Silver prices, future etc.

Silver prices may be falling,but you couldn't prove it by me in the shops ! I had collected silver for quite a few years,and when it was high a few years ago I sold most of my collection and realized a nice tidy profit. But oh how I miss my silver ! I don't miss polishing it though . A friend of mine used to "hoard" silver ( for lack of a better term) and hes the one who told me to sell off when I did as he felt the market would fall,and stay down for quite a while. I think he may have been correct. He only does gold and platinum now,and he swears most people don't recognize platinum for what it is and he gets real deals on it. I bought a pair of platinum and diamond earrings from him he got at some estate sale for $5 ! My mother loves them.
As an aside,I know a few people who have silver tableware and they really just don't ever use it.

 

I have my folks silver service....some 120 pieces or more.
I don't know what to do with it.....or any of my other silver....

Gas here today....1.15 a liter.....and oil is well under $40 a barrel ....

Makes me fume !

 

Just don't fume too close to that gas.

I loaded up on vintage silver plate flatware to mix in with my little bit of sterling for use at my daughter's wedding reception which was held in an old historic building. I was surprised at how few places around here have much silver and I resorted to buying online.

I know that I can sell a lot of it at the nice flea market I sometimes do if needed. I feel like I'm hoarding the sterling a bit though (and don't need more stuff really).

I have hope though, having seen the great job AF did clearing out his lovely stuff.

 

People here find alternate uses for the plated stuff; you can't give it away for its original purposes.

 

Today would have been my mother's 90th birthday and I decided to use some of my "in memory" energy to (finally) go through the last cardboard box of (mostly) sterling and coin flatware that she inherited from various relatives, make sure it was all identified, organize it and get it all safely stored away in a flatware chest I've had for a few years waiting for the right time. In the process I realized that a lot of the coin things and a few sterling had serious dents and dings, and in a couple cases, teeth marks. Or maybe someone used those 2 as hammers.

Suffice it to say - they're really only scrap worthy. But... isn't there always a but? There's a group of coin spoons from a Fishkill NY maker, that provide one of the few connections to the obscure Dutchess County roots of my generation's maternal great-great grandmother. Do I scrap them? Do I keep them with copious notes? Decisions, decisions.......

 

???
Like the free (98 mil) rail in Baltimore, or wherever it is, that no one uses so they are going to charge $3 to (not) use now....

 

My sincere sympathies Bakers.
~
Can you repurpose them?

 

I don't see how. The flaws are pretty bad because coin is so thin. Of course that thinness also means that there isn't a whole lot of scrap value either.

 

Rings maybe?

 

They're all the very plain Tipped pattern. Not much to make a ring attractive.

 

I just think these are neat

How many bowls of porridge over how many years?

 

Poor thing! Looks like someone tried to use that one to pry a nail out of something.

 

Bear teeth will do that...

 

If they're rarities, the condition may not matter as much. I'd supply copious notes and keep anything that rare and with family ties.

 

Gosh, I think I'd keep them if there is anyone you can pass them down to that would do more than scrap them. I turned down my mom's sterling flatware when she passed. It was a pattern I knew I wouldn't use and I also knew I'd have a hard time emotionally selling them. I took the silverplate flatware instead, less pressure, I can donate it somewhere someday and feel good about it. I kept tons of other things and have given much to family however I am sort of stuck when it comes to letting go of some of the sentimental stuff. Part of that is just getting around to doing a serious sort though.

Terry looks like you lost a little money in scrap value on that one What on earth were they doing or is that garbage disposal damage? It's been so long since I've had a garbage disposal I forget.

 

No? Nothing?
Not even komo???

 

I turned down my mom's sterling flatware when she passed. It was a pattern I knew I wouldn't use and I also knew I'd have a hard time emotionally selling them.

Being an only child....I don't have that luxury....but I feel you !!!!

 

I'm getting picky.....in my old age.....

 

WELL!!!!
I NEVER!
~
Was that stated in an old movie? Which?
Anyone know?

 

I think I can just remember when silver items in salerooms were sold by the ounce. Bidding was a per ounce price for the piece, so a ten ounce piece would cost you ten times your bid. No buyer's premiums then.

We still tend to do this when calculating what to bid. Just now the bid figure is the total, not the per ounce figure.

20-30 years ago, when the silver price was less than half the present level, run of the mill silver pieces, Georgian, Victorian, were selling in general for around 10 pounds per ounce, that's about $15, or about twice the metal price at the time.

Nowadays the premium in the sale room can be as little as a small negative number, in other words, slightly below the scrap value. This generally applies to foreign silver. I bought a nice 20 ounce US sterling bowl a couple of weeks ago for metal value, but the prejudice against foreign silver, which was very noticeable 20-30 years ago is much less apparent nowadays. It is no longer so easy to make an immediate turn on the metal value alone. I blame the internet, but without it I'd not have the money to be buying anyway.

At present, only really outstanding or really early pieces are making the premiums over metal value that were common 20 years ago.

The market itself may have changed. A soilid silver teaset is no longer on anyone's wish list, the cutlery drawer is full of stainless steel instead of silver, and other things need to be useful and decorative as well as precious metal.

Much material must have been melted down in the recent silver price spike, but due to lower demand the increasing rarity of what were more common items is not showing in the prices. It may only be old hoarders like me that are supporting the market.