[3aidlillahi]

You seriously have to put $400 on a credit card? Man. How hard can that be to pay it off in full at the end of the month?

And don't speculate anything with silver. Silver's dropped 50% over the past 8 months. Nothing fun about its ride at all. I know. I've lost a good grand (in value) since I've gotten into the market (still the best money I've spent in a while).

[smallpoxgirl]

I guess I'd say it's not a great idea. Here's why. The big driver behind silver prices right now is the dollar index. There's a peculiar thing happening with the dollar index right now. Usually if the US stock markets go down, that should drive the US dollar down too. Right now what's happening is that every time the US stock market goes down, the dollar goes up. I think the reason that's happening is that all the markets are doing the same thing. When our markets fall, you can bet the Nikkei is going to drop, etc. The more global financial fear that's out there, the more people turn to the dollar as a bastion of safety. Paradoxically every time the fear goes up, the dollar goes up, and metals, especially silver, go down.

Over the long term I don't expect the dollar to continue strengthening. More vibrant emerging economies will pull them selves together, wrestle free from us, and do their own thing. When that happens, the dollar will tank, and PM's will go through the roof. For now I'm kinda thinking that PM's may actually continue to fall for a while. I wouldn't be surprised if silver got down into the $8 range. I don't usually buy anything on a credit card that I'm not expecting to pay off in 1-2 months. I think the break even period on silver is longer than that. Especially if you're buying 100oz or smaller bars. Anything less than 1000oz bars, you're paying a big retail premium right now.

[Dawn]

I don't speculate on anything either... I've never gone out of my way to buy silver. Honestly, the silver I have is from when we owned a store and customers would spend it... so I paid exactly face value be it a nickle, dime, quarter, half dollar, or silver dollar.

Though I did buy some silver coins from one customer... We were talking about coins and he told me that he was cashing his in because he needed the money and I told him I'd buy them. They're world trade silver coins and are one troy ounce each... I paid 7 or 8 dollars each. What's silver going for now? I'll have to look it up.[u]