Just wanted to add my 2 cents worth on merlip that posted above, I have had several transactions with merlip and have never been dissapointed. Excellent business and delivery.

Thanks for the informative links. With all the bubbles which are happening, I guess the best is still to keep investing in the precious metals. I would think we all have to keep buying irregardless of price. Just the quantity changes.

Hi, congratulations in making the decision to invest in silver. I believe your timing is great. I just started in November 2013, and had a great time over the months (2 months to be exact) collecting. In our family, I have my 14 year old, 11 year old and 2 year old purchasing every month. The 2 older children will buy whatever that thrills them, but the 2 year old we just buy it for her. My wife is responsible for gold purchases. So I guess you could say that my whole family is involved in buying both main precious metals for the family.

Until today, my prime reason for collecting is to have silver as a diversification of my investment portfolio. So what I am trying to do and hope to achieve is to use today's ATM to create tomorrow's ATM. With tomorrow being defined as over 10 years.

In the last 2 months or so, I have bought with the philosophy that the cheaper the silver or as close as it is to spot, then buy buy buy... I have had very pleasant experiences with merlip (6 purchases), nubex (many purchases), supersilver on facebook (4 purchases) and ebayUS (many purchases, but only effective if you have a US address that you can post it to, and keep until you get there to pick it up). I have found that each of the groups that I had mentioned had delivered as promised with some providing the all important "exit" strategy and some that leave it to yourself. Because my plans are for mid term investment (more than 5 years), I would prefer to have my own exit strategy when the time is right.

In all cases the deliveries were exactly as described with merlip, nubex and some sellers on supersilver allowing for cod in the Klang Valley area. For me, I would try small purchases first and see how they do things, and to see whether they are comfortable for you. Then you can grow from there.

I have also heard lots of great things about silverstreet, but I have not experienced any purchasing from there. So good luck and hope my response helps...

Thank you tuan for the correction.. it is super silver.. Good group, nice people in there. I did join the Nubex's Power Buyer Scheme. At the time we were turned on to buying silver I didn't know the silver market in malaysia at all. So nubex was the one that was really attractive. It didn't turn out too bad, they have some nice stuff and the prices are also great when the spot is favourable.

But I do agree the power buyer is worth it only if you purchase lots and lots every month... or else order from a person that is already a power buyer member in nubex like me... If anyone is interested and wants to take advantage of their prices.. we can always do this... just a thought...

Shah.

Tuan, for me since I have already paid for the year or at least till November 2014, no worries about sharing of the fees for this year. Just take a look at what you might be interested and we go together to order and pay.. Easy enough. Open to many different ideas.... Good Luck and have a great weekend.

Sorry for the late reply. Was away for a bit. They do cater walk in customer but at the non-power buyer price. The process is slightly longer because the ordering will still have to be done from their website. They have an ipad as well as a computer on site for you to do the ordering. The place is in damansara perdana, Metropolitan Commerce Square to be exact.. Same place as scotia bank and citibank... There are a couple of eateries there.

I do agree with the get together because it would be interesting to here your views on silver. SInce I have only started collecting 2 months ago, it would certainly be interesting for me. Tell me when.. I am there.

Yup, at 18/oz, as a friend once told me, he would sell his underwear to get the fiat to buy the silver.. But I don't really want to see his underwear..

I think there is a drop in the horizon, but I am don't think it will go that low.. what are your thoughts....

He only told me about the underwear about 3 days ago.. so I havent seen his underwear yet..

Agreed with the suggestion for TS to arrange.. I am open..

I just love the looks of all the coins. i am like you, i like to buy various types. I have the following in silver coins/rounds:-

1. American Eagle
2. Canadian Maple Leafs
3. Mexican Libertad
4. Kookaburas (Mind the spelling)
5. American Buffalo
6. Pegasus
7. Zombucks Morgue Anne
8. Zombucks Buffalo
9. London Olympiad
10. KGT Dirhams
11. Restu Dirhams
12. Philharmonic
13. Britannia
14. Chinese Panda
15. Australian Koalas
16. Garfield Coin
17. Junk Silver Coins (American pre-1964 Coins in various denominations:- dimes, quarters, 1/2 dollars and dollars)

I also bought several coins that had special meaning to my family specifically the 1999 Canadian Maple Privy Rabbit, 2002 Canadian Maple Privy Horse, 2012 Canadian Maple Privy Dragon, 1999, 2002, 2012 American Silver Eagle. These coins represents the years that my children were born. (My wife unhappy with these purchases because of the cost)

For the Silver Bars:-

1. Scottsdale
2. PAMP Suisse
3. Suisse Mint (local mint)
4. Johnson Matthey
5. Sunshine Mint
6. UMICORE (I think German)
7. APMEX
8. Hamilton Mint (more of an art bar, bought a Rhode Island bar since I went to school in the state of Rhode Island).
9. Silvertowne

No real strategy in buying these silver products, just kinda wing it, as long as it is close to spot, then the family buys it on a monthly basis. Anybody else can enlighten the group on the other type of purchases that they made. it would be very interesting to see the different types...

