New to Stacking and this is my plan:

[pho]

Also think about how much time and effort (and risk of not finding a suitable buyer for piece X) you're willing to spend on reselling your current purchases somewhere down the line, and if that's worth it to you.
This is something I hadn't really thought through when I started buying PMs about a year ago. It will take you significantly more effort to flip various 1oz semi numi silver coins vs sovereigns and other fractional gold.

For me personally I've evolved to this strategy:
- semi-numismatics for my collector cravings, but unless I am relatively sure there will be a market for it later: no duplicates anymore, exactly for that time and effort reason.
- the liquid stack: low premium silver (tubes) and fractional gold --> easily sold to a dealer later if I need the cash in a hurry

PS check out goldsilver.be , I think they'll be cheaper than STG for the shopping list you mentioned

[Kman]

7 hours ago, sovereignsteve said:

As a long term investment, I would tend to agree, as they are not going to perform very well and then stay there, but tend to just keep their value, on average, over time. However, on  a shorter term basis, they are a valid and sometimes profitable investment vehicle.

Just in terms of pure bullion or are we crossing into numismatics/collectibles? 

 

 

 

[ChrisF]

Some interesting thoughts guys and thank you very much.  Just to put it out there the reason I dont have a great deal to spend is because the only debt I have is my mortgage and I'm over paying by a nearly 200% a month to bring it down plus I have enough in the bank to last me well over 9 months of unemployment.  I totally agree on that subject.  Silver is kind of a hobby with my limited spare cash I fancy trying to make some money with as well as collect.  I am tempted to try gold in the future if I fail to make any money on silver.  I know its going to be tough given the exchange rate now is not necessarily the best time to buy gold or silver really but I believe if you keep something long enough it will gain enough to make a profit at some point.

[ChrisF]

Interesting site Pho, they have some good stuff.  

Re: Gold sovs do you just keep them long term in the hope of the gold price rising or can you make a profit selling them down the line to others?

[LittleMan]

Hi Chris,

I enjoyed reading your stacking plan. Hopefully you will enjoy reading my read my waffle in return.

I started stacking with pretty much the same intentions as you, a bit of collecting and a bit of stacking for when I retire. From what you have written it seems we have a similar attitude towards money.  I too used to over pay my mortgage, however I now save that money in P2P investment sites, I plan eventually use my P2P savings to pay off my mortgage.

I stack on a very small budget of £25 per month so face the same issues regarding postage costs. Reducing the number of orders is the most practical way of reducing postage costs, but requires great discipline.

When working with a small budget It can sometimes pay to buy older coins. I too am a fan of Stacksmarts content. He has some good vids on picking up older coins.

Just an example, I picked up a 2007 pander from ebay for £40 Inc postage just over a year ago. At the time, there were several available for around this price.

The coin currently sells for £70-80 – so you can see older coins can be potential lucrative.

£40 is almost 2 months’ budget for me. If I had a budget of £500 per month finding enough older coins would become difficult if not impossible.

Be aware that prices can go down as well as up on older coins. Prices can move considerably in the space of weeks or months. A while back silver to go got a large batch of 2011 pandas in, this crashed the eBay resale value for the 2011s. If fact if you check the sold prices for the old pandas, I believe you will still see the 2011 sells for less than the 2012s or 13s.

Someone mentioned the Kooks being undervalued for older coins and the complete set being very affordable. I heard some ware that the Perth mint re-minted many of the older kooks – hence the low price. I cannot conform where I heard this.

My biggest tip for you is buy what you like, and head kmans good words – its savings not an investment.

And before ordering from Germany read this forum about using transferwise, it will save you money on the exchange rate.

In fact, before ordering anything from any ware – read this site. There really are some great peeps on here and their collective knowledge is incredible.

[vand]

A once a year purchase is fine if that's what you want to do, who are we to argue? 

Stacking physical PMs is a pretty serious financial commitment and I would say that nearly all of us who do are in a relatively comfortable position where we have decent positive monthly cashflow and choose to put in into PMs. I wouldn't worry too much about CGT/Brits in the quantities that you are implying, so just stack what you like.

You might also want to hang around here and make some connections as regular member order in larger number and I'm sure wouldn't mind ordering a few for you and then shipping them on at a much more reasonable cost.

[Pampfan]

In reading all the responses, pros to silver and against silver, pros to gold, etc. it really boils down to setting up a game plan and trying to execute it.  

