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Silver Investing - Gold To Silver Price Ratio Trend


Silver investing has been difficult the last two decades. For about 200 years, the ratio of the price of gold to the price of silver fluctuated in a narrow range between 15:1 and 20:1. This made great sense, because geologists claim the earth's crust contains about 17 times as much silver as gold. Also, both gold and silver were used as money during this 200-year period.

In the last two decades, if anything, the ratio should have decreased because of the increasing demand for silver in industrial applications. Industry consumes over 50% of the silver mined each year. But the ratio did not decrease, as it should have. And most of the silver investing public, and many professionals, lost money.

The price of silver should have moved with gold, or if anything, moved higher, in relation to the price of gold, due to its relative scarcity. But the price of silver was manipulated lower for over two decades.

In the last half of 2010 this manipulation seems to have ended. The biggest manipulator announced the closing of its commodity trading desks, lawsuits were filed, and investigations were undertaken. During the last few months of the year, the gold to silver price ratio dropped from about 63:1 to about 46:1. In the middle of December, the biggest offender announced, without admitting wrongdoing, that it would unwind its massive short position in the silver futures market.

For the first time in decades the price of silver seems to be moving free of manipulation.

From 1984 through 2010 the ratio fluctuated between 46 and 100, with the lowest ratio the last trading day of 2010 . I expect the ratio to continue to continue to ratchet down until it reaches at least the long-time norm of about 17:1.








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How to Find Good Silver Investments!


I'm sure you've heard the hype about how silver is increasing in value on a day-to-day basis, and raising exponentially in comparison to gold? I'm sure you've also heard people say "Buy silver, it's a good investment", well, where exactly do you find it? Most people think the local refinery, and gold/silver dealers, and maybe Craigslist. Well, here's some good information for you (the investor) to know when looking for good places to buy silver.

1. Start Locally - Craigslist is a great place to find good deals on silver, but it's also a great place to find not so good deals. Most of the time, I've discovered that most people on Craigslist know how much silver is worth, and usually will sell it at the spot value (or maybe even well over spot value) because they know people want it.

Other times, when you do actually find a great deal, people have already grabbed it and bought all there was to buy. (You didn't think you were the only person doing this did you). There are people out there who spend most of their day on Craigslist looking for deals, and if you don't have 8 hours a day to spend devoted to finding deals on Craigslist, then chances are you're going to miss out on the good deals.

2. Local/Out of town Auctions - These are great places to find excellent deals on silver (or gold, if that's what you're looking for), but they're also a great place to lose money. If you are a beginner in investing in silver, then an auction might not be the best place for you to buy your first investment. Most of the time, just like on Craigslist, there are people who go to auctions on a day-to-day basis, looking for the same thing you are. If you're not educated, or don't know what to look for (or how much to bid as your max) then you might just end up spending more than the actual worth of the item you're bidding on.

On the contrary, you can get excellent deals, you just need to know if the item you're bidding on is worth what you're willing to spend. Check the weight, the purity (sterling,.999) and then check the current spot value for silver to accurately gauge how much you'd be willing to spend. For example, if you found a teapot that weighed 10 troy ounces, and the spot value for silver was 30 dollars for instant (to make it easy) then, the value of teapot would be 300. Obviously, unless you had the money to spend, and the time to sit on the teapot to wait for its value to increase, you'd want to get it at a lower price. So, what I would do is shoot well below the value of the object (say, calculate how much the teapot would be worth if you were buying it at 20 dollars spot value. The price would then be 200, giving you 100 dollar profit margin) Sometimes it's not that easy, but you get the picture. If you're not willing to spend much to make much, chances are you'll miss out on the great items. Auctions move very fast, and if you're not ready then you might want to check out other places first. Also, it's not a bad idea to sit in on a couple of auctions to see how they move, get a little experience, then go and start making your bids.

3. Estate/Moving/Yard/Garage Sales - These are by far my favorite means of acquiring silver. The reason being is because at these sales, most the time people are selling items for far less than what they are worth, because they're trying to move them fast. I've seen sterling silver items sell at prices far below what they are worth, (for instance, people dropping a whole box of silverware into a bin and selling each piece at 1 dollar a piece, when failing to actually see if any of the silverware were actually labeled sterling). Most people just want to get rid of their stuff because it's taking up space, this is a great time to haggle and get great prices on objects that may be worth tens to hundreds above what you are paying for. Other times, people at garage/moving sales don't even pay attention to the value of silver and just sell it thinking it's a worthless object. You're chances of finding a great deal are very good at these places because most of the time, the people literally are just dumping objects into boxes and selling them as bulk, or very cheap individually. Just keep your eyes open.

Other times, at estate sales mostly, people might over price the objects, but it really depends on where the estate sale is, and who the estate sale is for. If it's a very wealthy person, sometimes they might over price the items up to 20% above value, and sometimes under value because they couldn't care less about losing or gaining money because they might have a ton of it. In any case, the deals are out there, you just need to be willing to spend a little gas, (and maybe drive a little bit) to find them. Some times they're local, and sometimes they're out-of-state.








http://www.Estatesales.net is a great place to start in your search for silver. Also, local classified ads in your newspaper, library, and classified sites for your state/city are great too.

Don't let the market scare you, and don't let people talk you into buying junk. Make sure you know what you're buying, and make sure you do your research. You will make your first big investment, and walk away smiling while the other people are scratching their heads. If you know where to look, you are 100 steps ahead of the other guy, because you can get your investments for fractions of their value.

Thanks,
Brandon.