Many of the answers depend on you and what you want/like, but buy now and regularly to dollar cost average. Buy what you can afford/feel comfortable with while still maintaining am emergency cash fund is what most people say.
What type of silver affects price (how much over spot/melt you'd pay). Ie generic vs Eagles (or other gvt issued) vs 90% etc. Size counts too. Fractionals carry high premiums and sometimes you can get 100 oz bars for spot or under. Exit strategy also comes into play. Buying a 100 oz bar because its low premium may bite you if no one wants to buy it.
If you're in the US I know a dealer in AZ who ships nationwide and can generally beat the big online sites like APMEX, Provident, etc prices. Otherwise local coin shops, eBay, or even Craigslist both work. Be careful on Craigslist though! Meet in s public place etc for your safety. Also, there are a TON of fakes so no matter who you buy from (eBay and Craigslist are bad for this). Make sure the seller can prove the silver is real. A Precious Metal Verifier (PMV) runs $600-800 and basically scans the metal so no need to use acid and mark it forever. Well worth it because weight, markings and magnets mean nothing anymore. Some of the fakes are great! Oh yeah, they're even faking the graded holders too so you think you're safe.
Silver instead of gold? YES. It's comparatively low and can't go much lower (another topic) while gold could easily drop $100 or more easily. However, if offered a 1/10 oz AGE (gold Eagle) or a 1 oz ASE (silver Eagle) for spot, I'd take the gold Eagle because it's rare you ever get them that low. ... knowing that comes later though...
I hope this helps! I'm always happy to help answer, teach, clarify or whatever.
Mahalo
thanks for your time in answering my questions very indepth! Im scared of being scammed so i do most of my buying at shops. I go in some days when i see that the price is around 22$ cad spot and with premiums 1 ounce can cost me up to 27$. I dont really know what is behind all of that
Hi,
Aha, you're one of our friends to the North, eh! Ok, a quick note on anything minted at the RCM (Royal Canadian Mint). I LOVE most things they put out. They're beautiful. For example, the new design on the Maples with the radials is great. However, they get milkspots too easily and you can't get rid of them. At that point no one wants to pay any premium for them and you have generic bullion. If you buy anything from RCM keep them sealed and away from humidity. That seems to be the consensus of what causes the spots.
Anyway, back to your question, precious metal (PM) prices fluctuate by the moment just like crypto coins and stock prices. Beyond that, premiums for everything vary as well so between the two you can see considerable variations in price. $5 seems extreme with the recent prices though - not sure if may one was better year (aka lower mintage/earlier year so higher premium) or you happened to be there at the two extremes in prices and it wasn't within the last month. :) Compare the shop prices with the online retailers to make sure you're not paying too much. APMEX is often the highest but worth watching. Provident has pretty good prices (great people too). JM Bullion is another.
I don't want to discourage anyone form buying but protecting ourselves is important - same thing with cryptos. Talk to the shop owner/staff and have them show you how they test them (so you can see it and learn). They probably have some fakes on hand they can show you; some are obvious and some look like the real thing. The friend I mentioned has some and I'll ask for pics so I can share. [Earth] magnets help weed out some but not as many as they used to. I had a Morgan last year that came from a dealer that looked right and passed the magnet test (I did that later). I found it only because I used my PMV on the entire lot I ordered from him.
Keep asking questions and keep learning. You'll feel comfortable soon.