“Fools, as it has long been said, are indeed separated, soon or eventually, from their money. So, alas, are those who, responding to a general mood of optimism, are captured by a sense of their own financial acumen. Thus it has been for centuries; thus in the long future it will also be.” ― A Short History of Financial Euphoria
The signs of an epic bubble of historic proportions are everywhere. The stock market is a bubble, with valuations exceeding 2001. Margin debt is at all-time highs. The bond market is a bubble, with the Fed artificially suppressing rates and pumping trillions of QE into Wall Street. Housing is experiencing another bubble, with prices now far exceeding the 2005 peak. Bitcoin and the rest of the crypto-currencies are a bubble, being driven by the excess liquidity sloshing around the system. A joke crypto currency like Dogecoin soars into the stratosphere because money has no meaning anymore.
Corporate, government and personal debt are at all-time highs and heading higher. Clueless millennial dolts are using their stimmy checks to day trade on Robinhood. Now the shysters have come up with a ridiculous concept called Non-fungible tokens (NFT), which has created a further frenzy of greed and fleecing. We are busy selling worthless electronic concepts to each other at higher and higher prices. The world has truly gone mad.
The herd will surely be separated from their money when this everything bubble bursts. The concept of risk has been bastardized and ignored, for now. Greed will surely turn to fear and no one sees it coming. The “experts” will continue to declare “buy now or miss out on the riches”. I’m sure these bubbles will burst, but I have no idea when. It could be next week or they could grow for another few years. I don’t pretend to know, but I will not participate in the madness. Becoming debt free and more anti-fragile is my sole focus as these bubbles grow.
Even Charles MacKay’s epic tome regarding mass delusion and madness of nations fails to capture what is happening today.
“In reading The History of Nations, we find that, like individuals, they have their whims and their peculiarities, their seasons of excitement and recklessness, when they care not what they do. We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first.” ― Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
Our nation has not just fixated upon one object, but every object that can be bought or sold for a profit. Average Americans have concluded it is a sucker’s game to work hard, build wealth through saving, delay gratification, live beneath your means and achieve happiness through non-material means. I can understand why they feel this way, as the Federal Reserve, Wall Street bankers, and corporate America have fleeced them through inflation, stagnant wages, and stealing of their wealth. When these simultaneous bubbles burst once again, for the fourth time since 2000, the citizenry will be crushed. What happens at that point is anyone’s guess. Revolution would not be out of the question.
I have two personal anecdotes which have convinced me these bubbles are all-encompassing and reaching their zenith. I bought a condo in Wildwood back in 2004 with a friend, near the top of the housing market. The plan had been to flip it in a couple years for a nice profit. The best laid plans often go awry. We bought it for $325,000. We got plenty of use from it and were able to rent it out every summer, but it was a financial drain every year.
We put it up for sale in 2015, asking $275,000. Not a drop of interest. We kept it for sale for three years and zero offers. We lowered the price to $250,000 and eventually got an offer of $240,000 in January 2018. Fourteen years later we had sold it for a loss of $85,000. So much for real estate always appreciating. Fast forward to 2021 and the unit above ours just sold for $383,000. In just over three years the value of these condos in the eyes of current buyers rose by 60%, after sitting at $240,000 for over a decade. Nothing changed other than perception of value. Is the next stop $500,000 or $250,000? I have no idea.
Over the Christmas holiday I put together a To Do list designed to make my life more anti-fragile. Things I had put off for years now needed a sense of urgency. Tops on the list was turning TBP into an LLC, to try and shield my personal assets from the woke cancel culture crowd when they eventually try to destroy my website and my life. Also included on the list was looking into getting a stand alone back-up generator for my home, for when things go sideways. I had left my retirement funds at Wharton when I left in 2019. I finally transferred them to my IRA account where I could be in complete control of my investment choices.
The one item on the list I considered low priority and did not set in motion was selling some baseball cards I’ve had for almost 50 years. I collected cards from the age of 8 to 12 back in the early 1970s. I collected them because I loved baseball, the Phillies, and liked to trade them and pitch them in the schoolyard. I had no thoughts about them being worth something many years into the future. A couple decades ago when baseball cards were hot, I put the most valuable ones in plastic sleeves, put them in a plastic bag, and didn’t think about them for years.
For the last year I’ve sensed this financial madness might offer an opportunity to sell a few pieces of cardboard for prices that will never materialize again. I have hundreds of cards, mostly from 1975. Included in this set are 3 Robin Yount rookie cards and 2 George Brett rookie cards. There is a company called PSA that charges you to grade the cards. This then sets a selling price for the cards. I have no idea what constitutes a near perfect card with a 10 grade from a near mint card with a grade of 7, but the price difference is vast, as you can see here from their website.
A Robin Yount grade 10 card is worth $55,000 and a George Brett grade 10 card is worth $97,500. I find this utterly ridiculous, but it is certainly worth exploring for that kind of money. Even getting a couple hundred for a grade 7 card would be fine. I don’t see any imperfections in my cards, but who am I to judge.
Back in December when I went to the site, it seemed like a pain in the ass to go through the grading process and I was confused by their pricing scheme. Life got busy, so I forgot about it until this week. I decided I was going to send the cards in and see what they concluded. I went to the PSA site and got this message from the CEO of PSA:
Hello PSA Customers,
Since my last update, the momentum behind the hobby has only accelerated. In fact, our Collectors Universe President and CEO, Joe Orlando, recently shared the reality of the surge of submissions to PSA.
I’ll try to further illustrate what has happened. The sheer volume of orders that PSA received in early March has fundamentally changed our ability to service the hobby. The reality is that we recently received more cards in three days than we did during the previous three months. Even after the surge, submissions continue at never-before-seen levels.
