My new found way to accumulate cheap SILVER!

[s1lverbullet]

Hey all, I know some of you have read or participated in my thread "coin roll searching" in the past. This thread is to give an update of what I have been doing to keep accumulating. I recently moved to the Denver metro area out here in the beautiful front range. I know that coin roll searching out in these very heavily populated areas is very tough and finds are very sparse.

I had been brainstorming and looking for ways to add to the stack since my wife and I are newly-weds and our #1 priority right now is getting out of student debt. We have A LOT of it. We both have gotten great jobs out here though so it will just take time. That means I have hardly any extra money, only around 150 dollars a month out of my own personal spending money to put towards silver. This is not enough for me.

I found my new way when my parents came down to visit us and on the way to the mall my mom saw a sign for a garage sale and we stopped. It took me 30 seconds upon arrival to start looking through boxes and the items on the table to find two very nice sterling silver pieces clearly stamped "sterling." I paid 15 dollars for them and they are now worth over 500 dollars today. This lit a fire in me.

It has been three weeks and I have been going to garage and estate sales ever since. I have been finding scrap silver at roughly 1 in 7 garage sales. This can range anywhere from a small bracelet weighing 7 grams to those pieces weighing 14.22 ounces pure silver.

Yesterday I just scored again and found a 2 ounce silver chain (clearly marked 925) and paid 15 dollars for it. So far I have spent $31.50 on scrap silver totally 16.18 ounces of pure silver. You do the math, that's a pretty damn good DCA. I know it's scrap but I know I should still be able to get close to spot if and when I go to sell.

The last two weeks I have found only very small items weighing 1/4 of an ounce until yesterday. It took me 3 weeks to find another nice sized silver item.

Before anyone tells me I am wasting my time, let me ask you this. Have you found and paid just over 30 dollars for over 16 ounces of silver in the last three weeks coin roll searching? I didn't think so.

Anyway, I thought I would share because some of you I know have a tight budget like I do and are chomping at the bit to add to your stack. This might be a worthwhile endeavor for you.

I have pictures of all of the stuff I have found if you would like me to share. I hope all of my silver buddies out there have a good time stacking this next week! Take care!

[Second Strike Mining]

Hey all, I know some of you have read or participated in my thread "coin roll searching" in the past. This thread is to give an update of what I have been doing to keep accumulating. I recently moved to the Denver metro area out here in the beautiful front range. I know that coin roll searching out in these very heavily populated areas is very tough and finds are very sparse.

I had been brainstorming and looking for ways to add to the stack since my wife and I are newly-weds and our #1 priority right now is getting out of student debt. We have A LOT of it. We both have gotten great jobs out here though so it will just take time. That means I have hardly any extra money, only around 150 dollars a month out of my own personal spending money to put towards silver. This is not enough for me.

I found my new way when my parents came down to visit us and on the way to the mall my mom saw a sign for a garage sale and we stopped. It took me 30 seconds upon arrival to start looking through boxes and the items on the table to find two very nice sterling silver pieces clearly stamped "sterling." I paid 15 dollars for them and they are now worth over 500 dollars today. This lit a fire in me.

It has been three weeks and I have been going to garage and estate sales ever since. I have been finding scrap silver at roughly 1 in 7 garage sales. This can range anywhere from a small bracelet weighing 7 grams to those pieces weighing 14.22 ounces pure silver.

Yesterday I just scored again and found a 2 ounce silver chain (clearly marked 925) and paid 15 dollars for it. So far I have spent $31.50 on scrap silver totally 16.18 ounces of pure silver. You do the math, that's a pretty damn good DCA. I know it's scrap but I know I should still be able to get close to spot if and when I go to sell.

The last two weeks I have found only very small items weighing 1/4 of an ounce until yesterday. It took me 3 weeks to find another nice sized silver item.

Before anyone tells me I am wasting my time, let me ask you this. Have you found and paid just over 30 dollars for over 16 ounces of silver in the last three weeks coin roll searching? I didn't think so.

