Welcome to BuySilverBars.org! Our website was created to inform both new and experienced investors about purchasing silver bars. Although our website is currently small, we have packed in as much information as possible to fully educate you on the advantages and the process of buying silver bars. Continue reading to learn more, or click the link below if you are ready to make a purchase now.
Buy Silver Bars Online Now: www.JMBullion.com
Why Buy Precious Metals?
If you are new to precious metal investing, you may be wondering why it is so important to own and hold these metals. Some of the most common reasons for holding physical precious metals are listed below:
- To diversify a portfolio. Stocks, mutual funds, and ETFs have been extremely swingy and volatile over the past few years. Although most “equities” tend to move in similar directions, precious metals are an asset class of their own, so they provide valuable diversity to any investor’s portfolio.
- As a hedge against inflation. Inflation has been running rampant since the world’s central banks started printing billions or trillions of dollars every year in an attempt to revive struggling economies. Since printing new, additional dollars dilutes the value of any single dollar, this “creation” of money actually increases the dollar value of the relatively static supply of precious metals. Any investor who is looking to hedge against inflation is smart to add precious metals to their portfolio.
- As an alternative currency. In the case of hyper-inflation, a devastating natural disaster, or a breakdown of a major country’s government, the paper “fiat” currency we all use day to day could become completely worthless. Investors who are holding physical silver bars (in their possession) will be covered no matter what happens in case of a major emergency.
Even if you aren’t worried about an “end of the world” situation or a fiat currency breakdown, precious metals are a smart investment for anyone who would like a little more diversity and safety in their investment portfolio. If you are sold on the idea of buying physical precious metals, read on to learn why we advocate silver bars over other precious metal investments.
Why Buy Silver Bars?
Buying silver bars is the ideal method of precious metal investment because silver bars offer a low premium over the spot price of silver, accomodate any investment budget, are easy to store, and are extremely liquid for both buyers and sellers.
Low Premium Over Spot
Whenever you buy physical silver as an individual investor, your price will be determined by the live, up-to-date spot price of silver, plus a small “premium” that the dealer charges to make their profit. It is important to take the premium over spot into consideration because if you end up paying a large premium over spot price, your silver may have to rise 10%+ before you can even break-even on the investment. These premiums over spot vary from both dealer to dealer as well as product to product, but on average, buying silver bars offers the lowest premium over spot price out of all the physical forms of silver.
Accomodate Any Budget
Since silver bars are offered in such a wide variety of weights, commonly found in 1-ounce to 100-ounce variations, virtually any investor can purchase physical silver bars without budget concerns. Whereas gold requires you to put up $1,500+ for just one 1-ounce bar, silver allows any investor with ~$30 or more to start buying and holding physical silver bars.
On the other hand, if you are looking to make a more sizable silver investment, that is certainly possible too. One hundred ounce silver bars are commonly traded at almost all precious metals dealers, so you can buy up several larger bars to allocate $10,000, $100,000, or even larger silver investments.
Easy to Store
Since silver bars of the same sizes and brands can be stacked into neat piles, storing silver bars is much easier than storing silver rounds or silver coins. We recommend purchasing a good home safe, stacking your silver bars inside of it, hiding the safe somewhere in your house, and then, keeping your mouth shut. Although silver bars are extremely pretty and fun to show off, the more people you show your bars to, the greater your risk of attempted theft.
Extremely Liquid
The final advantage of silver bars is that since they are so widely traded, you will never have a problem buying or selling any of the common-sized silver bars. While you may have trouble unloading rare varieties of coins for fair value, silver bars are priced solely in accordance with the amount of silver contained in the bar, so it’s easy to buy or sell them for fair value either at local dealers or online.
As you can see, the easiest and most effective way to get into precious metal investments is to buy silver bars. Read on to learn more about silver bar pricing, finding dealers, and more.
Silver Bar Pricing
As mentioned before, the price of any silver bar is based on the amount of silver contained in the bar, along with the current “spot price” of silver. The spot price of silver is the up-to-the-second fair value for one ounce of pure silver. This price is determined by the worldwide silver futures markets, where investors can buy and sell huge lots of physical silver virtually around the clock. As the price of an ounce of silver rises or falls in accordance with supply and demand in the futures markets, so does the value of your silver bars.
Another important point to keep in mind about silver bar pricing is that the actual brand, mint, or type of silver bar is highly irrelevant to the price of the silver bar. Some dealers will charge higher premiums for certain brands of silver bars, like Engelhard or Johnson Matthey, but in reality, all silver bars containing the same amount and purity of silver are worth exactly the same.
Finally, investors who buy silver bars in large quantities will often get better pricing than investors who are buying smaller quantities. Most retailers will offer discounts on higher weight products, like 100-ounce silver bars, as well as on multiple lower weight products, like a quantity of 100+ 1-ounce silver bars.
Finding a Dealer
If you are ready to buy silver bars, your next step is to find a precious metals dealer. There are two routes to go here: buying silver bars online or buying silver bars locally. Either way, you want to be comfortable with your dealer and ensure you find a fair price.
Buying Silver Online
Ordering silver bars online is extremely easy, convenient, and safe, provided you find the right dealer. Although the online precious metal industry is by and large extremely safe and reputable, there are still a few “rogues” out there that might charge too much or take too long to deliver your silver. Because of that, we have ordered from several online retailers to test their services out, and can confidently recommend JMBullion.com for online silver purchases. JM Bullion charges extremely low premiums over spot, offers several payment methods, and ships all packages fully insured.
Regardless of what Internet dealer you choose, the purchasing process will be largely the same. You will browse their website, find the silver bars you would like to buy, add them to your cart, and checkout. Most dealers accept credit/debit cards, bank wires, or personal checks for payment. As soon as you’ve made payment, your silver bars ship directly to your doorstep, fully insured all the way and shipped in a discrete package so no one knows what valuable contents are inside.
Although online and local retailers usually charge similar prices for their silver bars, online retailers offer the benefit of not charging sales tax (as long as the online retailer isn’t based in your home state). This is a huge advantage, as sales tax can be 5-10% and can really put a dent into your silver bar investment.
Buying Silver Locally
If you aren’t comfortable buying silver bars online, your other option is to find a local coin shop or gold and silver dealer who sells silver bars. We recommend calling around to all of your local shops to see what they have in stock as well as to learn about their prices and products. Some important questions to ask are if the dealer charges sales tax, if there are any minimum purchases, how many silver bars they actually have in stock, if the bars are new or in varied condition, what their premium over spot is for their silver bars, and what payment methods they accept.
Once you find a local silver dealer who has what you want at the right price, make your trip over and complete your investment. Be careful leaving the store with your silver bars, as someone could realize the value of what you’ve purchased and follow you home.
Storage
Once you’ve bought your silver bars and they are physically in your possession, your next step is to make sure they are safe and secure wherever you decide to store them. Your two options are to store them at home or to store them in a safe deposit box. If you store them at home, we recommend buying a good safe and making sure you have an insurance policy that covers your precious metals. If you store them in a safe deposit box, choose a bank that you have a previous relationship with and make sure their fees are reasonable.
That’s about it! We hope this guide has successfully taught you about buying silver bars, and if you are ready to make a purchase, click the link below to visit our favorite online silver bar dealer, JMBullion.com.