If you are a collector - look at all the coins you want and go out and get what you can - realizing that it is for your own pleasure to own and hold these coins and enjoy them, so get what you like.

if you are investing then you will need a different strategy.  

Starting with gold may be better for you - or a combo of both i.e. a gold sov and then a few silver coins.  

(One thing for sure - be careful of getting the gold fever)

good luck 

[4Nines7Hills]

@ChrisF on a small budget like yours you may be better buying silver or gold from this forum, usually reasonable price including postage, accurate descriptions of condition and relatively safe (I've not heard of any scammers on here and they wouldn't last long if they tried)

The only downside is  there's Less Choice and you don't know when people will be selling, some people order a few extra if a coin when they bulk buy from the EU to justify the postage

buying silver in the uk from dealers is expensive due to vat, buying from EU maybe not feasible for small orders due to postage costs, eBay can be risky for newbies due to fakes etc

[ChrisF]

Some great advice guys.  Thank you one and all.  @LittleMan thanks for the tip about transferwise and you are right I will read up some more before making a purchase. 

[Pete]

I too had a plan and started stacking 7 years ago.
Since my average cost per oz for silver bullion is currently £24.45 I kind of wish I hadn't now.
Some of us seasoned stackers will recall the frenzy some years back when you could list a regular Kook or Brit on eBay for over £30 and it would sell before your printer ink was dry. The PM theorists and financial gurus were forecasting massive gains for gold and silver which fuelled the speculation and many of us were sucked in hook, line and sinker.
Just don't get overly optimistic with your plans.

 

[Paul]

8 minutes ago, Pete said:

I too had a plan and started stacking 7 years ago.
Since my average cost per oz for silver bullion is currently £24.45 I kind of wish I hadn't now.
Some of us seasoned stackers will recall the frenzy some years back when you could list a regular Kook or Brit on eBay for over £30 and it would sell before your printer ink was dry. The PM theorists and financial gurus were forecasting massive gains for gold and silver which fuelled the speculation and many of us were sucked in hook, line and sinker.  Just don't get overly optimistic with your plans.

+1000 Well said @Pete

 

[Oldun]

Top fella on this forum and a sponsor

 

[Roy]

No brainer! 

 

[RareAGstrikes]

You want a little bulk gov silver and get some rare low mintage silver as well, under 1000 minted is rare, over 1000 is mini mintage

[RareAGstrikes]

On 22 January 2017 at 17:35, seXes said:

Just to give another idea in your head. Don't know if you have thought about it. If you have a greater amount of money to spend on a bulk buy. Then you can buy a waste amount of a certain coin, and resell them here. Because if you read the thru the forum you will see, you are not alone when it comes to wanting to buy the cheapest silver. As you stated shipping from Germany is high, shipping in UK not so?? (I'm Swedish so can't say for sure.) So if you see in the sell adds, what coins that sells easiest. So you don't end up with a coin that is hard to sell. So the price you paid for the coin, divide what the shipping costed for you per coin, and add small percentage profit to it. See what you end up with. Check that to the sell adds, how likely it is for a successful sell. Then doing that every third month.

This is just an idea.

There are a lot of those that are invested in the stuff that doesnt perform as well and then people think that we can't continue on or whatever. 

I was like them when I first started stacking which is why I only bought bulk 100 oz bars. 

Then I saw how premiums worked and realized that there was another aspect to the game. 

 

[vand]

On 1/24/2017 at 18:36, Pete said:

I too had a plan and started stacking 7 years ago.
Since my average cost per oz for silver bullion is currently £24.45 I kind of wish I hadn't now.
Some of us seasoned stackers will recall the frenzy some years back when you could list a regular Kook or Brit on eBay for over £30 and it would sell before your printer ink was dry. The PM theorists and financial gurus were forecasting massive gains for gold and silver which fuelled the speculation and many of us were sucked in hook, line and sinker.
Just don't get overly optimistic with your plans.

 

You must have bought a lot near the 2011 peak.. and also not bought much before or since to have such a high avg price, because there has been ample time to lower it since then.

A stacking plan needs to take account of both peaks AND troughs in price.

[sixgun]

6 hours ago, RareAGstrikes said:

There are a lot of those that are invested in the stuff that doesnt perform as well and then people think that we can't continue on or whatever. 

