Messing around in the bullion market as a vest-pocket dealer was a real hoot. I was one of the very few gunshow tables with coins and guns, with high quality stuff.
Back in 1979 when the Hunt brothers were trying to corner the world silver market, their antics was running up the price of gold as well as silver. Nobody could figure out why this was happening. But, this was the time of the Carter-era inflation, so most folks just figured that it was all about an inflation hedge.
I was short-term buying in and then selling, making fair money on the rise. Lots of leg work around town, looking for collections of coins and guns that I could buy, cherry-pick, and sell the "offs" at a good profit. I held back the best stuff for my own collection, or for resale at a better profit later on.
There was a gunshow in Austin in January, 1980, on the weekend after gold closed at $800 an ounce, and silver at around $50. Friday evening and Saturday, I bought everything I could find in the show. I'd periodically have a buddy watch my table while I went up the street to a coin store and sold what I'd bought. By the end of Saturday, I owned no bullion of any sort.
On Sunday, I bought no bullion at all. All sorts of disappointed folks, wanting to sell to me, but I wasn't buying.
And then came Black Monday, when the roof caved in. Within not many days, gold and silver were way, way, way down.
Until a few years back, I hadn't seen any reason to buy any bullion. I guess the present "hoard" was mostly bought in this century, and for well under $350 an ounce...Only if you can buy in during the "down" times is it worth hanging on to.
I'm no believer in SHTF. Gold and silver, to me, are commodities on which I've always made a profit. But one thing for sure, if SHTF ever does come, gold coins and silver coins will be usable as money. I ain't gonna argue with several thousand years of human nature.
Art