925 Silver & Bullion on Ebay: Worth Buying?

samsmoot

Due to imminent financial collapse I thought I might buy a bit of silver to put by.

Have made a few small purchases on ebay for what is purported to be 925 silver - cheap rings, bracelets, chains etc costing from 30c - $1.99. Am awaiting delivery of the items so will then be able to check the weight. My thinking is that it's a cheap way to buy silver at around the spot/scrap price, if the items come to the weights I expect them to. Am I on the right track here if I can get these pieces at the price I need to, and will they be easily saleable here in the UK as scrap, for that is the way they would likely be sold in the future? As the Chinese seem to have a lot of the stuff for sale on ebay, won't there be occassions when some silver sells for a bit less than it usually does? Especially with the low starting bids at 1c - I'm guessing the stuff which loses a bit of money is made up for by the stuff which makes a bit more money.

And I have seen 150 gram pieces described as 'Chinese Old Sterling Silver Bullion' - please search the term on ebay USA to see these items - what's the catch here? Similar ones have sold for a third of what even the scrap value should be, so looks well dodgy - but the dealer feedback looks good so is this a genuine bargain and would this 'bullion' be worth investing in?

Any input would be appreciated - I'm pretty ignorant on silver but am keen to buy some as a long term investment - any alternative strategy would be welcomed.

Cheers.

TRUSt_NO_1_2

Thought about doing likewise ,i.e if you can buy silver at scrap value and you can check it's silver (ideally stamped 925),should be a no lose going forward.
Looked at ornaments myself eg. old spoons,bowls...if made in UK,less likely to be a blag.Hallmarks more reliable.

At moment I'm into silver/gold mining shares. (silver-First Majestic on Canadian market)

Put it this way,I'd rather buy physical silver than invest in an ETF,which will be exposed as frauds in the future.

Have you found out what current scrap value is ?

samsmoot

TRUSt_NO_1 wrote: »

Have you found out what current scrap value is ?

Seen around 28p per gram - spot price works out to about 40p I think.

stargold

Scrap silver will always be much cheaper to purchase as the refining fees to recycle any scrap silver as a percentage of the value of the metal will be pretty steep.

I have some experience of the reclaimed silver business through a client of mine involved in recovery of silver from industrial processes. They actually charge the customer money to take the silver off them (as an industrial polutant). Even then, when refining thousands of troy ounces of silver, the returns are pretty thin.

Don't get me wrong, I am bullish on silver (over the longer term), I am bullish on any hard commodity over paper currency. Personally I have stuck to purchasing fine silver bars, or bullion coins. Simply from the point of view they will be easy to liquidate when the time comes. I have had offers from the main over the counter gold bullion dealers in london to buy fine silver (Johnson Mathey 10 oz bars)

Ebay offers loads of fine silver (though the premiums are very volatile) the following site is a nice tool to help find low cost Fine Silver on Ebay, Amazon and other otc dealers. I use a site called bullionsupermarket dot com to track the premiums.

Also found a nice forum called agstackers dot com dedecated to silver enthusiasts. Nice friendly site (often more so than in here sometimes dare I say it)

samsmoot

Thanks for the info, stargold - bullion supermarket is very good but reg for agstackers was closed.

sabretoothtigger

samsmoot wrote: »

Seen around 28p per gram - spot price works out to about 40p I think.

Really, why is scrap silver so cheap ? gold price is about 30 gbp a gram I think

samsmoot

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

Really, why is scrap silver so cheap ? gold price is about 30 gbp a gram I think

Good question - but it is well enough priced to be an appealing and affordable long term investment. Who can afford gold anyway? Stupid prices, which may even triple before long, but I think silver will have its day.

malik999

I'm very bullish on Silver.


(for info: my silver play has been in SLW currently $19.80 per share)