Well gold prices are very expensive, you're looking at $1,225 an ounce right now. It was at $1,600 not too long ago, so if you bought in then you have lost a lot. Silver is considered the poor man's gold. It's cheap enough that poor people can invest in it, yet has great potential for rising in price.
 
As far as guitars go, I already have a few, and don't have room for more. They can also get easily damaged by accident or humidity, so you have to be very careful with them....silver you can pile in a stack and not worry about it.

You have to be careful when buying gold or silver, because there's a lot of counterfeit stuff out there, that can even fool the experts....best to buy only from reputable dealers and stay off of ebay !!!

djwayne
You have to be careful when buying gold or silver, because there's a lot of counterfeit stuff out there, that can even fool the experts....best to buy only from reputable dealers and stay off of ebay !!!

Very true.
Just the other day, this guy paid $735 on Ebay for just a photo of the Xbox 1....(thinking he was buying the console).....although it was advertised as a "photo", being listed in the console section, and it's not catagorized as a scam, but it's somewhat unethical in motive in tryring to make money off of unsuspecting customers.
Can't trust anyone these days.........very sad.
 http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57614630-1/teen-pays-$735-for-photo-of-xbox-one-on-ebay/   

The counterfeit silver and gold look very real. My mother bought me a gold coin she paid $100 bucks for it...of course it was fake. She thought she was doing me a great service, but got suckered. If that coin was real it would have cost her about $1,250. But instead she bought a gold plated coin that was worthless. It looks nice, but I know it's a fake.

I have 7 ros of 1964 and older quarters. I got them for between 95 and 105 bucks each. They are in my safety deposit box along with a bunch of Morgan silver dollars. I like silver because when it all falls apart it will be at a value where you can spend it... gold might be a little harder to spend. Guns and alcohol are always a good bet for trade if things fall apart. I wish I had bought gold back in the early 70s when it was 34 dollars an ounce. Investments are always a gamble, more so because of people who manipulate markets.
 
Julien
 

When my grandpa passed away, he had a bunch of brand new 1964 silver dollars. I think I got 5 or 6 of them. I wonder what they're worth.

Leadfoot
When my grandpa passed away, he had a bunch of brand new 1964 silver dollars. I think I got 5 or 6 of them. I wonder how many new plug-ins I could get with them...

CDC'ed.

craigb

Leadfoot
When my grandpa passed away, he had a bunch of brand new 1964 silver dollars. I think I got 5 or 6 of them. I wonder how many new plug-ins I could get with them...

CDC'ed.

LOL...

About the only thing you can say about commodities is that on a small scale at least, you will still have something to show for your investment when the price goes down. With paper assets you can't even melt them down to fill teeth. That is if you actually take possession of the stuff itself as opposed to buying futures etc. The problem then is that like diamonds, the guy who just sold you an ounce will offer you substantially less if you offer to sell it back to him before you take it off the counter, and less still plus an assay fee to confirm it is the real stuff if you take it home and bring it back the next day.
 
Clearly the central banks of the world are trying to force savings into the "economy" by loaning other banks money for free, and devaluing currency via "quantitative easing." Given the fact that insured savings are not keeping pace with inflation, everyone is tempted to put their money into stocks, commodities or (if they have short enough memories) real estate.
 
There are no fundamental reasons why the stock market value should be greater now than in 2007. The increase in value of stocks is entirely due to the implicit subsidy by the Federal Reserve et al. The smart money knows that, and there is a very high probability that if the subsidy is withdrawn, there will be a sudden massive flight from equities that will leave those who cannot execute orders in milliseconds holding the bag again. The situation is similar in other alternative savings options like gold or silver.
 
Whatever else you may think, you are buying into a bubble, and if you are not planning to get out quickly you stand a good chance of being burned. Alan Greenspan (the arch enabler of the real estate bubble, and father of the great recession) supposedly asked some of his banker friends why they took the risks that ruined their businesses in 2008 and was told that they all knew it was a bubble built on bull excrement, but they figured they would be smart enough to get out in time to leave the rest of the investment community stuck with the losses. Most of them were not that smart.

How about purchasing 'bitcoins', the new up-and-coming virtual currency?