WHY/HOW/WHEN YOU STARTED COLLECTING/STACKING

[SILVERFINGER]

What made some of you start collecting or stacking,

I used to see the odd program on the TV decades ago where they brought up precious metal bars from shipwrecks etc and thought to myself I would love one of those, then I think the thing that finally did it for me was when the first ever Bullionbypost adverts were shown on TV, they highlighted the fact that the ordinary man on the street could now buy something like this and there was sizes/weights for all pockets available, I then spent a while doing a lot of research, looking at prices and feedback for different dealers, read lots of articles on this forum, subscribed to channels like Backyardbullion, cybercurtaintwitcher, numistacker, silverslacker and others on youtube before making my first purchase about 4 months later.

I stack only bars from CML, SAO and Albion, I love the simplicity of them and the fact they are poured, British, hallmarked.

I prefer silver to gold (always have colourwise since a kid, I was the one who wanted the silver glitter to make a picture when everyone else wanted the gold ) luckily for me its much cheaper, I stack firstly because I like the shiney stuff (like Golum out of Lord of My Ring) and secondly in the hope that it will make a profit for me when I fully retire in the not too distant future.

My first ever piece was a 100g Sheffield Assay Office bar

[Roy]

Gold is my master and I'm trying to break free. Life used to be so simple ?

Oh Gold, with your glorious eyes austere, remember when...

I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar,
That much is true.
But even then I knew I'd find a much better place
Either with or without you.
The five years we have had have been such good times,
I still love you.
But now I think it's time I live my life on my own.
I guess it's just what I must do.

[Money2Metal]

I used to collect coins when I was a child. Nothing much, just the usual crowns/special edition £5 coins and whatever I could find at the local boot sale. I stopped and the last one I got was the millennium £5 my mum gave me at the stroke of midnight 2000. 

Then around 7 years ago I was looking to get another hobby so I looked on ebay for some coins. It was the ASE's that caught my eye, so I started doing some research and educated myself on the basics of silver coins/bullion. My 1st coin was the 2009 1oz Silver Kookaburra. Since then I've bought mainly Britannias/kooks/ASE/old Mexican Pesos. I also got into stacking gold shortly after starting silver, but wish I bought more back then when it was £600 an ounce! 

The long term plan is to trade my silver for gold when the price is more in my favour.  

[Oldun]

15 hours ago, Roy said:

Gold is my master and I'm trying to break free. Life used to be so simple ?

Oh Gold, with your glorious eyes austere, remember when...

I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar,
That much is true.
But even then I knew I'd find a much better place
Either with or without you.
The five years we have had have been such good times,
I still love you.
But now I think it's time I live my life on my own.
I guess it's just what I must do.

And for our younger viewers, please watch this to understand why the old farts understand what this is referring to.....

 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uPudE8nDog0

[Roy]

Still a great tune! ?

Check out that Rover SD1 ?

[MickB]

I started five years ago as I bought a 1oz silver Britannia just for curiosity. This was from Bullionbypost and I haven't bought much from them since as I started to look around on the internet for other dealers. A few months later I bought my first piece of gold, a 1 gram gold bar from some firm in Europe but my first gold coin came a year later when I bought one from Arshi. This was the first time I'd handled a gold coin in my life and it got me hooked.

I'm terrible for saving cash and thought this would be the best way I could have something additional for my retirement which is 20 years away now. When I looked at what forum members were posting about their collections I thought; 'Bloody hell, I'll never afford that amount!', but my collection has steadily grown, not as quick as others though. I'm in a better position now than before I started investing in precious metals, although I wish my curiosity started many years earlier.

[Captdeano]

MickB i totally agree with what you say ,i wish i was more informed about gold and silver years ago ,but with our busy lives ,kids/jobs/day to day living etc you don't look at gold and silver but after joining The Silver forum ,Wow your eyes are well and truly opened . It goes to show that you really never are too old to learn and start stacking .

[RacerCool]

Since I was a teen I understood that the money we have is not like the money that used to be in circulation.  It was pointed out to me that pre-1965 US coins were actually made of silver.  And since then, I've always checked my change and collected whatever silver coins I found.  Then later, even though I was chronically broke, I would sometimes go online and find what I considered to be a decent price on a few silver coins, like a $1 face, for a few bucks or whatever.  Then later, as I found myself in a much better financial situation, I began stacking in more significant quantities.  For a long time it was only silver, because gold was a bit more than I wanted to spend at any given time.  

But today I have silver and gold, and also copper, as part of the stack.  But for me, the only copper I care to stack are pre-1982 US pennies.  I have 75 ounces of that so far (15 rolls), and my goal for that is 50 rolls. 

[RacerCool]

On 21/06/2018 at 02:14, MickB said:

I'm terrible for saving cash and thought this would be the best way I could have something additional for my retirement which is 20 years away now. When I looked at what forum members were posting about their collections I thought; 'Bloody hell, I'll never afford that amount!', but my collection has steadily grown, not as quick as others though. I'm in a better position now than before I started investing in precious metals, although I wish my curiosity started many years earlier.