Given our growing backlog, it would be disingenuous for us to continue to accept submissions for cards that we will be unable to process in the foreseeable future. It’s an unpleasant conclusion, especially after the March 1 price increase, but it is necessary to properly serve the customers who have already submitted to PSA.
Effective immediately, PSA is temporarily suspending our Value, Regular and Express service levels. This will allow us to fully unbox and receive the recent surge of orders and focus on our most impacted service lines.
We will take a tiered approach to reintroducing these service levels. Our goal is to bring all suspended service levels back by July 1, 2021.
There is now a baseball card bubble frenzy, on par with stocks, bonds, real estate, crypto, art, used cars, lumber, NFTs, and just about anything not tied down. With my investing luck, the baseball card market will surely collapse before July 1. So anyone willing to take chance can contact me. I’ll sell you all three Robin Younts for $55,000 and the two George Bretts for $97,500. Sometimes the stupidity of the masses exceeds my lowest expectations.
In my view, the signs are everywhere. Getting rich quick has engulfed the entire nation in a madness never seen before in human history. Effortless enrichment is a delusion. And all delusions end in tears. An entire nation was convinced, by those controlling the narrative, the annual flu was a pandemic by giving it a new name, marketing the hell out of it, using a faulty test to artificially inflate cases, and understanding they were dealing with compliant obedient sheep. If they can make you believe that, they can make you believe anything.
“The recurrent and sadly erroneous belief that effortless enrichment is an entitlement associated with what is thought to be exceptional financial perspicacity and wisdom is not something that yields to legislative remedy.” ― A Short History of Financial Euphoria
The signs are everywhere, but few will heed them.
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Excellent summation, The Everything Bubble. 38% of all USDs have been created in the last couple of years, and by the way, any currency you have in the bank (savings, checking), you are an ‘unsecured creditor’, don’t expect it back when this thing pops. They will start with Bail-in’s as opposed last time to Bail-out’s.
It is extremely important to understand the difference between Currency, Fiat Currency and Money to understand what is happening. If you have not viewed Mike Maloney’s 9 part series titled “The Hidden Secrets of Money” you have missed a great education. Episode 1 is linked below, from there you can find the others.
Brilliant TA – you have no need of my book which aims to offer similar knowledge. I discovered long ago that few people have any idea how the money system works and that your money in ‘their’ bank is not yours any longer.
Thanks Peter. I did just request a copy of your book. I was not certain if Austrian was country of origin or music, but now assume it’s economic philosophy.
My beginning of figuring thinks out happened simultaneously. I understood the Iraq WMD lie, and I read G. Edward Griffins book The Creature From Jekyll Island and began understanding the Fed and how the currency system works. The Creature, in my opinion is the most important book on the Fed. After those two ‘understandings’, I begin looking at everything as it being a lie and work from there to prove it true.
Yes, Austrian refers to Austrian Economics and you will find much in my book to support it – it is also a philosophy of libertarians with small government, sound money and free markets – far removed from our crass economics of today. Enjoy your read and don’t hesitate to exchange emails whenever. 🙂
G. Edward Griffins The minder
Gold & Silver. There’s no place else to find shelter from the storm. No place else.
Amazing how PMs are the only asset class to not appreciate.
Gold was up 24% in 2020 and silver was up 48%.
I bought years ago at 22 so, that’s why I say that.
I sold 1000 oz of silver at $45 … in 2011.
This silver was bought at $11 in the 1980s.
The notion that PMs offset inflation is ludicrous.
WTF are you talking about c1ueless? I don’t give a flying fuck about your bullshit about your investing prowess. You can post anything you want, but it is probably 95% bullshit.
Not to pile on but do the math. Up over 300% in a manipulated, beaten down, fraud infested commodity market. Comparing that to the vastly diminished value of $11 in FRN sitting in a safe you disprove your own argument.
Do the math – you could have thrown a dart at a stock sheet and gotten comparable gains, much less put money into something like bitcoin.
So sorry, even your cherry picked results aren’t impressive.
Dumbest comment of 2021 so far.
I bought 10 one ounce stamps from the Post Office in 1964 for forty cents. It costs 5 bucks for ten Forever Stamps from the USPS now.
Those four Mercury dimes sell for about 12 “dollars” now.
That’s the thing: in a wildly inflated asset market – of which collectibles are included – prices go up.
And the problem is that when the bubble pops – they go down.
The art market was wildly inflated in the 1980s and early 1990s by Japanese who though bought Monets and what not would protect their ridonkulously Japan real estate inflated net worths.
As an example: the land under the Imperial Palace in Tokyo was valued at more than all the real estate of Canada.
This is no longer true, not even close. We’re seeing some life in the art market again but it is not a net gain vs. the Japan bubble era. No doubt because NFTs are trying to be the next “art” thing…
I always like it when people refuse to admit reality.
The 1000 oz sold is real. The block sat as a doorstop for my mother for 20+ years – I bought them off her for +5 on the market price in the 2007 time frame and +2 on her buy price.
Since 2008 – the US has had historic money printing. Literally none of this new printing – in the form of Treasury bonds – has been bought by foreigners in net.
And how has gold and silver done?
Gold has been flat since 2011.
Silver had been down since 2011 as well.
Yes, silver is above its multi-year lows after the 2011 bubble popped, but it is still nothing to write home about. Particularly given what is going on in literally every single asset you can reference: land, house prices, used cars, stocks, cryptocurrencies, art, etc etc.
At some point – and 10 years is a long, looooong time to be wrong – sane people start wondering if there is something fundamentally wrong with the thesis.
Note I’m not saying everything is hunky dory and that it will all end well.
What I’m saying is that bullshit is not restricted to the go-go, everything always goes up side.
