Tracking Your Gold and Silver : Purchase Prices and Premiums
Once you decide to start building a stack you very quickly realise you need to keep track of all those purchases. Whether it’s for the tax man enquiries down the road (remember you need to be able to prove your wealth is not the proceeds of crime) or maybe you just want to know how much you paid so that you know a good price to sell it at – It can get quickly out of hand if you aren’t recording things well.
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Even though I’m technically a Software Developer and should probably over-engineer something, I’ve found that a basic spreadsheet application (like Excel) is probably your best friend here. In a recent conversation with fellow stacker @silverstackeruk I realised that there is more than 1 way to skin this cat, so I thought I’d share my method of recording and my reasoning behind it. His post is HERE if you want a bit of back story.
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For me, I buy a lot of semi-numismatic bullion coins, so I am interested in tracking the Premiums on these coins relative to the Spot Price. My spreadsheet works for all sorts of different products as nearly everything carries some sort of Premium even if it’s just for the cost of minting the product rather than rarity or age. Of course I’m recording the dates, quantities and details of the actual product, but also where/who I bought it from. Sometimes I have receipts if I purchased through a dealer, or if it was bought on the secondary market I am relying on private messages and EFT transfers on my bank statement as records. I also record the amounts paid, the postage cost and the equivalent current Spot Price of the metal.
The last bit is important because then I use a cell formula to calculate the percentage over the Spot Price that I have paid and this represents the Premium. For instance if I buy a Gold coin for $1,800 (including postage) and the Spot Price is $1,700 then my Premium is about 5.9%. If years down the road I am going to sell this coin and the Spot Price is say $2,000 then I will be looking to add 5.9% and sell it for at least $2,118 as fair value to preserve the Premium. Of course if what I am selling has a limited mintage and/or it’s dated then it may have appreciated even more than that and this basic calculation is no substitute for doing a bit of market research to see what the going rate for my product is. But you can see where I am going with this and the thinking behind it. I consider everything relative to the Spot Price.
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On my 2nd tab I have a list of all the collections that I am building which is cross-referenced to prices that I find at various dealers. Have a read of my Top 7 Online Gold/Silver Dealers in Australia and most of them are in my spreadsheet. I use it to figure out how, and when to make purchases of new issues. I also have a list of the “Gaps” in my collections on this sheet so that when I see one pop up on a secondary market somewhere I can jump on it and fill the gap.
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Whatever your method, if you’re a serious stacker of Precious Metals then you’ll have some sort of system to keep track of purchases and valuations. I’d be interested to hear from other members of #steemsilvergold to see if maybe I can improve my own record keeping.
https://www.themonastery.org
https://onlinestudyaustralia.com
http://www.kitco.com
https://www.silverstackers.com
I started stacking before there were spreadsheets! 😎
Haha! That's awesome. Old school stacker right here :)
I throw mine on on the Pile and get back out there! — it’s always fun to come across hoards i’ve forgotten about 😳🙄😂🤣🤩🚶🏻♂️🚶🏻♂️🚶🏻♂️😎👍🍻🍻🍻
Haha. Nice one mate. Totally Smauging it.
hi Buggedout, I enjoyed your post, It is good to have a little gold and silver in these times still.
Thanks. Glad you got something out of it. Managing a spreadsheet is kind of a boring subject for me to post about, but still maybe useful information to share anyway :)
Hi @buggedout, thanks for the post mate. When I started stacking I was very diligent with my spreadsheet records. Over the years my disciplined has waned slightly.
I have been thinking about getting my tracking systems back up and running again, so your post is very timely and helpful, thanks.
Totally agree that excel is still the king for tracking your stack.
Good stuff. Glad I could be a reminder without sounding like a nagging spouse! :)
I have every silver/gold purchase/sale tracked in a spreadsheet. Considering I live in spreadsheets for a living, mine is a little embarrassing breaking all the rules I would never do when if building for work. It isn't quite as nice as yours but it has all the key fields. when, where, cost, premium over spot, and total portfolio avg oz price and profit/loss. Knowing my break even price for my portfolio makes it easier to buy when spot is below.
Sounds like I have a new project to tinker on. I really make it clean, I should have separate sheets for 90%, .999, and Gold and not have it all crammed on one sheet.
Sounds a bit like my software development. It's ok to break your own rules if you're the only one who sees it :)
I also use Excel to keep track of my stack. I didn't record the spot price and the premium but I will start recording it. I also record the weight and purity of the coins/bars.
Uhm... I prefer to trade cryptos for the meantime but that's interesting.
Helpful information, giving something to go on - records keeping - for the future.
What is worth more? Gold? Silver? or Bitcoin? LOL
bullion coins... !