Undeniably 1StopGold do provide the lowest premium silver in the market, and their bar is the most branded. I bought 3 kilo bars from them, 1 kilo at a time for few months, but I have decided not to purchase from them anymore. If you have make any transaction with them before, you would understand why would I stop purchasing from them. I was considering writing a descriptive post in my website to explain why am I so unsatisfied doing transaction with them, but as a business owner myself, I don't want to spoil people's business just to release my anger or satisfy my ego. Just be warned that 1StopGold might offer the best deal in term of the number (they even offer guarantee buy back, which I believe they would honor their words without much BS), but as in a complete transaction deal, you might want to research better and think twice

Another note I would like to share about PAMP SUISSE PM which offered by 1StopGold. I was talking to a friend who owns a gold and silver mintage business. He supplies gold and silver to local jewelry shops, state governments (Dirham), and also export his PM to overseas. Some of you might be even holding his mintage. I didn't know I was holding his mintage bar until he told me he minted that. He is a very low profile guy. Just to give an idea what kind of person made the following statement. He said apart from PAMP SUISSE, non of the other brands would mean a thing. For people in his business, 1 oz is still 1 oz, he won't give much thought to the brand except PAMP SUISSE. PAMP SUISSE is the only brand that worth paying the premium.

During crisis time, people most likely not be willing to pay for the numismatic value. Think about it, the current silver trend is we are expecting a global shortage for silver and the highest demand of silver comes from industry consumption, NOT investment. If there is a global shortage of silver, manufacturer who desperately need silver and make use of silver for production do not care about the numismatic value. They will probably melt it and convert it into whatever form that makes money for their manufacturing. So if you are considering paying a high premium for a brand, please think twice. If you are still want to go ahead with silver with numismatic value, please be warned, the niche is very small. And during bad economy time, it might not be as liquid as you have thought.

If you want to buy bar with premium, just stick to PAMP SUISSE, else buy the lowest premium silver (investment grade) that is as close as the spot price. I think I better stop now, I guess a lot of seller are going to hate me for this.

Just a little word of caution from me to you

This post has been edited by property101: Nov 29 2011, 06:14 PM

Good feedback on dealer reputation based on empirical experience.

There are always 2 sides of a story, probably your empirical experience is the opposite of my side.

Initially I thought it was only me, but as I shared my experience with the people in the silver industry, they have even worse experience than mine. Not only my personal friend, even the industry players are cursing them.

Ok, enough of bad mouthing 1StopGold, I'm certainly so worried they will want to sue me... (*ahem...AGAIN)

This post has been edited by property101: Nov 29 2011, 06:22 PM

Hi kokolat,

Well, I used to start off with bars too, after a while, you will want to see more design, and realised that selling coins in "good economy" is more profitable than bars. And also, coins appreciate in value every year (not all coins though, please research the type of coins carefully)

Example :

1oz Pamp suisse silver bar, will forever follow spot price PLUS premium

1oz kookaburra, past year, will depend on mintage and availability of the coins, the premium almost never got affected by spot price.


Anyway, it's a phase we go thru, many silver stacker I know started off with silver bar (strong believer, told me they will NEVER buy coins), because of the low premium, then after they had accumulate certain amount, they moved on to coins. No convincing required, BUT honestly, it does not happen to everyone.

chef

haha...good one chef, very true. after stacking some kilo bars, then some 500gram bars, now i'm buying some coins...

Well, no one should hate you for sharing your perspective and experience, this is a forum, we swap war stories.

I bought from 1stopgold too, although no extremely bad experience with them, I just think they are not as professional in dealing with us, I guess they need to improve on their customer service. If they replaced the current staff and improved, I will let you know

But I have yet to purchase from mysmartgold yet, as you recommended, I really think I should but I guess will only be my next trip up to KL.

Anyway, I also buy the lowest premium bar if possible, for coins, get the ones with high demand like panda or kooks.

chef

This post has been edited by chef: Nov 29 2011, 06:33 PM

Very true indeed, as it happen to me as well, only one month after I bought bullion, I started to pay premium to Perth Mint for Numismatic coins. However each person had their own respective reason.

haha...try buy one bar from MySmartGold, it's heaven and hell.
i was so amazed by Marcus's (from MySmartGold) professionalism in handling the whole transaction. after getting back to office, i even sent a sms to compliment his service. well, i dont always do this kind of thing

I believe not many people here in LYN will persuade you to go with a certain form of investment, they will rather share with you their view, experience, and knowledge so that you can make informed decision on what you want to invest in, and how to go about doing it. Better if you will do further research on your own to verify and compliment the information/opinion provided by forumers here, then contribute back by posting your research findings to share with us.

Don't limit yourself to just looking at banks and jewelry shops. Apart from discussion, many forumers here also trade and exchange silver bars/coins within this community and outside. Do check out the sell list and buy list at property101's website, these are silver buyers and sellers looking for buy/sell opportunities. You may get some good deals there. Here are the links:

Link to Sell list
Link to Buy list

Happy investing in silver

This post has been edited by cruzzie73: Nov 29 2011, 06:55 PM

Wow, that says a lot when you (or anyone) bothered to send a complimentary sms.