The gold and silver bugs are just as wrong and just as motivated in talking their book and taking your money.
“The notion that PMs offset inflation is ludicrous.”
The notion you know what you’re talking about is ludicrous.
one dollar in quarters (literally 4 Washington quarters) minted in 1964 or before will cost you $23 today. cull.
I think you’re referring to the paper suppression scheme which they once tried to hide but now they shove it in your face. The dollar was down 46 basis points on Friday and the PMs traded lower as well because a massive number of unbacked paper contracts to sell metal were dumped into the market. Fraud pure and simple. But the Achilles heel is that people have at long last wised up to the game and are pulling what metal remains out of the market. Some believe there are as many as 1,000 paper ounces of silver that have been sold to people for every 1 ounce of real, physical silver that exists.
I guess we’ll find out one way or the other in short order.
At some point, enough silver will be pulled that a failure to deliver will occur which will upset the cart. One failure to deliver will most likely lead to the domino’s falling. The first failure came close (and they are not out of the woods yet) at the Perth Mint in the last few weeks.
Watch; should the silver deception and manipulation be revealed and the paper holders decide to not roll their positions over or cash out but call for actual delivery, the B3rg* banksters will declare Force Majeure, not deliver and return nicely inflated helicopter bail out USD, Sterling currency instead. The banksters and fraudsters will instead be laughing, snorkeling around enchanted Polynesian palm fringed islands, hot and cold running cabin boys and girls and lobster and champagne on the fantail of a Ferretti or De Vries Lentsch.
If Perth is like US mint, by law, the US mint is required to buy silver at LBMA spot or use US reserve metal. That’s just not going to happen given first, the unprecedented demand will preclude the US mint buying at +/-$26/ozt and second, the well is dry at the US reserve.
I’m not an expert by any means on the Perth, but they got caught with their pants down and were not delivering. They did three things: 1) changed their prospectus and deleted the 10 delivery requirement by extending the time frame, 2) leased silver from the Reserve Bank of Australia (CB), and 3) imported Chinese silver to cover their shortage.
We have known for quite some time that the Comex has been sending their EFPs (exchange for physical) to the LBMA for settlement. And we know that May is the major silver settlement month and that it will probably be far greater than last year which was a record. TPTB seem to always have a final trick up their sleeves, we will see how they do.
“At some point, enough silver will be pulled that a failure to deliver will occur which will upset the cart”
You aware of the ZeroHedge attempt to do this on the 1st? #SilverSqueeze. They’re trying to rally 100K people to buy 100 ounces of Silver on the first.
Yes, I did see that article. I just went back to confirm, but cannot find the article, but I think ZH was reporting on the #SilverSqueeze that is being organized by a reddit group WallStreetSilver.
Here’s a Hitler rant on the corrupt practices that take place on the commodity futures exchanges.
Let me fix that sentence.
Amazing how PMs are the only asset class to appreciate.
Start thinking in terms of ounces, not dollars. USDs/FRNs are going to become the ‘old maids’, if you remember that game.
Spot on advice. Ounces, not whatever they are currently denominated in!
I have 50 years experience in metals and I can testify that all of the posters commenting on how “this is it” are merely repeating the same stuff I have heard all my life. You are all correct, but it is a rigged game with Force Majeure being the well designed “Get out of jail free” card.
You have 35 more years than me, and so a lot more experience. I’m considering that currently there are more things going on than previously. I think, however small the silver market is, there is more awareness of it now than before. It is also multi-generational, even young guys and gals on Reddit, they even call themselves Silverbacks are in the market. And the industrial side is huge. Should Force Majeure occur in one market, I’m thinking it will lead to both a squeeze, from coin buyers and industrial buyers, and a more general understanding of the Con, and more Force Majeure. And I also think that if they lose control of silver, they lose control of it all.
You may have seen one of these hilter parodies before, but here is one on the paper silver market. When he refers to the ‘apes’, he is referring to the reddit Silverbacks.
Mark can probably confirm this as well, that the same game with the same public awareness and same collusion, phony paper etc. has been playing for decades. Every ten years or so a new group comes along with the new PM Bull market and sees what we having been seeing all this time and is similarly stunned in disbelief that such BS is allowed in “regulated” markets.
If you could find an archive of the various Yahoo or Investor Village precious metal boards you would see your own exact words, only written by someone else ten, fifteen, twenty years ago.
Thanks, and I hear you. As I typed, I could hear that somewhat foolish phrase “it’s different this time” echo in my head.
Yep HR,
But…excuse me while I talk out of the other side of my mouth….
As I said in another thread we are in a time of international fiat insanity that may make the tulips, John Law era, German wheel barrel of fiat hyperinflation days, and modern Venezuela look like the good ole economic days…
Land with good soil, fresh water, and southern exposure is not a wasted investment if you know how to use it.
Assuming the government let’s you keep it
Some people can find a dark cloud in every silver lining.
I’ve never owned rose colored glasses
“So, alas, are those who, responding to a general mood of optimism, are captured by a sense of their own financial acumen.”
Maybe…?
annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum <—–====
Descartes was spot on. The Law Of Attraction is immutable.
He thought, therefore he was.
Unwarranted optimism will get us a one way train ticket to the gulag, crematorium or both
Reality often sucks bad but it’s the best I can offer.
The only silver lining I see is Jesus calling His true believers home before the opening kickoff.
LOL, that last sentence clearly demonstrates you suck at identifying reality.
Time will tell
I used to work for a very wealthy ex-congressman, bank owner . He was always saying, buy land, they’re not making anymore of that and he did. Land can be put in the same category with PM’s. Money created from nothing can easily be returned to nothing, but tangible assets like land and Gold will always have a value.