LOL, yep that's how I sometimes see things.  I look at some of the brag, I mean--stack videos by some people, with their mountains of 1 ounce gold coins.  Then I look over at my small stack storage bin, peer over the edge way way down to the bottom, put on my glasses, then spot the teeny tiny little 1/10 and 1/20 ounce round-shaped gold specks.  And I feel a little inadequate.

But that's OK.  We can only do whatever we can do, right?

[DrKarlMoneys]

Thought I'd eschew the introductions thread in favour of this which seems more meaningful anyway. I ended up here after going down the rabbit hole. The stock market had been routinely reaching all time high and one look at the charts showed upward trends that can't possibly be sustainable. So I went and looked up people who correctly predicted the 2008 crash and recession to see what they were saying now. What I found was quite alarming e.g.

Robert Shiller, a nobel prize winning economist has been warning about this.

“My latest kick is to be thinking in terms of narratives, stories that drive the market,” Shiller said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “In some sense, we’re similar to the 1920 — I’ll say the ’28 market.”

Back then, the stock market had been roaring higher — all the way up until it crashed spectacularly in 1929.

“Calvin Coolidge was president. Pro-business,” Shiller noted. “Everything looked good. Anti-regulation. Same story. That’s part of it.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/robert-shiller-stock-market-today-similar-stock-market-1928-204253341.html

Alan Greenspan says there's a stock market bubble and a bond bubble driven by $21tn debt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=106&v=edxn_2ZCGs8

There also seem to be numerous housing bubbles around the world, high debt to GDP ratios are common and the Americans have been rolling back legislation especially Dodd Frank.

As I'm sure you know there's a prepper community on YouTube who forecast the death of the dollar following a crash of the stock and bond markets and a hyper inflationary period. While I don't believe the Federal Reserve is master minding it all, it's plausible that it could happen. This would be especially bad as many currencies are linked to the dollar.

All this raises the question of what would replace it and the intriguing possibility of going back to a gold standard. While this is also a stretch it's, again, not implausible. If nothing else gold and silver has always been a safe haven that's shot up in times of crisis. Another is widely predicted so stacking makes sense from that perspective. In the UK we have the Brexit headache and it's looking increasingly likely that we won't have a deal in time. Should that happen the GBP would likely be hit hard and gold and silver will go up.

I brought my first coins for stacking back in March, 4x 2017 Britannias and was very impressed with them. Since then I've been keeping a look out for interesting designs while having some purely for stacking that I wouldn't be so reluctant to part with if the silver price were to shoot up. I'm particularly interested in some private mints like PobJoy. Didn't know they existed and they have some great designs.

While watching silver videos on YouTube I stumbled across a BackYard Bullion unboxing video  and found out about this forum and the group order which I think is a very good idea.

I'm currently collecting 2oz Queen's Beasts and have started coin sets from the last year before coins started getting debased, so 1919 in the UK and 1964 in the US. Starting with these as they're easier to acquire.

[sleepyshpeey]

Short anwser:

Crypto made me see how bad FIAT is. It also showed me the good qualities of gold and silver. I invested/stored a part of my crypto profit into silver. I'm also attracted to things that not many people care for or know about. 

 

Long anwser:

In high school I got familiar with stocks and played with virtual stocks. I also wrote an essay about the credit crisis. Still silver/gold was not really on my radar. The main reason was that I had very little cash.  I wasn't thinking about investing. I had the idea that putting my time into work gave me more money than spending my time on trading the few pennies I had on the market. In 2013 I learned about bitcoin from a friend that made some descent amount of money with it without having much starting capital. I wanted to get a lot of money 2... So I started to mine lite coins since it was to late to mine bitcoins hoping I didn't miss the boat. 

I learned a lot about FIAT and the gold standard because these were arguments to invest in crypto. Crypto tried to compare itself to gold and silver, because of this my opinion of gold and silver became very positive.  Back then the idea of crypto was: 

1. No more money printing (there are finite coins just like gold and silver)

2. Decentralized mining (just like silver and gold)

3. Cheap transactions all over the world, anonymous and accessible to anyone. (what would make them the new currency over silver/gold)

I made money with crypto though I sold many coins too early in 2017. I wanted to invest this money in other areas to spread risk. I looked at my options. I don't trust FIAT in the long term and my savings account give me a laughable 0.3% interest that doesn't cover the inflation. (so putting it on the bank was no option). I want to invest in stocks after a crash... I do think we will get another crash in 0-3 years so don't want to risk putting my money in stocks. I heard a lot from silver and gold vs Fiat on the crypto forums and I decided I would put some of my assets aside for the long term in silver. This was in February. 

I did a bit of research and came to the conclusion that silver was probably more undervalued than gold so I started out with silver. I read info on kitcoforums, silver forums, articles etc.. Looked at long term and short term charts and here I am.

Some stackers will see crypto as a scam and a stupid idea. I know that without crypto I wouldn't have understand the concept of FIAT and I would never have seen the value of silver and gold. So crypto got me into silver and gold. 