The problem is they are always out of 50g gold bar. I think I will settle for 20g and try his service at least once. It should be a good experience.

chef

I personally start off with silver coins, love them from the start till now. I only have a few oz of scottsdale bar thats all. Still a coin lover. You do pay for an extra premium but it is worth the premium. In my opinion, if there is crisis, coins will be easier to liquidate and easily recognized compared to silver bars. No offence to bar lovers. hehe.

so next time we can categorize silver buyers...
"hey....are u a bar guy or a coin guy?"

The best product is actually Silver Round, the middle ground and best of both worlds. It looks like coin and have more variation of designs without legal tender, therefore you don't pay tax or smuggle into Malaysia.

Silver Rounds:
Silver bullion rounds are simply another name for silver shaped into rounds like coins. The term round came about because the silver was shaped into round shape of coins and thus was able to be stacked into rolls. This made it convenient for the rounds to be handled and shipped. You’ll often see them referred to as silver art rounds because they can be purchased inscribed with a variety of designs ranging from commemorative, religious, military, cars, holidays, weapons, animals, presidents, and even Elvis!

Specifications:
1. You can buy silver rounds in sizes ranging from one ounce to over one hundred ounces. Fractional rounds weighing 1/10, ¼ and ½ ounce are also available, but harder to source.
2. The one ounce variety is the most popular. Each silver round coin contains one full ounce of pure silver.
3. It has a purity of .999 fine silver.
4. It is not government-backed and has no legal tender status, making it not classified as coin.
Varieties:
Silver bullion rounds are available in both name-brand and generic. While name-brand silver rounds include the one-ounce private mint produced A-Mark Precious Metals, Wall Street Mint and Sunshine Minting. These silver rounds will display the name or hallmark of the mint that manufactured them.
Generic silver rounds are produced by many mints, and typically they used the designs of famous historical silver coins that are no longer legal tenders, such as Morgan Dollar, Peace Dollar and Buffalo. Newer design includes the famous American Silver Eagle Rounds. They typically have a smaller markup than the name-brand silver rounds.

Reasons to Buy:
1. Silver rounds are readily available.
2. Silver rounds have more artistic design varieties for viewing pleasure, but it lacks the numismatic premium associated to coins.
3. They typically sell for a lower premium than government-backed silver bullion coins.
4. The value of the rounds is directly correlated to the current price of silver.
5. Their small size makes them perfect coins for bartering.
6. Similar to silver bar, there is no 10% Sales Tax and 5% Import Tax in Malaysia meaning it don’t add 'dead money' to the cost (contrary to silver coin) and makes it worthwhile to purchase for pure silver bullion investment purposes.
Conclusion:
Silver bullion rounds are affordable, easy to store, count, buy and sell. They are an excellent way for the small investor or collector to invest directly in pure silver bullion

Recently saw some fellow silver investors posting (can't recall whether from FB groups or LYN) how much silver they have or how/where they keep their silver. Just a friendly reminder, try not to disclose too much of such personal information in public forums like this for safety reason.

It is different when traders tell potential buyers how much they have because buyers want to know if they have ex-stock, and if they have enough capacity to supply. But for individual investors, not advisable to do so.

Becareful how you share ideas with forumers on creative ways to keep silver, so that you do not leave any hint on how YOU keep your silver.

Like the old Chinese saying, keep your wealth away from the eyes of others. (unless when you are ready to share it out, eg. donating your wealth to charity, etc. even then, anonymous charity is preferred, just my humble opinion)

This post has been edited by cruzzie73: Nov 29 2011, 07:25 PM

good stuff, definitely worth sharing! i will host this in my website...
( but this time i will link it to the original author instead, cool? )
btw, regarding the previous posts that i referencing you, i have again updated the referencing - closest to your requirement in today post. hope you are happy with that. if you can think of a better way of doing it, please let me know

Good advice.

---

Added on November 29, 2011, 7:56 pmNo problem, all of us are learning together.

This post has been edited by taurusbull: Nov 29 2011, 07:56 PM

we should all come out for gathering one day and have a chat =)

This post has been edited by marcuslpm: Nov 29 2011, 08:04 PM

So many taikor here...shy2 laaa if i meet all of you.

Hey marcus, and all..

I have been throwing this idea, but the venue is a problem.

Can't be too open, yet not too many people should know of the meeting, I'm willing to sponsor drinks and snacks, but table, place and other logistical issue is a problem.

Anyway, too many of us meet we may end up having nothing much to say without a theme. So I guess the best time to meet will be the money and coin fair, I remember doing the registration for it in KL one of the year, so at least we can go there, view, get a meeting room for SILVER discussion, some auction and selling of special deals. I'm sure it will be a success.

No restriction, even if you only have 1 bar or coins, you are still welcome as a potential customer also right? so no need to feel shy about attending.

Can we all help to look out for such a related event and we see if we can get a gathering going.

chef

yeah that will be great. count me in. if you need any help in organizing i am willing to help.