there are several other rare earth metals which are also expect to rise rapidly in price just as quickly, or maybe even faster, than gold or silver. Some of these metals such as copper are too bulky to store at home in large enough quantities to make it worthwhile while other metals such as uranium are just downright dangerous and illegal.

However there are two metals which have caught my interest as potential options for a physical investment. Zinc and nickel while not as value dense as gold and silver are still worth quite a lot per kg so they won’t be too bulky to store at home. They’re also highly resistant to corrosion, safe to store and are widely available in either sheet or rod form as people regularly buy them to use as DIY electroplating anodes.

Does anyone else think it might be worth buying a few hundred pounds worth of pure zinc or nickel rods, storing them away for a few years, then selling them on eBay after they (hopefully) double in value?

Edited January 30, 2023 by EdwardTeach

[modofantasma]

Have you heard of Kyle Bass?

https://www.thesilverforum.com/topic/59404-i-wonder-how-kyle-basss-day-is-going/#comment-624070

[EdwardTeach]

I can't read that thread as I'm not a Premium Member of the forum. Who is Kyle Bass and what does he have to do with zinc and nickel?

[modofantasma]

5 minutes ago, EdwardTeach said:

I can't read that thread as I'm not a Premium Member of the forum. Who is Kyle Bass and what does he have to do with zinc and nickel?

https://coinweek.com/bullion-report/the-nickel-hoarding-billionaire/

[EdwardTeach]

Interesting and thanks for the link but I'm not considering buying US coins. I'm more interested in the prospect of buying some nickel or zinc bars in their pure element form rather than US minted 'Nickel' coins.

Edited January 30, 2023 by EdwardTeach

[Bigmarc]

Looks like there is a small second hand market on eBay. Maybe worth buying a bit and then selling on to see if there is a market for it. I collect pewter (98% tin). The second hand market is pretty good as hobbyist use it to make figures. 

For some reason copper does pretty well on eBay. Wonder if scrappys buy it up as there is an abundance of it. 

[ArgentSmith]

3 hours ago, EdwardTeach said:

The reason we invest in gold, silver and platinum is because we’re expecting the price of these metals to rise faster than inflation due to a commodities bull market over the next decade. Bearing this in mind there are several other rare earth metals which are also expect to rise rapidly in price just as quickly, or maybe even faster, than gold or silver. Some of these metals such as copper are too bulky to store at home in large enough quantities to make it worthwhile while other metals such as uranium are just downright dangerous and illegal.

However there are two metals which have caught my interest as potential options for a physical investment. Zinc and nickel while not as value dense as gold and silver are still worth quite a lot per kg so they won’t be too bulky to store at home. They’re also highly resistant to corrosion, safe to store and are widely available in either sheet or rod form as people regularly buy them to use as DIY electroplating anodes.

Does anyone else think it might be worth buying a few hundred pounds worth of pure zinc or nickel rods, storing them away for a few years, then selling them on eBay after they (hopefully) double in value?

Shares or ETF (if there is such a thing) in an ISA or SIPP?

[SidS]

I'd say nickel has potential. I'm not so sure about zinc. It's not that zinc doesn't have uses or potential, it just that zinc has the possibility of degrading (see Zinc pest). It will develop oxides and it will corrode. Same with pure tin (see Tin pest).

The reason gold, silver and platinum do well is because they are unreactive and thus store well.

Nickel is pretty hardy as well.

[EdwardTeach]

22 minutes ago, SidS said:

I'd say nickel has potential. I'm not so sure about zinc. It's not that zinc doesn't have uses or potential, it just that zinc has the possibility of degrading (see Zinc pest). It will develop oxides and it will corrode. Same with pure tin (see Tin pest).

The reason gold, silver and platinum do well is because they are unreactive and thus store well.

Nickel is pretty hardy as well.

Thanks for the info. :)

[MetalMandible]

It always seemed worthwhile to flip cheaper alternative metals after going through the process of melting them down and pouring bars.  Relatively inexpensive aside from the initial costs and assuming one is competent enough to do it correctly, there would be a substantial market for stackers. 

I suppose this would mainly apply to zinc or copper, but if you look up the market price of a metal like copper based on weight and compared it to pure bars or rounds, you'll find an overwhelming tendency for absolutely insane premiums.

Edited January 31, 2023 by MetalMandible

[Silverlocks]

On 30/01/2023 at 14:27, EdwardTeach said:

The reason we invest in gold, silver and platinum is because we’re expecting the price of these metals to rise faster than inflation due to a commodities bull market over the next decade. Bearing this in mind there are several other rare earth metals which are also expect to rise rapidly in price just as quickly, or maybe even faster, than gold or silver. Some of these metals such as copper are too bulky to store at home in large enough quantities to make it worthwhile while other metals such as uranium are just downright dangerous and illegal.

However there are two metals which have caught my interest as potential options for a physical investment. Zinc and nickel while not as value dense as gold and silver are still worth quite a lot per kg so they won’t be too bulky to store at home. They’re also highly resistant to corrosion, safe to store and are widely available in either sheet or rod form as people regularly buy them to use as DIY electroplating anodes.

Does anyone else think it might be worth buying a few hundred pounds worth of pure zinc or nickel rods, storing them away for a few years, then selling them on eBay after they (hopefully) double in value?

Similarly to copper, nickel ingots sell on the retail/secondary market at a big multiple of the actual spot price (about 675% from a quick sample of vendors on Ebay).  I think that you'd have to see a really big movement in spot to cover your spreads, so it's pretty iffy as to whether you could make money on this trading it in the sort of quantities an ordinary schmoe could stack.

Edited January 31, 2023 by Silverlocks