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Premium and tax will eat you alive in precious metals. When you go to sell, you often don't get the entire premium back, and sometimes none whatsoever. Generic silver rounds will often only be bought for slightly less than spot price. That means you have to have appreciation above the premium just to break even. Also, dealers and local coin shops aren't interested in buying small quantities, or if they do, they do it at a much lower value. You generally have to have something desirable to make them consider your sale and leverage up the price of your other items. Selling on eBay is fraught with danger too. Buyers will nitpick every detail, not pay, dick you over, etc. eBay is very friendly to buyers compared to sellers. And the fees are shit. Maybe if you are a master of eBay you will do well, but beware: it's an involved process.
I try to buy things I think are in demand, or are recognizable long term. While I do have some generic silver, most of what I have is ‘Government Bullion’ – bullion like American Silver Eagles and Silver Maple Leafs that people can look at and quickly ascertain that they are what they are. Large blocks of silver are cool to look at and handle, but they aren’t as easy to verify as to what they are as government issued bullion. You pay more for government bullion, but you usually keep a larger portion of the premium and they are more liquid – easier to sell when the time comes.
The difference between a coin and a round is the face value. An American Silver Eagle is technically a coin because it is issued by the US Treasury/mint and has a face value of one dollar (nobody in their right mind would try to spend it). By contrast, the Mexican Silver Libertad is just a round or medallion. There is no face value to it (but it carries a higher premium, and thus is worth more than the ASE).
Beware ‘slabbed’ coins/bullion. Slabs are graded samples of individual coins. Companies like PCGS and NGC have grading services where you can send them your coin for grading and to be put in a slab (a plastic case with a serial number). This is more advanced stacking and can be profitable, but there is a saying: “Buy the coin, not the slab.” That means that just because something is in a slab, it’s not necessarily worth the premium that they are trying to get. Also, 2 different coins, both with the same grading, could be worth different amounts. Also, grading doesn’t assure that the coin doesn’t get damaged after the grading – there are numerous well graded coins that have definitely gone down in grade due to ‘milk spotting’ becoming visible over time, etc. Wait until you are more experienced to deal in slabbed coins.
I've been watching the metals market for years, and only got involved in the last year or so. I've done a pretty good job timing the bottom of the market, but who knows - it could go lower at any moment. However there are a lot of changes that are coming (new markets for physical as opposed to paper metals) and other economic conditions that I think will contribute to the long term increase in the price of precious metals. I managed to pick up over 800oz of silver in my first year at about an average price of $14.50, and about 23oz of gold at an average price of about $1260. However, that means that I’m barely breaking even right now with the increase in metals prices over the last 6 months. Precious metals isn’t something you can buy and expect to sell at a profit in a short amount of time. I’m in this for the long haul. I consider my metals a sunk expense at this point, and won’t even consider selling until prices are at least double what I paid for them in the last year. That could take a very long time.
Also, try to do as much research as possible. Watching youtube videos and reading about metals stacking is a good way to get info and have fun.