Land overtime has always been a great value holding and increasing investment but……..
What people fail to understand is that what is soon coming by mid decade or so give or take a little is not your average national and worldwide crisis.
It will literally be of biblical proportion in terms of magnitude and duration.
The model seems to be Chinese, or worse Cuba, where the average person owns basically nothing but a phone and their clothes. Nice trains and buildings though but no car ownership out in the countryside. Remember obama pining over how the Chinese had the right idea as far as political parties go. Of course the Cubans are the healthiest malnutrition people on Earth, those ration boxes really work out well.
Don’t think we will make it out of this decade before the cup is filled, and the flaming fire begins.
The land should be divided and never sold.
Covid rules of rental properties says that putting it all into properties could be bad for your financial health.
Concur, save that in the Southern Cone, we like northern exposure.
Mike, Gold, and silver won’t save you. You need to have a viable food source in case you cannot go to a grocery store. Hook up with a local family farmer and offer to pay in advance if you do not have the storage space for additional food/water. Silver is for barter and gold is for wealth preservation. Dr. Michael Burry is onto something. The feds are afraid of this guy. Take a look =>https://klump.terrywilson3.net/2021/04/25/the-big-short-michael-burrys-post-was-taken-down/uncategorized/
“You need to have a viable food source in case you cannot go to a grocery store”
You’re conflating two different things. Sit down.
I told Nick. He says he will add his mint Lebron James cards to the pile. A friend of ours gave them to him (owns a pawn shop here) as a gift.
Nick didn’t bother to tell him he loves Cleveland, hates Lebron.
Nick had piles of cards and comic books his mother sold or threw away after he joined the USAF. Who knew?
For a while, I was interested in the baseball card thing because I was a thrift shop professional. I knew how to browse the boxes and already know where the good stuff might be.
I only scored one Roger Clemens card worth about 50 bucks one time, but there was that.
Your cards look really good.
I have 75 1910 cards, including Cy Young. The first $500 million takes them…
Did you collect them as a kid?
Haha, you bastard.
Mickey Mantle? That was the Holy Grail I saught when I was was seeking.
My brother idolized Mickey Mantle. He loved him so much he STAPLED his baseball cards into his Mickey Mantle scrapbook. Unstapled, they would be worth hundreds or thousands.
Stapled? Some of them (Mickey Mantle) in mint condition were worth tens of thousands. A rookie card? A hundred thousand, easy.
My best cards, including Mickey and Willie Mays were clipped to the spokes of my bike………..didn’t want just any ole card on that stingray.
My wifes’ mother lived with her recently retired (from a lucrative GE job that he got three months of pension paid before passing ) son for 12 years, until 2018.
I had a heart attack in 2018 (quad bypass in the ‘widowmaker’ and two stents to boot). Discharged on Fri. the 13th, in July. At 5 the next morning, my mother in law was calling in a panick……..Dennis was dead in his bed from a heart attack-on his birthday; she was hospitalized for 4 days then the funeral on the 21st (anniversary date of the day my dad died), and a letter from his two boys attorney in the mail when we returned from Okla……….30 days for her to vacate the property (she was 85 then)
At the same time, my older brother had put our mother into a rest home, and was conducting the estate sale the weekend of Dennis’ funeral.
Three bedroom ranch (approx. 1800 sq. ft), frame, 1 1/2 baths, fireplace, attached garage. He was the executor- listed it at 75, sold it for 68m.
Two months ago, our neighbor sold his two bedroom (less than 800 sq. ft.), one bath, no garage with 1/3 the lot size. Listed at 75, sold for 78 !!!
Lucky is the name of a three legged dog….
annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum <—====
That was a very hard, cruel time.
Not making light of your situations in the past, and the shadows they still cast, but no truer words can be found in the Bible.
” Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.”
Job 5:7
‘That was a very hard, cruel time’
Only a fraction, but thanks for the kind words, Ginger.
annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum <—–=== all hail the Crescent Lodge.
I hope Dennis’s two sons get Karma kicked in the nuts for kicking an old lady out of the house .
Thanks, Bucked….
Dennis had an 8 sec. funny car; he had purchased TWO LT-1 crate engines and had plans to put one in his ’57 Chevy, and the other in his 70’s model short/wide chevy p.u……among several other large block chevy motors….
What chaps me most is not those boys claiming right to their dad’s stuff, but the way it went down. One of my wife’s brothers, (who runs a dozer for a freemason worth more than 50 million) was in town for the funeral, put her in a second story apt. with 18 steel banded concrete stairs one way. Then left town and went back to Miss….
Every day, we would go up to check on her, only to find her (a hard old woman who had spent her life living rural) sitting in her dim apt. crying…. while my wife’s sister and her husband continued their lives as normal on their 1000 acre+ spread with their cattle operation……….we found a small 2 bed. in our neighborhood, bought it, and we remodeled it for her to be able to sit out side on a patio or front porch (and she can’t hardly stand the sight of me)
On my own dad’s house, my wife and I had maintained it at our expense for the twenty years since he died, only to find out she had reverse mortgaged (Tom Selleck is a prick) it to the tune of near 40 grand. My brother knew it, and just quick sold everything- EVERY THING- when he put her in the rest home.
He has amassed seven figures, spends more for a pickup than what dad’s house brought, and sits comfortable on his 60 acre homestead……..but I am an asshole
annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum <<—–====
I've really had my belly full…….and don't even get me started on any preachers offer of consoling
Maggie,
I have a signed 8 X 10 photograph framed and on a plaque of the MICK given to me by a boss who I had spent 3 years working for in Atlanta in 1989…both of us were moving on to promotions in other states…we augured all the time, then went to lunch together like nothing happened. Our wives got along great, and we even socialized quite a bit. He had some serious money…paid three or four hundred for it in 89. Last time I checked it was closing in on $1,800.00 in value.