 

[SILVERFINGER]

7 hours ago, sleepyshpeey said:

Short anwser:

Crypto made me see how bad FIAT is. It also showed me the good qualities of gold and silver. I invested/stored a part of my crypto profit into silver. I'm also attracted to things that not many people care for or know about. 

 

Long anwser:

In high school I got familiar with stocks and played with virtual stocks. I also wrote an essay about the credit crisis. Still silver/gold was not really on my radar. The main reason was that I had very little cash.  I wasn't thinking about investing. I had the idea that putting my time into work gave me more money than spending my time on trading the few pennies I had on the market. In 2013 I learned about bitcoin from a friend that made some descent amount of money with it without having much starting capital. I wanted to get a lot of money 2... So I started to mine lite coins since it was to late to mine bitcoins hoping I didn't miss the boat. 

I learned a lot about FIAT and the gold standard because these were arguments to invest in crypto. Crypto tried to compare itself to gold and silver, because of this my opinion of gold and silver became very positive.  Back then the idea of crypto was: 

1. No more money printing (there are finite coins just like gold and silver)

2. Decentralized mining (just like silver and gold)

3. Cheap transactions all over the world, anonymous and accessible to anyone. (what would make them the new currency over silver/gold)

I made money with crypto though I sold many coins too early in 2017. I wanted to invest this money in other areas to spread risk. I looked at my options. I don't trust FIAT in the long term and my savings account give me a laughable 0.3% interest that doesn't cover the inflation. (so putting it on the bank was no option). I want to invest in stocks after a crash... I do think we will get another crash in 0-3 years so don't want to risk putting my money in stocks. I heard a lot from silver and gold vs Fiat on the crypto forums and I decided I would put some of my assets aside for the long term in silver. This was in February. 

I did a bit of research and came to the conclusion that silver was probably more undervalued than gold so I started out with silver. I read info on kitcoforums, silver forums, articles etc.. Looked at long term and short term charts and here I am.

Some stackers will see crypto as a scam and a stupid idea. I know that without crypto I wouldn't have understand the concept of FIAT and I would never have seen the value of silver and gold. So crypto got me into silver and gold. 

 

 

FIAT ? as in FIAT 500 

[Sliopjbsail]

Around 3 years ago a customer phoned up and asked if we had a safe that would cover £10,000 worth of gold and silver bullion. After the phone call I started looking into this bullion and became very interested. It just played on my mind until I finally bought a tower bridge 1oz silver bar. It went from there really slowly adding bits. I wonder who the phone call guy was cos we’d have more to talk about now ?

[SILVERFINGER]

28 minutes ago, Sliopjbsail said:

Around 3 years ago a customer phoned up and asked if we had a safe that would cover £10,000 worth of gold and silver bullion. After the phone call I started looking into this bullion and became very interested. It just played on my mind until I finally bought a tower bridge 1oz silver bar. It went from there really slowly adding bits. I wonder who the phone call guy was cos we’d have more to talk about now ?

You never know he might be a member on here and recognise you.

[sleepyshpeey]

2 hours ago, SILVERFINGER said:

 

FIAT ? as in FIAT 500 

 

FIAT as in money with no intrinsic value

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_money

[Sliopjbsail]

52 minutes ago, SILVERFINGER said:

You never know he might be a member on here and recognise you.

Could be, I’ll keep an eye out and see if anyone recognizes the story would be cool

[Mauro]

I have a question. I was stationed in India for a number of years (now I regret non having taken more advantage of the situation) so now looking at all of my bits a pieces, I stumbled un a tea set with only marked "SILVER". What is the meaning and haw can I evaluate it?

 

Sorry if I'm not on the topic, but I still have to get the hang on this forum.

[Augustus1]

I am a very late comer to the party, however I think I was a stacker without knowing it before I stumbled on numistacker videos and subsequently  this very forum , as I had a number of sovereigns and gold bars that I had amassed from over 10 years , but a inheritance of a 1888 coin set peaked my interest and from there I ended up here , which has increased my hoard significantly !

however I am in a lull at the moment with funds having to be diverted else were on my other interests and hobbies, and am missing the anticipation of a new arrival,

how do you guys fill the time between purchases?

dean.m

[MickD]

Slowly, realised a few months ago that I can't just buy everything I like.  Still coming to terms with it and contemplating taking the plunge and letting some of it go.

 

[SILVERFINGER]

39 minutes ago, Augustus1 said:

I am a very late comer to the party, however I think I was a stacker without knowing it before I stumbled on numistacker videos and subsequently  this very forum , as I had a number of sovereigns and gold bars that I had amassed from over 10 years , but a inheritance of a 1888 coin set peaked my interest and from there I ended up here , which has increased my hoard significantly !

however I am in a lull at the moment with funds having to be diverted else were on my other interests and hobbies, and am missing the anticipation of a new arrival,

how do you guys fill the time between purchases?

dean.m

With too many other hobbys, collecting/writing/researching militaria, photography, playing with my lab microscope, shooting, gardening, pub, TV, dropping the kids off at the pool.