Silver - Gold - COPPER?

[Ripon83]

So I was being told the virtues of copper the other day as a "new" precious metal for speculation, for SHTF, etc etc etc....so I did a cursory look around and found the situation kind of sad.

As I use to buy silver at $5.99 an ounce (including mark up while it was $4.95) and complain about the $1.04 per ounce mark up of the poor retailer that wanted to feed his family and pay his rent (yes I was young then) I can see why some would want to look at Copper now since its much more affordable than silver. I believe spot copper was $3.80 a lb or there about's last I looked. Would that not be 20 or 25 cents an ounce?

So I google copper ounces / bullion etc and see the online retailers are charging like $1.19 to $1.99 an ounce? Now that seems outrageous....even eBay the stuff seems to be in the same $1.25 range. Is is the cost of minting? Is copper at all worth a look as a PM considering this kind of mark up?

[DTOM CA!]

I have thought about nickel and copper. I think pennies before 1982 are mostly copper.

[Chaparral]

If you want the stuff then go to a place like M&K metals on Rosecrans and Western Ave in Gardena and buy remnants. They used to charge 3.00 a pound.

[Chaparral]

The concern I have about the stuff is that unlike gold and silver, I cant just waltz into a bullion shop and exchange it for greenbacks.

Folks are also pimping cadmium, indium and rare earths as "bullion grade investments".

So where do I go pawn my five pounds of neodymium when I see a that cool 1911 ive been looking for?

[Ripon83]

My guess is you can go hawk it like you would gold and silver, but you'd be paid the going spot price not $1.25 an ounce.

Its low price point is attractive. I like to see those who can't afford gold have some kind of PM to get they can use in a barter situation; but this just seems wrong at the price point.

And as for buying from a remnants thing - well I prefer coin because its small, generally light and easy to keep with me on the move or hide. Remnants don't seem to fit that but then neither does 5lbs of coin.

[DTOM CA!]

Called a guy who sells to the plating industry and can get a 31.5 lb bar of 99.5 % pure oxygen free copper for $5.95 per Lb. $187.43 per bar. I still like pennies.

[Ripon83]

31.5 lbs

That is a tad much for the bug out bag

Called a guy who sells to the plating industry and can get a 31.5 lb bar of 99.5 % pure oxygen free copper for $5.95 per Lb. $187.43 per bar. I still like pennies.

[Coded-Dude]

If/When SHTF, I would think that there will be ample places to scour copper. It's used everywhere and is constantly recycled.

[Chaparral]

I think if it gets to the point where we're trading copper tokens in place of silver or gold, we will have become 4th world Somalia-Haiti-Afghanistan poor...

At that point, a single round of .308 or .223 might be a better currency.

I'd view copper as a hyper-inflation hedge only. It would be a speculative investment. If I were to buy it, I'd need large machinable bars or flat stock so that at least I could make heat-sinks and heat exchangers with it if nothing else.

I'll stick with paying off debt and scoring the occasional silver bar or bag of junk silver for now.

[Dutch3]

My old man was going on about copper being the next precious metal back in the 1970's. Maybe that is why I have always held onto it, throwing scraps of pipe, fittings and wire into milk crates and buckets. A couple of times over the years I have gotten tired of looking at it and hauled it to scrap, but always end up saving it again.

I guess I'm a filthy hoarder. I save pre-82 pennies as well.

[thenodnarb]

the recyclers will give $ for copper. Bullion copper is stupid. Copper wire is worth more and costs less. The prices on copper bullion are crazy stupid. I'd look to nickel before copper. Its worth around $10 a lb.Nickels are 75% nickel and 25% copper. GTG for hording IMO. but you can't scrap it. Maybe after the dollar collapses.

Just check craigslist for free microwaves. especially old ones. They usually have 1 or 2 lbs of copper in the transformer. Sometimes its aluminum. I've claimed a few and saved the copper wire from the transformers. I was originally looking to make a windmill from the wire since buying the wire is ridiculously expensive. Right now I'm just sitting on it. I need a few more transformers before I have enough to make a windmill. Maybe when SHTF I can build one from my scraps. Either that or trade it for something useful to me. Again, copper wire would be more useful as a barter item than copper bullion to the right person(who knows how to use it).