It seems authentic and he got it in a sports memorabilia store…but who knows. Read the link below…it’s quite interesting.
https://sportscollectorsdigest.com/news/mickey-mantle-autographs-forgeries
As my 9 year old grandson is developing into a baseball fan…and over the Yankees at that…I’m feeding him baseball magazines about the Mick…a book coming soon…then when he is well steeped in him I will spring the autographed framed picture on him as a gift…at the right time.
A great gift. The kid will hardly sleep for days and will remember it forever.
Sometimes they’re not for selling, but trading or giving away. I ran into a father and son selling Ripken cards and I saw a rookie card I liked. Had no money, so I worked a deal. The kid got one of Topps Heritage”red auto” Willie Mays in trade. The card looks like the old 1952 Topps original but was a reprinted auto from 2002. He and the dad looked up the book value and shook my hand.
No money, just a neat trade. All of us happy. It doesn’t always have to be about the money. 🙂
Silver Mountain,
For the last two years every time I see the sprouting rug rat…good kid…smart and funny (about every two to three months – usually for a full week, during the Covid panic for 5 weeks – my daughter & son –in-law live 8.5 hours away by car) he gets a 1 oz. Silver American Eagle as a parting gift…and he knows exactly what it is worth because I tell him. And I tell him what it has been worth…and I give him old coins from low years…as that is all I have…so he understands.
Soon he will be getting the pre-1964 ‘junk’ coin lesson and some of those for gifts.
He is crackerjack on math, in the top 1% in the country (must be his dad-outside my gene pool) and I have explained to him the difference in-between currency and money.
How many 9 year olds can tell you what FIAT means??? He can.
He struggled with that one…but it is just another seed I will water for now. The foundation has been laid and is hardening. By the time he is 12 he will know more than I did at 32 (the age of my first silver purchase in 82).
He is one 9 year old who is getting the true history of PMs…when I tell him the past it is as much for his early 40’s parents as it is for him…reinforcement for my daughter, education for my son-in-law.
He also has a carefully crafted 4 page history of PMs written in language for a 9 year old for future reference….filled with long term advice, along with all the founding documents I also sent him.
For years when it was time to give his mother a big gift…B-Day or Christmas instead of the usual crap that will be meaningless over time…she got a roll of 20.
Nobody is rolling their eyes over that anymore.
He has also been drilled…I mean DRILLED on secrecy…and told why in no uncertain terms. His eyes as big as saucers tells me he is comprehending that warning.
Quiet Mike has it right outside of Self Sufficancy and Prep.
“Gold & Silver. There’s no place else to find shelter from the storm. No place else”.
Nice. I have some treasures for my son for someday. No Mickey Mantle signatures though!
The guy that gave it to me was wealthy…I had no idea he was going to do that… just before he gave it to me I gave him (as has been my way with friends and family since the early 80’s) I gave him a one ounce Silver coin, a framed picture of me and him together with our arms draped over one another’s shoulders laughing, a handshake, and a hug.
Looks like it’s time to sell my stash. Been saving the good stuff for a while.
Just when the overnight rates started to spike I got an idea to turn cardboard memorabilia into fiat, and fiat to gold. I sold a set of 2001 Fleer Red Sox Anniversary cards with a few autos (Don Dimaggio, Roger Clemens) and a handful of hard to find Negro League autographs. I immediately went to the bank and cashed the check the shop owner gave me and hit the coin dealer for gold and silver numismatics.
Two $5 gold Indians, one $2.50 Indian, a graded 1878 silver Morgan, and a 1940’s Peace dollar. The rest went to a 1976 proof collector US coin set.
It’s nice to see what US coins looked like when it was real money.
I scoured FleaBay almost 20 years ago as an adult collector when Upper Deck, Fleer, and Topps flooded the market with old timer contracts to sign stuff. I hit shows, but the vultures didn’t want to sell certain items … but I did take one Holy Grail item and a couple of underpriced jewels at a Capital Expo show in Virginia. The owners literally watched me sign the check at the bank and transferred the items in the lobby.
One Honus Wagner auto, one Roger Maris auto, and one Casey Stengel auto. All PSA certified and graded. I had to leave the Jackie Robinson cut auto behind, but it was a choice between him or the Maris card – so I chose the Maris instead.
These too will be traded for metal.
The nice thing about signs, I suppose, is that they are everywhere. You hardly even have to look.
BLM literally burns down buildings, including police stations, and they do so with impunity. Nigger congresswoman incite violence and rioting without the slightest fear of punishment. In NYC, and other cities across the country, feralfuks who commit rape and murder are released without bail.
MEANWHILE …
… an Oklahoma woman was charged with felony embezzlement for never returning ‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch’ on VHS tape from a ‘Movie Place’ 21 YEARS AGO
All signs point to —-> the entire country is fucked up and shit.
.
.
https://local21news.com/news/offbeat/oklahoma-woman-charged-with-felony-for-not-returning-vhs-tape-21-years-ago
If there was ever a more fitting and proper use of the N word , you just found it
There was an outstanding warrant. Everything was dropped. But she has to get her name cleared.
“Clueless millennial dolts are using their stimmy checks to day trade on Robinhood. ”
Awesome! “”Clueless millennial” is repetitive. I’ve been looking for the opportunity to post this …
And in anticipation of that ASSHOLE who suddenly appears here whenever Millies are insulted (I know it’s a regular poster) …. here ya go, moran!
Ha!
