Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

My two cents... I suggest spreading your preps across the board.

I like junk silver: It is easy to transport, easy to use, and recognizable. Gold is great but it is a little to difficult to move should the SHTF. You run the risk of losing a lot. If you get it, get it to put it away and save for the next regime.

I like barter supplies: I like to have extra bullets, cigarets (we don't smoke here in this house hold), alcohol (also in small bottles), first aid, food, and water. As mentioned above each person in any scenario that you come across will have different needs. If you just have gold bullion and the person you are bartering with needs needs water, food, or some other such items, gold will not do a dam thing for them, they will have to find some one else to barter with that wants the gold. That is a lot of extra work for someone who may just want to feed his starving child.

Just my two cents. Hope this helps.

If you're prepping for zombies silver will also cover you for other Slavic folklore monsters such as werewolves and vampires.

Plant some wolfsbane and garlic in the survival garden too.

Seriously though silver is overpriced now, like gold. Buy in the past via your time machine or wait.

As someone else mentioned high silver content dimes and quarters (noted by a disjunctive "ping" when dropped on a hard surface) are likely the best bet for now.

Kreutz wrote:Seriously though silver is overpriced now, like gold. Buy in the past via your time machine or wait.

A high price doesn't mean it's overpriced. Supply and demand. Lots of other technical indicators show it's actually cheap and the trend is still up. Bubbles don't usually last over a decade, although it's possible.

Ifyou have the cash for it...get it. However I don't have the cash for that right now. If the collapse comes I will be trading in brass, snickers, and alcohol.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

gunderwood wrote:A high price doesn't mean it's overpriced. Supply and demand. Lots of other technical indicators show it's actually cheap and the trend is still up. Bubbles don't usually last over a decade, although it's possible.

I'm just saying with things as they are if one has extra cash on hand not sure I'd want to tie it up in silver. The return...doesn't seem likely to manifest. IIRC silver is more volatile than gold.

I'm not a PM guy.

Kreutz wrote:

gunderwood wrote:A high price doesn't mean it's overpriced. Supply and demand. Lots of other technical indicators show it's actually cheap and the trend is still up. Bubbles don't usually last over a decade, although it's possible.

I'm just saying with things as they are if one has extra cash on hand not sure I'd want to tie it up in silver. The return...doesn't seem likely to manifest. IIRC silver is more volatile than gold.

I'm not a PM guy.

I hear ya. Want some books on ethical money production and the history of currencies? Might change your mind; it did mine.

That's the key difference, I'm not looking for a return in dollars. I buy silver and gold like I buy extra ammo, for use during a rainy day, not to sell for a profit later (although that happens on occasion, but mostly as a way to rebalance what I have and need). Same would be true of water, food, alcohol, etc. It's just that most commodities work well only in a barter system. Silver and gold work in a monetary system as well. The world always seems to revert to them. It's hard to understand simply because 3 generations of Americans basically know nothing but fiat currency. Look at it from a world history perspective and it's different. Of course the gods of fiat currency insist that this time it's different, but then again, don't they always?

Funny you mention that, I also noticed people always seem to view PMs as...a dollar based investment. Even people who claim to know better.

"The dollar is going to collapse any month now, holy crap, my gold is up to $1475/oz, thats great!"

The fact the gold is likely in an ETF only adds a "wtf" level to it all.

Still thinking of their gold as dollars, when it was bought as a hedge against the dollar...puzzling. Its like short selling yourself.

This is why I'm not a PM guy. The world (and peoples psychology) are still fixated on dollars.

Kreutz wrote:Funny you mention that, I also noticed people always seem to view PMs as...a dollar based investment. Even people who claim to know better.

"The dollar is going to collapse any month now, holy crap, my gold is up to $1475/oz, thats great!"

That's a somewhat valid criticism, but comparing it to other assets is natural. Dow in Gold (DiG), gold/silver ratio, gold/silver in dollars, etc. Unfortunately, the IRS encourages this type of thinking because of income and capital gain taxes. It's just a comparison human beings do all the time, but like I noted, if that is your primary way of viewing your investment of gold/silver, you'll likely loose actual dollars since you won't be able to tolerate the volatility. People do the same thing with stocks too. i.e. their account value went down, thus the "right" thing to do is move into bonds where they won't make any money because the rates are so low. Never mind how much money they will loose when rates rise after the economy recovers...whenever that is (missed opportunity cost as well).

I've bought some at higher prices than today and some at lower prices. It's like buying stocks for retirement, the sound advice is to not pay any attention to the daily move or even mid-term trends. If you believe that long term the asset is a good way to invest for <insert reason>, then just keep buying periodically regardless of the price in dollars.

Kreutz wrote:The fact the gold is likely in an ETF only adds a "wtf" level to it all. Still thinking of their gold as dollars, when it was bought as a hedge against the dollar...puzzling. Its like short selling yourself.

IMHO, EFTs in commodities are like day trading stocks. It's not about the item because there is no intent to hold long term or use it directly. That's what I mean when you want dollars -> PMs -> dollars. The end game is to get more dollars. As a hedge against rainy days, EFTs make no sense IMHO.

Kreutz wrote:This is why I'm not a PM guy. The world (and peoples psychology) are still fixated on dollars.

Like Revolutions, people and governments usually miss the early signs of significant change...and then it happens very quickly. Yes, the world is still fixated on dollars and I expect it to remain so for the near future. However, major dollar holders like the Chinese appear to be making plans for the dollars collapse. Just my two cents.


The right answer is periodic purchasing of diverse investment products. I buy stocks, I buy gold, I buy silver, I buy ammo, I buy firearms, I buy alcohol, I buy food, I buy water, etc., etc. I also save dollars, both on hand and in the bank (especially useful since the world still operates on dollars). I buy these things in paper form as well as physical. Buying periodically, I essentially dollar cost average. Some are up, some are down, but in general I'm always up because that is the long term trend; if the asset you're buying isn't long term up, then your basically trying to time the market/day trade. You can count the number of people on one hand that have successfully timed the market over the long term. Sure, we all have examples where it worked out, but then we also have examples where it didn't. Generally, we don't like talking about our failures.

A word of caution to anyone looking to buy silver. Do NOT buy anything called "German Silver". There is not a bit of silver in it. It's an alloy. Also called nickel silver.

Well well, looks like a correction coming in precious metals based on Cyprus Panic! Good. That'll make the prices cheaper for the rest of us. Would love for all the speculators to bail!