Copper worth buying now? Or just hype?

[Mavrick88]

Hello,

I've been collecting gold and silver coins / bars for a while now and I had a question about the best way to get into copper. Normally I just get on Ebay, check market prices, and buy gold and silver from there if it's below, at, or just barely above market pricing.

Lately I've been looking at copper prices. Just in the last few days copper has been sitting at a value of around $4 a LB give or take. I've done Google and Ebay searches and all I can find for buying copper are prices that are 5x or more the current market value of copper. What I don't get is you can buy silver and gold easily at current market value but copper is very marked up right now, where is the best place to get it? Why in the world is it marked up 5x or more? Bars and coins seem to be this way and I can't find anyone selling it as "market" value. To just break even on the investment, it would have to go up in price over 5x! I don't see copper going to roughly $20/ LB. anytime soon, so really is this even a smart investment or should I just not even bother. My thoughts are that all these copper prices are just hype right now and eventually it will start selling back at market value.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[Mr Nice Guy]

Just get a huge pile of pre-1982 American pennies. I think they have a significant copper content.

[Mavrick88]

That they do hehe

I was just wondering as far as the investment side of things.

[KTP]

I would guess that the transaction costs, shipping, storage, etc. make copper not very attractive as a physical investment.

Think about it. $50,000 of copper at $4 a pound is 12,500 pounds. Where are you going to store that? If you ship that via truck it is probably going to cost $500 or more each way.

Probably look for some type of copper commodity fund or a copper mining company trading at a discount because of the low price.

[Scanner]

CU Profile | First Trust ISE Global Copper I Stock - Yahoo! Finance

I'll speak to this since silver is often a by-product of copper mining.

Here is a copper mining co. ETF.

I don't know. . .my take is this on the commodities. . .we are kind of in a 1987 "crash" now on commodities. . .who knows when the bottom is and when it will be but commodities will have to be important in the coming years. Our population is big and we are gobbling commodities up.

Precious metals are inflated right now, along with other commodities because sooooooooo many people have shorted the dollar. Which is fine. . .it was kind of a contrarian position to take in 2006 when I bought in. . .now, it's no longer a contrarian position.

Just read the # of people saying the Fed is printing money, the $$$ is worthless. . .yeahhhhh. . .I get it, I really do. . .which was why I invested in 2006. . .now.. .the problem is well, every other currency in the world sucks too (well, not every currency, but you get what I mean).

So. . .my advice - long term - add slowly. . .you should be fine. I think the commodity market recovers pretty quickly and settles down. People want things.

Short term - very risky.

You also have to decide what you are:

1. Trader
2. Investor
3. Some combo.
4. A collector.

A collector is worse than a passive buy and holder investor (edit: not that a passive buy and holder is worse than an active trader - they may be better) - at least they adjust their portfolio's 1-2x/year. A collector just holds on waiting for a day of vindication, armageddon.

I have a patient like that who actually got me into silver. There's no talking to him. He's got it stored in bags around his house and is convinced it's going to $2000/oz. NEver mind by that time, guns and ammo and canned beans and cigarettes would become the common currency. . .he's convinced. I know he got pummelled in this blood bath.

When you are a collector of anything, silver, comic books, you get emotionally attached to your investment and then can't part with it until you are spent and then you are on an episode of Pawn Shop, where the grandfather is telling his son to not even go over $.30 on the $$$ for what you own and the main character just laughs at you when you ask for your money.

[Mavrick88]

Makes sense.

Thanks all!

[Goldy]

I work for the 2nd or 3rd largest mining company and copper is one of our biggest metals second to iron. With that said, I am a bit nervious at the moment with the ultra high price of copper that is really hinging on China alone. A year or two ago I wanted to buy copper for the same reasons you stated and decided to buy mining stocks instead of physical metal for obvious reasons. It worked then but I am worried that the recent correction in copper might be more than it seems.

[97guns]

i dont buy copper, theres too big of a premium and you'll have to see the price go to $10 before your in the green. i started sorting the pre '82 pennies but got lazy and started stacking boxes of nickels. they are 75% copper and 25% nickel, you dont have to sort them and the metal content in them is worth .065 , you have absolutely nothing to lose by hoarding copper pennies and nickels.

if you could go back in time and hoard 90% silver coinage would you? , same scenario will play out here especially with the deficit and budget cutting. the gov't is loosing too much money making nickels out of this comp.