Anyway, I thought I would share because some of you I know have a tight budget like I do and are chomping at the bit to add to your stack. This might be a worthwhile endeavor for you.

I have pictures of all of the stuff I have found if you would like me to share. I hope all of my silver buddies out there have a good time stacking this next week! Take care!

Congrats on the finds from a fellow CRS but your cost isnt 30 bucks you are not factoring in gas and mileage on your vehicle just as you need to do for CRS to see if it is profitable. I also stop if I am already driving by one but I dont go out of my way or make a day of it


Good luck

[s1lverbullet]

Ahhh yes so add in another 30-40 dollars so far for that. Good catch, I forgot to add it in. Even with that it is still very profitable. I just need to learn how to see value in other items besides sterling now so I can learn to flip those items for cash to buy more bullion. I've heard that artwork is very very profitable.

[Gold Watch]

I've thought about doing the same thing. Even traveling long distance. But obviously, it would be more of a hobby and a way to help offset travel costs. I do need a hobby. And I do like to travel on the road, for sights and food.

[s1lverbullet]

I've thought about doing the same thing. Even traveling long distance. But obviously, it would be more of a hobby and a way to help offset travel costs. I do need a hobby. And I do like to travel on the road, for sights and food.

Me too! At my job right now I work mornings, lunch time, and evenings so I have late mornings and afternoons to hop in my car, get a soda, look up some sales, turn on talk radio, head out on a drive and have a good time!

[Goldenpeach]

I have been doing this for over 25 years...got hooked when I bought a pair of birmingham sterling vases for 25 cents each at an estate sale in 1986. Still have them too! Just last week while driving out here to Bella Coola BC, we stopped to get gas (1.33 per liter) and saw an antique store down the road. Took a walk down and found three English sterling items (fluted vase, gravy boat and an unusual urn) plus two gold items. Got them all for 170$ down from the original 270$. The gold will scrap out for 180$ giving me the silver for free which will sell for 350$ or so. Watch for the gold items as well, and always stop at those little places you just come upon in your travels...they may produce more than you may think!

[blitzdude]

It has been three weeks and I have been going to garage and estate sales ever since. I have been finding scrap silver at roughly 1 in 7 garage sales.

So much for less than 1% of the population holding silver eh?

Oh and congrats on your finds.

[silverfire]

So much for less than 1% of the population holding silver eh?

Oh and congrats on your finds.

stacking bullion... probably < 1 or 2%
having jewelry, silverware, other heirloom type stuff ... probabaly a majority

[Agni the Purifier]

It has been three weeks and I have been going to garage and estate sales ever since. I have been finding scrap silver at roughly 1 in 7 garage sales. This can range anywhere from a small bracelet weighing 7 grams to those pieces weighing 14.22 ounces pure silver.

That seems on the high end to me. I usually go to garage sales to pick up cheap books (archeology, history, mythology, geography, etc), but I always look for precious metals as well.

Just about everything I see is silver plate - no sterling. In fact, in all the garage sales I've see I don't think I've ever seen sterling on the cheap - maybe the people around here are too smart for that.

Perhaps it is because I'm on the west coast and not in a heavily populated area.

The best thing I got was a silver sterling spoon from the antique mall around here for a buck. I suspect I was simply lucky though since my understanding is that the silverbugs clean up those deals pretty fast.

[fortydogroad]

I have just recently started looking for silver at yard sales, but I buy a lot of other stuff at them to sell on Ebay or at my antique mall booth. Fun hobby, and you can accumulate a nice mad money fund (to buy silver with ), in a surprisingly short time, if you work at it a little.

I've found a few little pieces of sterling jewelry so far at yard sales, hiding in the piles of costume jewelry. I also keep an eye out for foreign silver coins. Especially old Canadian dimes and quarters. I'm just tossing them in a scrap bag for now. No big silver scores...yet...but someday it might happen. That's the fun in it.

Good luck!