Another item that I am looking for is the silver bullet. I saw it sold by Nicky Lee from Super Silver in facebook.. That one more for cool factor. That is something that I am waiting the approval from my boss (my wife). Happy collecting..

Great idea to start. Though my personal feeling is there is nothing like physical silver. For investment sake it all depends on your timeline or ROI. If you are looking at something short term I would say paper silver is better, but if you are looking at longer term (upwards of 5 years), I would still highly recommend physical silver. I might be misquoting but I think somebody once said, "If you don't hold it, you don't own it"...

For storage there are always the following places:-

1. Refrigerator
2. Freezer
3. Clothes cupboard
4. hole in the ground
5. Safe Deposit Box (3rd Party)
6. Office
7. Inside the Car
8. In the Water Tank of the toilet W/C

I am not saying the options are the best and greatest, but these are some the places that my silver/gold collecting friends have told me that they store their silver.

Good Luck and Happy Collecting..

Hey_There, that is so true, but those were the places that my friends were telling me when we had the same conversation.. didn't say it was me.. I am afraid I don't have anything with me except for the paper money that we keep wanting to stay away from.. ha ha ha

Agreed with your insight with regards to the paper stuff. With my own religious awakening for the past 3 or 4 years, there are certain laws and ambiguity which makes the paper stuff to be considered questionable when it comes to the Islamic interpretation. Though different people will have different interpretations mine would be physical is always a must. Though now the Kuwait Finance House is offering a gold account account that is backed by physical gold, so that might be something that I might go into since my house is under threat of being robbed by you.

Great insight hey_there.

I do have some China Pandas, but nothing much, their premiums are very high.. but excellent coins..

Another question, which platform do use for the paper silver and gold? ..

Honestly Boss, I am not sure about the selling part because I just keep buying. The family strategy is only to look at selling after 5 years.

But using the facebook groups in Super Silver, Silver Lot Shop and Silver Group and various others seems to be doing quite well. I know I have bought some from the members in those groups and I think the market is quite exciting.

For gold, there is a tremendous amount of options in facebook also. Incredible amount of sites that do sell and constant amount of buying. They usually put it based on the current spot price. You would also be able to get a good indication of what your items are worth on these pages. Just type in "emas" or "gold" in facebook and plenty of groups will show up.

The market price is still very difficult to determine because the buyers would buy based on sentiment. So wish you the very best of luck, but if you have anything you want to sell at a good price, i am always ready and willing to buy.

This post has been edited by shahjaafar: Jan 13 2014, 07:05 PM

Nice advice... exactly..

I am sure that once you are into it, you would be able to figure it out. Confirm.. And look it this way, you already have 2 buyers ready to buy right now.. Happy Collecting...

To me it takes a lot of courage and smartness to go at this when you are young. I wished this idea of silver and gold collecting started when I was younger. Mind you I am old now, when I was 21 years of age in 1994, the price of gold at the jewelry store was about RM 35 - 40 / gram. How I wished I was as smart as you to have started early. So imagine the price of gold and silver that you buy today would be worth when you are 41 years of age.. Wow.. excellent move.

The only advice is:-

1. Keep Accumulating
2. Buy what you can afford. (if its 1gram then 1gram it is.).
3. Never look at it as a short term investment.

No worries you had certainly made a good choice and since you are young you have time on your side.

But as we all say Its not too late to start anything. Happy Collecting.

Boss, I do agree with your sentiment, I would categorize myself as a collector/accumulator for the next 5 years. I know after 5 years, then I look at the silver that I collect as an investment and based on the spot price, it would be time to sell or swap for something more permanent. So I would say I am in different roles based upon the amount of years of collecting. Though I have to admit, I have no real knowledge since the 1st purchase of silver that I had done was on the 7th of November 2013.

At this moment, my average cost is at RM 71.00/oz. It's a little high but what to do, I just love them coins.

I have personally bought ASE, Maple Leafs and bars and each of these items have their own intrinsic values. I believe in Malaysia the popular ones are the Silver Eagles because they are so easy to liquidate. I was told that the best value in silver 1oz coins are the philharmonic from Austria and the Maple Leafs from Canada, but here the collectors don't like the Maple Leafs because of the white spot that is present on the coin. Though the white spot does not decrease the value of silver in the coin, it certainly does decrease the numismatic value because it is not as pretty.

Bars would be the best value when you are ready to start because of its price as compared to the spot price of silver. This is usually the best value for money. But my family's philosophy is not to go so big on the bars, we don't buy anything above 10oz because it would enable us to enjoy the various spikes in silver prices as time goes on. Because we are never sure of the maximum silver price, our family would like to ride the wave as long as possible by selling a little at a time. I can't break of an 1oz worth of silver from the 1kg bar you see. With the 1kg bar, you can only have 1 transaction. Though the 1kg bar would be the closest to spot, the flexibility of the lower weights allows us to take advantage of any upward trend for a little longer.

My sifu that started me on this adventure told me that go for as many bars as you can get until you yourself feel that it is enough and then start diversification into coins/rounds. Though he still tells me every month just keep buying the bars.

Happy Collecting.

Agree with you XtraLeoGecko, the taxation on coins is 15% I believe. But if you can pick them up in Singapore, there is no tax.