NUMISmatic What? … a Ninja’s Guide to DIY Silver Acquisition!

With that out of the way, this is hands down one of my favorite ways to buy silver bullion.

Personally I’m partial to silver right now because it is so under valued according to my own research and that of certain circles that I follow and greatly respect their opinions on the matter.

I’ll start by saying right off the bat that I pretty much stay away from numismatic coins unless I can get a hell of deal on them. These are coins that have been “certified” based on their condition, brilliance, date of production, the originating mint, etc. These are collectibles and not what I personally look for.

My strategy is very simple … get as much of the pure shiny stuff as possible, at the best possible price before the shit hits the fan with the almighty dollar and/or before the market catches up and the price skyrockets … both are coming.

There are a couple options to acquire your bullion – single rounds and bars, typically in one ounce increments or larger bars, such as 5oz, 10oz, 100oz, 1000oz silver bars.

Both gold and silver can be purchased in smaller increments as small as one gram. I actually like buying gold in smaller increments like 5-10 gram bars because the value of gold being so high, when the time comes to trade for goods & services (should the dollar collapse or we enter hyper inflation) these smaller denominations will be extremely practical.

Here’s a little something for your noggin on the topic:
Pull up a chair and get a snack for this one … over 2 hours of the best monetary/currency education you’re likely to see anywhere:

Robert Kiyosaki: Why silver is the best hedge against inflation

Robert Kiyosaki: 2008 Predictions

Senator Ron Paul and Mike Maloney discuss the Federal Reserve, Central Bank and the looming collapse of the U.S. economy: (I do disagree with Robert about Ron Paul’s “chutzpah” lol!)

In-depth interview with Mike maloney of Gold & Silver, Inc.

So What’s The Ninja Tip?

It’s very simple really and once you get it going you’ll find it’s very easy to implement on an ongoing basis with the right people.

Here’s what you do …

Find about 10 friends that have a similar mindset as you, i.e. they understand the need to move into silver right now, today and they have some disposable income. There’s enough out there on this point that I won’t get into it here. If you need some good info to share with your buddies send them over to GoldSilver.com and have them watch a few things from Mike Maloney or send them this article and have them watch the videos listed above. If it takes much more than that, you’re probably talking to the wrong people and need to look for someone else to participate on this one.

The next step is super simple and straight forward:
Pool your funds and buy in bulk. Done.
No seriously it’s that easy.

Here are a few sites you can buy from online that offer pretty good deals when you buy in quantities of 500 ounces or more:

My first choice is the Northwest Territorial Mint Silver Bullion.

http://bullion.nwtmint.com/silver_nwtmintbullion.php

I like these rounds and bars because the mint stamps them with a nice “official” looking seal and numerical representation of the weight of the piece.
I like the 1, 5 and 10 ounce rounds and bars. They’re small enough to carry a few around like regular money. I also buy larger bars but those are for long term storage if you will.

Next on my personal favorites list is the Stagecoach Silver, also from Northwest Territorial Mint.

http://bullion.nwtmint.com/silver_stagecoach.php

The coolest thing about these pieces is that they are perforated at the mint to be easily broken up into quarter pieces for common every day portable, tradable silver bullion.

Another thing I love about Northwest Territorial Mint is they include free shipping, handling and insurance on all their orders.

This is a recent site I came across with a pretty smokin price on bullion:

http://www.qualitysilverbullion.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=41

Staying with Mike Maloneys philosophy of having “official” looking bullion I would recommend the Walking Liberty and the Morgan Dollars available on that site.

As of the time writing this both were available for $0.79 over spot when you buy 1000 ounces or more. 1000oz X $18.29 (17.50+$0.79) + $20.45 S&H = $18,320.45 Putting your cost per ounce at roughly $18.32 ($0.82 over spot).

So with 10 of your buddies if you go in on 1000 ounces at that price you’re looking at $1832.00 a piece.

It’s best to stay as local as possible too with whomever you buy with so no one has to pay extra shipping getting from your location to theirs. Once your order arrives, divvy it up and your done. You all now have 100 ounces each of actual silver, in hand and well on your way to a great silver stash.

There’s a few more ways to buy that I use such as eBay auctions.
This is just like any other auction process. Go to eBay go to:
Coins & Paper Money > Bullion > Silver

Here are a couple of things to look out for when you buy through online auctions …

1) You’ll find all sorts of listings on eBay for instance.
What you need to be keenly aware of is exactly what you are buying.

For instance, here’s an example bid description:

NORFED $10 LIBERTY DOLLAR
999 PURE SILVER COIN

What they fail to mention anywhere in the text is that the coin is only a 1/2 ounce of actual silver. You have to look at the picture of the coin to see that it’s stamped as a 1/2 ounce of pure .999 silver.

Shipping on this item was $4, and it sold for $11
All said the buyer paid $15 for a 1/2 ounce of silver.
As of the time of writing this article spot price on silver is about $17.50.
At this price the buyer would have essentially paid $30 ($12.50 over) for an ounce of silver.

Now I will say that the Norfed coins are actually collectibles so this could be why it commended a premium price. But the facts are still the facts, in regards to the spot price of silver as is dictated in the market – they over paid.

2) I also came across a few of these … 1997 MS70 American Silver Eagle
Buy Now prices were all between $495 up to $800
One auction had multiple bids with the highest at $52.
This coin is listed on Numis at $500.

I’m pointing this out because it has been stated on multiple occasions that “collectibles” or anything else for that matter is worth exactly what someone is willing to pay for it. As is illustrated in the aforementioned auction …
Consumers are willing to pay roughly $50 for this coin.

3) You also need to be mindful of the cost of shipping on items you bid on.
You may find a pure silver round and win with a bid of $16.25 let’s say. But then you may need to add $6 shipping on top of that. That brings your total spend on that single ounce of silver to $21 … you just paid roughly $3.50 over spot for a single ounce. So don’t get so caught up in the heat of the moment and the jones of the auction process that you forget to tally the total investment. This is one sure fire way to over spend on your bullion if you aren’t careful.

4) Lastly you need to be very aware of “silver plated” items or “almost pure” silver; also listed sometimes as .788 or other equivalents of actual silver content.

Plated items are pretty easy to spot if you pay attention. They’ll use descriptions like “brilliant silver” or “fine silver” in lieu of .999 Pure Silver. There should always be a picture of the listed item, so just look for the words (.999 Pure Silver) stamped on the item. If you don’t see it clearly then make sure you ask if the item is pure silver and what documentation they have to prove it is.

Well I hope some of that helps de-clutter the air on how you can go about getting started in silver. The same principles apply with gold. The only difference is the dollars involved or required to buy are larger.

Leave your comments and questions below and I’ll respond as best I can.

Arrrgghh … Now go out and claim yur booty!