Brilliant Stucky, this reminds me of my granddaughter, Lorna, she is sooooo on the ball with all that stuff. We just snigger quietly and try to let her know that she will never get a job. But who cares, she says, her parents are millionaires so she has no need of one! We give up.
Never mistake a bull market for genius.
Young guys at work (they’re early thirties, I’m mid sixties) are all comparing the stocks they’re invested in. They have one or two fashionable and trendy stocks and follow the market daily (or hourly) and rejoice or despair with each gyration.
I told the (possibly true) story of Joe Kennedy deciding to get out of the market in early October 1929 because he had heard shoeshine boys offering stick tips and figured it was way overheated. He sold just in time and made a fortune after the crash.
My story was greeted with blank stares. I could see “Ok, Boomer” in their looks.
Oh, well. I tried.
Muppets.
Stick tips:
Avoid the shit end.
Pointy end towards the enemy.
Llpoh
Good luck with your cards. I sure wish I had been into it when in my youth. Holy cow!!
My bet has been to build a company. As I see it, the most value will eventually be what a person can add to the economy through innovation and/or a highly desired skillet. We shall see.
Speaking of skillets? (I know you mean skillset, but had to jump you)
This place is for sale. It is a lovely little home/restaurant on a lovely country crossroad and had a great business until about three years ago when the guy who bought it tried to bring his way of doing things to the hillbillies here.
He put Thousand Island dressing in the potato salad and people stopped coming. He is driving his truck again the place is up for sale.
Thousand Island dressing. In potato salad!
https://www.facebook.com/bollingercountyhideawaycafe/
Is very close to Marquand, which is on the Castor River. Seriously, it had a regular customer base. I think he just didn’t really want to fuss with it.
I ate there and bought ribs there. Until he put Thousand Island in the potato salad.
Frying pans? Skillets?
I’ve got the clip for you.
Antifa vs. The Frying Pan Man … laugh and enjoy. I did.
Hilarious. Too bad he didn’t clock that fatfuk bitch. Also funny is one of the comments ….
Who can take a sunrise,
Sprinkle it with dew,
Cover it with chocolate and a miracle or two?
The Frying pan Man..
Oh, the Frying pan Man can!
The Frying pan Man can ’cause he mixes it with love
And makes the world taste good (makes the world taste good)
Fine man with the pan
shows some face altering swag
while smoking that fag.
Bike helmet but works equally as good.
If I remember right, in the long version of this he does clock her as well. She took a swing at him so he kinda swung back… you can imagine the thud when she hit the ground… The first two this guy pasted ducked unfer that black cloth cry’n and running away… delishhhh
I love the sound of frying pan contact in the morning….(snarky marky)
&f=1&nofb=1
A great expression which has moved into the lexicon and has a parallel with ‘Catch-22’; always a sign of a good film.
Its an old vid but I could watch this all day…,. still LMAO…
lol the autotuned remis…
The clang of the pan hitting them is so funny, it reminds me of old cartoons when I was a kid!
I put diced apples in mine.
When it all does go completely sideways the illegals will walk right in at the Southern border and the Chinese and the Russians at our Northern border via Biden and Trudeau.
Gosh Eyes…we will be able to shoot in any direction! (snarky marky)
Put our head’s on a swivel or grow eyes in the back of our heads
I have always wanted to be rich…and soon it seems I will be living in a TARGET RICH environment!
Oh well…I have been rich before.
Who was it that said…”they’re on our right, left, front and back so, there’s no way they’re getting away this time”?
Hmmm…probably somebody who was killed?
Just kidding Donkey:
%3Fv%3D1527180088&f=1&nofb=1
Chesty Puller the second greatest Marine who ever lived.
I never had a famous quote, but I had a common one in my last firefight:
“Shit, I’m hit!”
I knew you would know the answer.
Who’s the greatest Marine to ever live?
Tesla,a great fucking band named after a great man!
Good luck with the cards.
Becoming debt-free will astound you because with it comes a different mindset that few of our generation have enjoyed.
A co-worker has been bragging about dogecoin. Reminds me of the dot com bubble. I vividly remember a guy I worked with. We were both in our mid-20’s. Every day talking about his stocks, now worth over $400k, and he’ll be worth millions in a couple months. Needless to say, one day he suddenly stopped wanting to talk about stocks. Being a gentleman, I wasn’t going to rub it in.
This time, my co-worker is in his 40’s and should know better. But he will get burned because he’s dumb enough to brag about it, and will be dumb enough not to sell. Oh well, dipshit.
The B3rg* who shall make major bank (as they own them anyway) whether the markets continue to skyrocket to unimaginable heights or actually crash due to the gargantuan everything bubble that has somehow been developed in spite of the CoVid-19(84) Scamdemic, laugh either way.
https://www.yachtworld.com/boats/2003/lurssen-octopus-35
I collected cards back in the 60s and 70s, whenever I had extra dime or two I would run to the local store and buy a couple of packs, as I recall the gum smelled ok but tasted.horrible.
I had several shoe boxes full and had several of those George Brett cards, among others, I remember Brett specifically because he was Ken Brett’s baby brother. I gave the cards to my sister for my five year old nephew, along with a signed baseball I caught at Fenway park back when the baseballs were still made in the usa I told my sister not to let him play with them, that they would be worth something some day, she ignored me let him play with them and bent them all up, and played catch with the ball with the dog, who chewed it up.
I stopped collecting Baseball cards at 13 in 1963. Had hundreds, including the entire 1962 Yankees, The Mick and The Say Hey Kid…many, many other notables…and multiplies of my hero Bobby Richardson (I played 2nd base in the little league).
From 14 to 18 I misspent much of my misspent yout in a pool hall, located inside one of the largest bowling alleys in the country, with a coffee shop the teens hung around in. I was into 9 ball and girls…then girls, and then more girls…GASP once the mystery was revealed just one girl…like a rabid dog in unquenchable firey heat.
