I am a stacker, not a pourer, but the Metals Mafia is made up of people from all talents and those who share the love of poured silver. I love the precious metals and the many forms they take.
When I started my You Tube channel, I knew nothing about stacking or collecting such valuable pieces. I watched video after video about how to stack, collect, test, and store such things. I learned about the may different forms the metals could take such as coins, rounds, bars, and my favorite, poured silver.
At first I thought the pressed bars were beautiful and had the weight I was looking for, but then I found Atlantis Mint with their poured silver loafs. I was instantly hooked! Poured silver looked less like manufactured common metal items and more like the treasure you would find in a pirate chest, or in huge government vaults. I built the core of my stack around these more natural looking pieces.
I began to focus more on the poured silver, although I still collected coins and rounds, when I found hand poured silver. I began to see that people had logo bars that sported the the likeness of their channels and I wanted my own!
I began to research how these precious logs were made, what was involved and began to see several names becoming prominent. Stacking Ag47, The Bear and Pit Bullion. Concentrating on the people who poured these bars, I saw that they all seemed to be a group. I learned of a new name.
I had been stacking for a few months and watched may more videos from other you tubers and knew I couldn't really have a personal coin, or round, but a poured silver bar was not out of the question.
I first needed a some kind of logo to represent my channel and of course it had to be a dragon. My first step was to have one designed that would not violate any copyrights. I contacted a professional graphics designer I knew and he took on the project. It took months because the designer was good and very busy, but he came through!! I now had the face of my channel and brand!
I loved it! It depicted my name perfectly! But how to mark these bars? What size should the bars be? What would it cost to realize my dream? I had never done anything like this before! This was a whole new world to me! So I turned back to the videos and learned that Mafia Metals has a live stream every Saturday night. If anyone would know about this, they would. So, I watched them, heard them talk about molds, sand casting and oh yes... Stamps!
I sat in the side chat and listened. These guys were great! Down to earth, discussing anything from their craft to movies, food, music and anything else a group of good friends would at a gathering. They also took questions from those in the side chat, answering our questions and giving advice. I now knew where to find my answers.
I turned to Pit Bullion. He always did live pours during those streams and I loved and still love to watch him create his wares. I decided to reach out to him for advice about a stamp.
I told Pit what I wanted to do and asked his advice. Honestly, I didn't know if he would answer with me being such a newb! But, he did reply and told me where I could get a stamp made and gave me his recommendations.
Well, needless to say, I still had no idea what I was doing. So, to make a long story short, Pit told me what kind of stamp to order, the size, dimensions, everything I needed to know. I was so surprised that he would take such time and be so patient with someone so oblivious to the process as busy as he was.
Some time later, this arrived!
My God! It was happening! I had to use only the head of the dragon in my original logo, but it was cleaner, more memorable and would have better detail on the bars. Pit was a genius! I had all the components needed. I had the logo, the stamp and the melt silver! I only needed someone to pour the bars. It was time to call and pester this man once again! LOL!! I will remember that call. Pit seemed happy. He quoted me a pouring price and I agreed. He told me to send it to him and he would take care of the rest.
A little while later, I get a text from him. "Bars are ready, if you don't like them, I may cry!" The words jokingly appeared on the screen of my phone. I wasn't worried after all of our discussions and knowing his reputation. Then he sent me this.
Holy shit!! Was he kidding? I stared down at my phone and couldn't believe what I was seeing! It was now REAL! I had Slacker Bars! They turned out better than I had ever envisioned! I must have waited to long to respond because the phone made a whooshing sound as another text appeared. "Come on man, don't make me cry..." All I could do was laugh. "Hell no, man! I love it! Awesome job!"
Now I just had to wait for the bars to get to me. This is what arrived a few days later!