I was like them when I first started stacking which is why I only bought bulk 100 oz bars. 

Then I saw how premiums worked and realized that there was another aspect to the game. 

 

 

 

You pasted this off the Silver Shield Forum. Chris Duane posted this comment today. 

Just an observation. 

[Clens92]

13 minutes ago, sixgun said:

You pasted this off the Silver Shield Forum. Chris Duane posted this comment today. 

Just an observation. 

LOL.

A lot of his content is copy and pasted :/  Better than not contributing, I suppose.

[RareAGstrikes]

On 24 January 2017 at 17:55, ChrisF said:

Some great advice guys.  Thank you one and all.  @LittleMan thanks for the tip about transferwise and you are right I will read up some more before making a purchase. 

Transfer wise is great, and there are other is similar options now.

[BaldyBob]

Hello Chris

+1 for gold. In 25 years you will have a nice collection of spotted silver, which will be worth about spot.

So, if you are a collector, good luck, but for stacking, get silver as cheap as you can and hope the metal appreciates in the future or stick to gold.

ATB

Bob

[Pete]

On 25/01/2017 at 21:41, vand said:

You must have bought a lot near the 2011 peak.. and also not bought much before or since to have such a high avg price, because there has been ample time to lower it since then.

A stacking plan needs to take account of both peaks AND troughs in price.

Absolutely correct because the metal was rising rapidly and there was a definite feeding frenzy at that time.
Talk about lemmings heading for the cliffs !!
 

 

 

[breaktwister]

Hi Chris, I am a fairly new stacker myself, around 6 months and I have just been buying pieces that I like if priced correctly. 

I think that once you start building a stack it will be difficult to keep to only £500 a year as the bug bites hard on this new hobby!  Especially if you have available funds. 

[vand]

1 hour ago, Pete said:

Absolutely correct because the metal was rising rapidly and there was a definite feeding frenzy at that time.
Talk about lemmings heading for the cliffs !!
I have charted my average cost per ounce over my silver stacking history -
The red line is my moving average.

I don't understand this chart at all.. how does your avg price jump around so much? As you stack grows the avg price should smooth out regardless of changes in spot price. Are you buying/selling large chunks of it?

[Pete]

2 hours ago, vand said:

I don't understand this chart at all.. how does your avg price jump around so much? As you stack grows the avg price should smooth out regardless of changes in spot price. Are you buying/selling large chunks of it?

Good point !
I reworked the chart to show more of an accumulative average - use the red line only and ignore the light grey.
My earlier chart was more representative of a spot price so I can see why you have made your comment.
 

[whitesands1]

What an interesting thread, I imagine a bit like an AA meeting!

Some great observations.  I would say the best thing is to roll up your sleeves and get on with it, there is no substitute for experience.  I think everyone would agree that learning from your mistakes is the best way to make progress.  Keep it small to start with and build up your knowledge and confidence.

I started with the usual suspects in silver, Austrian Philharmonic, ASE but then had some good buys from forum members Kookaburras, Lunars and Britannias.  If I was starting afresh I'd recommend Queen's Beasts and Britannias as they are beautiful coins and you will always want to look at them.  My favourite the boxed Britannia 2010 from @Paul.  Closely followed by sealed 2008 from @BaldyBob.  Seems like ages ago but only last year.

However, newer Silver coins are prone to spotting and so I always think that for run of the mill coins you would really need a big spike in Silver and then weigh in these coins. 

Maybe dip your toe in the water with @BackyardBullion; his group buy.  Top man.

As @Numistacker says take a good look at what sells well on these pages and what hangs about.  He is very generous in sharing his knowledge.

Phase II for me was Gold and you can buy Sovereigns, Half Sovereigns, Fractions of an Ounce, there are less spotting issues, tighter margins and always easy to buy and sell.  Some good buys again from @arshimo2012.  A true gent.

More recently I have started to focus more on coins for investment, but I am still VERY much taking my time to study this and VERY slowly building up my knowledge.  Their are long term members on this forum who are great at sharing information.

I have a notion that inflation has started to get a grip and realistically it is the only way out of the World debt crisis.  I think those who have substantial money will always buy gold as it is the ultimate safe haven. 

Silver is used as a commodity so there will always be an underlying demand so this should be a great way to start.

I wish you well and look forward to hearing about your purchases.  All the best!