On a fall night in 1967, at the age of 17 (being a senior now and too cool for school, smoking, dating, and wearing my black leather jacket) I gathered all the younger boys from the block, five or six of them in our miniature front yard with a promise…and then tossed my three hundred or so baseball cards into the air for them to scramble for…as I was past all that kid stuff now. I quickly left having a date with a burning mystery to solve that night.
My mother threw out all my Superman, Batman, and Sargent Rock comic books when I was in the Marines. I had almost every single issue of all three from the late 50’s and early 60’s.
Sigh…
“Budda Budda, Budda Budda.” LOL! I had Sgt. Rock and Nick Fury and His Howling Commandos. I have no idea what happened to them.
In Nam one of my package requests was wooden tip Have a Tampa Jewel cigars…
Have vivid memories of me running around with an M-60 and that smoldering wooded tipped cigar clenched in my teeth, with me doing my best SGT. ROCK poses for my buddies!
Ha! Sometimes in the shit!
Piss on Rambo…SGT ROCK was the man!
“… Becoming debt free and more anti-fragile is my sole focus…”
Perfect.
The “End of America” has oft been prophesized. War of 1812. Civil War I. Great Depression. 1965-1981 in toto. But, had I been alive for 19th century events, I do not believe I would have reviled my own nation, as it struggled through serious and structural events. But, today, this aging cold warrior looks around and sees degeneracy, a very often expelled Tribe running corrupt media, banking and academia. I see Bernie Bros and most females as simple hoes. I see our worst beautified in to martyrs and saints, our best called toxic for loving their heritage and ancestors.
Have maintained the same weight and strength I had when I enlisted, to my parent’s chagrin, many years ago. I wanted to kill communists. Now, I am surrounded by them. They are a might more coated in adipose tissue, and a bit bereft of neuronal density. Addled, from 100 years of pollution, medical tyranny, denatured food, and confiscatory taxes/inflation. They get high a lot, say emotional things, as though estrogen was the new testosterone.
My country, to put it succinctly, disgusts me.
Hail Victory.
🙂
I am starting to think shit is always just barely holding together and its rare when it actually falls apart, no matter how fucked up. People just don’t want to be bothered, usually.
Captain America,
I have your six!
I too can still fire and maneuver…and wait for the enemy with a glint of practiced insanity in my eyes.
1,000+
So many people who are too dumb to learn from history. People haven’t read about communism?
https://conservativedailypost.com/biden-silently-moves-to-seize-property-prohibit-transactions-of-any-american-accused/
Here in canukistan our Charter of Rights is but a piece of paper, so confirmed by our Supreme Court. Our current communist marxists pappy or supposed pappy, intentionally left out the citizens right to OWN property. So ‘legally’ we don’t own it but merely rent it amd should the government want it… to bad for you.
Another brilliant article Jim and thank you for being so honest about your investment failings which I share with you. You reminded me of a lesson I learned long ago about speculation for gain. I have never succeeded at gambling and have avoided it most of my life. This is my short foray into an investment opportunity which came my way:
Many years ago a successful collector friend of mine told me about a model ‘coronation coach’ that was making good money amongst collectors, he showed me a picture of a golden horse-driven coach drawn by a team of spectacular horses. Not long afterward I came across such a model in the hands of a colleague who wanted to sell. Wow I thought, what a bit of luck.
Keeping my secret knowledge I offered £50 and he bit my hand off. With trembling hands I sped off to my collector friend expecting a 500% gain – for the first time in my life I was winning, I thought. After a cursory glance he informed me that it was worth about £10 and dismissed my objections by advising me that there were two types of this model – a small one and an identical bigger one which was worth so much more. I had the small one!
I took this loss as a life-long lesson to know that in the end there is no free lunch. It is almost a universal truth that everything balances eventually and I am sure that our crazy global financial system will prove no more resistant.
My Letter this week will highlight and extend what you have put your finger on so succinctly. In this new book ‘The Madness of Crowds’. “The author ends with an impassioned call for free speech, shared common values and sanity in an age of mass hysteria.”
The problem with this article is the assumption that it is possible to live without currency.
You have to have currency to pay taxes, to repay “debts public and private”, to pay for car registration, buy gasoline etc etc.
PMs don’t store value – what they do is ensure they always have some value. That value can go up and it can go down but it has zero relationship to inflation.
Nor are they protection against government anything. Even disregarding the FDR era gold laws where an IRS agent was present any time a safety deposit box was opened – it is equally trivial for government to pass laws dictating reporting when gold/silver is bought or sold.
But the worst is that the US is not the only nation that is printing. Everyone is. And so where would the reckoning be, exactly? The idea that “bond vigilantes” or some other magical negative effects of inflation will be felt is pure deus ex machina.
Let’s also not forget that the US has defaulted before – in living memory.
Nixon took the US off the gold standard of Bretton Woods in 1971. Instead of the US collapsing as all of its dollars held by foreigners became worthless internally and internationally, the US dollar replaced gold as the international central bank reserve. Even today, the US dollar is used in 60%+ of trade transactions even though the US is only about 12% of trade.
Or put in simple terms: the dollars that were a liability in 1970 became an asset in 1980.
So while I don’t disagree that the Fed/US government is printing money – I do disagree that PMs are a solution. I also disagree that it is possible to divorce from the negative purchasing power effects of this printing so long as you live in the US.
Where in this article did I recommend precious metals? Don’t make shit up and pretend I said something I did not. I think a better alias for you is c1ueless.
