We’ve had a pretty amazing run in Gold and Silver recently and if you’re like me you’ve probably stacked all sorts of different coins and bars over the years. They all should be worth a good chunk more than what I paid for them but I still want to hold them for as long as I can. However, my wife and I are planning to start building our dream home this year, so I kind of need to know what my stack is worth because even though I don’t want to sell I might need to use it as collateral. I need to know what it’s worth not just to me but to a potential creditor.
As an oft anal-retentive analyst I, of course, have a spreadsheet with all my purchases recorded. Dates, places, weights, purities, the works. What I also recorded for each purchase was the price of spot at the time of the purchase. By using the spot price I have calculated (and recorded) the premium I have paid on every piece as a percentage above spot. So if I want to get a rough market value for any piece I just take the current spot price and add a similar premium percentage to see what it might sell for.
It’s a bit of an oversimplification because at times premiums themselves can fluctuate wildly. For instance, in some parts of the world this year premiums have exploded. Indeed it can be near impossible to even get your hands on physical precious metals sometimes, while other times you might be lucky to get spot price for a nice piece that you paid a solid premium for. Yet my spreadsheet calculation is a good tool that I can use to get a rough valuation if I have the luxury of time when I’m trying to sell. I also value my stack purely from a spot price perspective and wipe out all my premiums. Especially for the 99.99% purity stuff I’d be wanting to get at least spot (melt price) if I needed to sell in a hurry. This is also probably how a creditor might value my stack. A “Liquidation” price – yes, that pun was intended.
I’m wondering how other stackers in the community keep track of the value of their stack. Or do they even bother? I know some like to stack just because it’s shiny and looks or feels nice. Others might not care if they’re planning to pass their stack down with their inheritance. Has anyone out there ever used their stack as collateral for a loan? I’m planning a trip to the vault next week and will talk to them about whether they can provide custodial services for a creditor. Does anyone have any experience with setting something like that up?