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I have been sorting for and buying silver for years. Earlier this month, I just bought my first tenth ounce of gold. I would like to SELL some of my silver accumulation in order to free up funds to buy more gold. Market prediction is not my strong suit. Would like to hear some opinions on when (and maybe how) some of you think I should make some moves.
Thanks for your input.
Aaron

Trades are something to consider versus a buy/sell. short of that, I have no advice on timing

I know it's not very wise to talk about quantities, but I was thinking about calling APMEX to see what they would be willing to do for me, sending in a bag of 90% US junk, toward gold. Is that advisable?

I'm just trying to ask the best questions here... I have silver and want gold too. I don't want to get out of silver, I just want some of both. So I guess the questions are:
- Which one is predicted to outperform the other in the near term? Is this a bad time to do this?
- And are there other things on the "precious metals calendar" for August-September-October that I should wait out or what?

I would keep the 90% and sell off some of the 40% halves or war nickels to buy gold

Aaron, Check out the AU:AG ratio and set your trade point at a spot thats right for you. Thats what I do.

I called apmex for a trade once, they offered TERRIBLE rates... You could let yourself get ripped off and do better here, let alone if you found a good trade here.

Rodebaugh wrote:Aaron, Check out the AU:AG ratio and set your trade point at a spot thats right for you. Thats what I do.

Good idea. Would you be willing to share that personal ratio point with me?

Pennysaved wrote:I would keep the 90% and sell off some of the 40% halves or war nickels to buy gold

As would I. I don't really have any of that left, so my options are to either sell 90% or wait until I can afford gold after several more paychecks... which would probably be quite a while... and all the while I'm thinking I will be watching the price of gold continue upward.

i might consider a silver for gold trade depending on what you want.... I have the $5 gold comms I listed in the buy it now section, some pre33 gold, and some kruggerands. Obviously each carries different premiums.

Treetop wrote:I called apmex for a trade once, they offered TERRIBLE rates... You could let yourself get ripped off and do better here, let alone if you found a good trade here.

Do they not buy 90%? They sell it by the $100, $500 and $1000 bags. When looking at other pages, they have buy prices as well as sell prices. Hmmm...

One of the members TONYMAT offers fair rates for both 40% and 90%

Sending PM

yeah they buy it, and make trades. though i think theres a minimum dollar value thats not terribly low. i was looking to trade them some slabbed St. gaudens coins, for some un slabbed ones plus some silver... thinking I could split the premium of the slabbed coins with them for a win/win..... (Im not a slabbed coin fan)

instead they wanted to give me their buy price for the slabbed coins which was much lower then the sell price of the unslabbed coins. So i would of lost out big time rather then gain anything.

APMEX minimum sell is 1,000$ I believe. Personally, I think they have fair prices, a good track record, and easy to deal with

in a chat with one of them now.
i'm not going to commit to a trade today, but i want to know what to consider, and will probably do something this week if i can get a good ratio.
of course i am up to trade offers, so let me know thru PM. i have 90% to sell, mostly quarters, but also dollars, halves, dimes.

TXBullion wrote:APMEX minimum sell is 1,000$ I believe. Personally, I think they have fair prices, a good track record, and easy to deal with

for buying or selling alone perhaps.... the trade i tried to work out wouldnt even of given me 2 unslabbed coins, for my slabbed ones let alone splitting the difference in the premium of the slabbed ones as i was hoping. im sure you could beat the trade here most any time.

Have you decided what form of gold you want?

i got a quote just now for selling them $100 face Washington quarters.

Rodebaugh wrote:Have you decided what form of gold you want?

Yeah big differences... I pm'ed a list of what I have to uthminsta....

I am being overrun with information.
I have plenty of preferences, but I am also trying to be wise with the balance between lowest possible premium and most universally recognizable forms / denominations / countries. Does that make sense?

- I prefer Britannias, because I like British coins.
- I prefer coins from 2003 and 2005, because a large portion of the reason I am in precious metals is to make wise decisions that will affect my daughters. They would be given to them at some point...

I am going to go swimming with my girls, and think about this.
Thank you for all your wisdom and interest so far.

1. when to trade is based on the Gold to silver ratio. read up about this. I will start getting out at 25 and will be mostly Au by 20. that is what i am doing. Eric sprott expects it to go to single digits.

2. trading is expensive. dealers will charge you a premium on both ends. post what you have and what you want here and you'll likely save one end of the commission.

Lemon Thrower wrote:1. when to trade is based on the Gold to silver ratio. read up about this. I will start getting out at 25 and will be mostly Au by 20. that is what i am doing. Eric sprott expects it to go to single digits.

A) Who is Eric Sprott?
B) I was thinking about that... I understand that the GSR is pretty high, and that means in general that silver is undervalued at this time. So with that information (in a vacuum, aside from all other factors), I should hold on to any silver I have until it drops. But I would like to have SOME gold before too much longer.

Lemon Thrower wrote:2. trading is expensive. dealers will charge you a premium on both ends. post what you have and what you want here and you'll likely save one end of the commission.

I did a little research with APMEX chat today, and they were okay. I wouldn't say great, because I haven't really processed many offers and ideas yet. It's a lot to consider right now. But when I do get to the "pulling the trigger" stage of this, it will come in the WANTED or BUY IT NOW forums. Depending I guess, on how I structure the purchase/trade.

A lot more of this was ironed out in my conversation with my wife today. I am blessed because she is trigger-happy, for lack of a better word, on letting me buy some gold... I just wanna be smarter before I plunge into stuff that is potentially in the 4-digit price range. I was always taught the basic premise of "buy the book before you buy the coin." And I am trying to gain a little of the book smarts of gold, since up til now I was only focused on the performance of silver. I know there are a lot of wise people here, so I wanted to see what wisdom there is about this particular position I find myself in.

Thanks again everyone. Keep the good insights comin.

I don't know what size you're looking for, but obviously to get the best prices you'll need to buy 1 ounce (or thereabouts) increments. The main things you want are coins with low premiums and small spreads. The seven coins that come to mind are 1 oz. Eagles, Maples, Krugerrands, Philharmonics, Kangaroos, Mexican 50 Pesos, and Austrian 100 Coronas. All these are very recognized and have narrow spreads (the Roos probably have the widest spread among them). ALL my gold is in 50 Pesos---gorgeous coins, lowest premiums of all the above coins (tied with the 100 Coronas), and tight spreads so they're very liquid.

History has taught me not to act rashly... I'm gonna wait. Silver is undervalued, and I know it. So I will wait until the GSR comes down a little.

argent_pur wrote:The seven coins that come to mind are 1 oz. Eagles, Maples, Krugerrands, Philharmonics, Kangaroos, Mexican 50 Pesos, and Austrian 100 Coronas.

So we have... United States, Canada, Mexico... South Africa, Australia, Austria (Philharmonics AND Coronas)

Opinions on: Great Britain Britannias? Chinese Pandas? Do these both carry significantly higher premiums? What other countries carry "universally recognized" types?

And most if not all of these are minted in the ounce, half, quarter, and tenth sizes? Also some have the 20th ounce? Seems like I saw a 20th ounce panda the other day.

One more question: What's the consensus on U.S. modern commemoratives?

uthminsta wrote:
One more question: What's the consensus on U.S. modern commemoratives?

We talked about these awhile back. It seems most ignore them entirely. a few of us think they are great because you can get them for the loest premium of any gold, and they are still fractionals minted by the US mint..... same weights and purity as the old pre33 stuff.....