I do smile when people can’t think of responses other than attacking an anonymous forum moniker. As if I haven’t seen that in the 30 years I’ve had this email/moniker…
Furthermore, if you desire to pick nits – nowhere did I state that you endorsed precious metals.
What I stated was that “avoiding” currency via buying PMs isn’t going to work.
As for the collectible cards: how are collectible cards different than rare wines, luxury cards, art or any other non-utilitarian asset? They aren’t. Their value is being inflated by the same forces you correctly decry as being negative.
But selling a few collectible cards isn’t going to make up for the rest of your American existence being devalued by US Government policies. Nor are we Americans the worst hit by the policies: we actually do get something back whether it is stimulus checks or road maintenance, or whatever.
The ones really getting it are the foreign holders of dollars. They get nothing back at all but hope that the screwing by the US government is less bad than the screwing by their own governments.
So what’s the solution?
Or is this just complaining?
The biggest “In Your Face Sign ” is ammo and gun sales . They had 5 million new gun owners in the last 18 months . Folks know how this all ends and it doesn’t end with pop…it ends with a bang .
It is far less clear that this is a sign of anything other than an election year and its billions of dollars of ad spend.
Put another way: the gun and ammo companies are now forecasting revenue and profit bumps in election years in their earnings reports.
You’re just a salty no-coiner. lol
Return to the Currency Act of 1792. Mike dropped.
Signs… And Wonders. Never forget about the Wonders: They never cease
What’d you do at Wharton? My rich multimillionaire brudder got his MBA with honors there and is running some fortune 500 international corporation out of Germany.
And then there’s me.
What does it profit a man that he gain the world yet lose his soul….
Unfortunately he’s very woke
I think Admin worked there and got his MBA elsewhere.
Worked at Wharton. Got MBA from Villanova.
Senior Director of Strategic Planning for 13 years
That fills in some missing info for Auntie on why Admin is so knowledgeable and erudite; however, just your work at TBP , JQ, shows how you are smarter and certainly more courageous compared to the eggheads and Progtards at U Pee (and most other places of “scholarship.”)
(Please entertain a suggestion: an inter-plandemic recon and intel mission through the 30 Blocks of Squalor. Might make a nice change of pace for you, recharge the batteries if you will, instead of the deteriorating and depressing conditions on the Joisey Shore courtesy of Phil the diktater)
(Auntie knows such an undertaking would require extensive security preps, but hey, you could bring along some friends for maybe a last urban jungle expedition? Might even be, dare Auntie say, fun?)
“Housing is experiencing another bubble, with prices now far exceeding the 2005 peak.”
I wonder how this compares to the 2008 mortgage meltdown ?
Wait until the remainder of small fry banks who loaned 400% of the value of tract shacks get forced to mark to market by the FDIC a la’ 2008. The Too Big To Fails will, again, get bailed out whilst small town depositors risk losing everything. It’s almost like the man and dog are working together, I tell ya’.
If you get any extra useless cash, invest it in gold and silver (coins or bullion). Don’t buy anything graded or collectible as it will cost more now and will most likely depreciate to coin/bullion prices later when the bubbles burst (as you know, collectibles are only worth what someone is willing to pay for it… in a SHTF situation collectible prices will collapse as people go into survival mode and discretionary income dries up). Gold/Silver (in hand… not paper IOU’s) is REAL money and has been for thousands of years. This implosion is being planned from the top to introduce the world to a one world government and monetary system (i.e. the Phoenix will rise from the ashes… Jan. 9, 1988 issue of The Economist magazine).
I hold no positions in PMs. Where does one go to invest/purchase silver & gold that is physical and reputable?
online, silver.com, miles franklin, tons of sellers.
I suspect Silver will soon be Unatainable and Gold Unaffordable (for Joe Sixpack and Jane Amazon).
Have found SD Bullion an honest broker as well.
Accurate post. Case in point: Property comes on market Thursday April 23 in Estero Fl private CC. Decide Friday night to fly out 6am from ORD to RSW for house appt. 3 offers in 24 hrs. And told 3 more in pipeline. Offer $20K over ask price which is $80K over appraisal. Property has HOA and club fees starting at $8500/yr. Sunday told that I was not even close. Another prop pops up on market Sunday night. Needs new tile roof and no hurricane shutters. Estimate it will require add’l $90K upgrades. Realtor walks thru today less than 24 hrs. Since being on market and told several offers already in above ask of $425K. Based on this situation she has no idea how to price anything and comps are worthless. Told her I am done and will hold out until the crash
How to certifiably stupid people to come by so much money?
Until October, the most Mike Winkelmann — the digital artist known as Beeple — had ever sold a print for was $100.
Today, an NFT of his work sold for $69 million at Christie’s. The sale positions him “among the top three most valuable living artists,” according to the auction house.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/11/22325054/beeple-christies-nft-sale-cost-everydays-69-million
” How do ” asshole auto correct
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/10-signs-things-are-getting-better-america?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zerohedge%2Ffeed+%28zero+hedge+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline%2C+the+survival+rate+for+everyone+drops+to+zero%29
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc__j8TXKo0
Anyone here considering the #SilverSqueeze the people on ZeroHedge are trying to put together?
Trying to get 100K people to purchase 100 ounces of silver on 1 st of May. Trying to destroy the Comex.
I got a home refi locked in yesterday. Losing 2.5%, 4 years off the term and saving approx $130 per mtg pmt.
Better git er dun before it’s too late.
Relax people, everybody dies- then you get to do it all again, and again, and again… Don’t be so attached to things/people/emotions. There is only one thing that doesn’t change and when you find that you’ll stop worrying about “bubble”.
Minimum wage in 1960 $1.25. 6 silver quarters today are worth around $27.00.
The only way to stop inflation is to “stop inflating”.