As a European, having spent some time among others interested in buying silver (both online and offline), the biggest concern I hear is VAT.

Everybody is discussing how they are closing the opportunity to buy legal tender silver coins at 0% VAT rate from Estonia on the 31st of dec 2013. The next best option stays Germany who currently poses a 7% VAT on the same coins. Now I myself didn't feel the need to hold my metals in my hands and opted for Goldmoney to do my physical silver purchases. Obviously taking advantage of the silver price move as a private person can be done VAT free also by buying the Sprott physical silver trust or the silver product of ZKB, but I felt Goldmoney provided more privacy than my transactions going through a brokerage firm. Since then I have also opened a futures account for trading purposes, and began to study futures. And one question kept me bothering. Why does no one talks about using a futures account to buy WITHOUT any margin? Nobody forces people to use the future contracts for only trading on the highest possible margin. You could simply buy a mini 1000ounce contract that you have fully covered (actual silver price*1000 is in your account) if you never have the intention of taking physical delivery. No one ever mentions this as a solution among the above. I am curios why? Am I missing something obvious here? It also seems cheaper than any of the mentioned other options.

Comment: Yes, I have mentioned it but probably not often enough. Since you are a paid member log into the Members Only section and read the report-- Taking Delivery Off the Exchange. Far right hand side of the site under the Special Reports/Bonus Material. It is four up from the bottom.

The other thing that often arises in discussions against all these 'holding' options besides not being able to touch ones metal, is that in a private sales situation coin and bullion products have a markup price to actual metal spot price. (But even if one believed fully in this there is the option of renting ones own vat and customs free vault space and storing physical bullion there from a supplier like the Guernsey Mint, or Geiger-Edelmetalle or even take physical delivery from Goldmoney although that is limited to 1000ounce bars I believe).

However I don't really understand this argument, as if I remember correctly I have heard, that at or near the top of the last bull market if you wanted to sell the only place where you could get the spot price for an ounce of silver was the futures exchange. If you would have walked in with a silver eagle to a coin dealer when silver spot price was 50$ you would have received something like 30$. Now when there is such a huge difference, then I don't believe one could easily find a private buyer for much more than that 30$, let alone 50$. Am I wrong here?

Comment: I want to be crystal clear here-- from my experience ALL the dealers in Los Angeles had "bid back' to about $35 per ounce on the day silver hit $50. So, from me being there-- Yes!-- but I cannot verify that was TRUE everywhere, although from what I have determined it appears almost everyone of size had reduced the buy price for physical. -- For a very limited time.

Where as if the Sprott, ZKB, Goldmoney options existed back then you could have sold your silver for actual spot price. The only possible option for getting the spot price back in the day would have been using the fully paid for futures contract technique I described earlier if I understand things correctly. Still yet again there is no mention of doing this anywhere. Could you let me know why this might be? Is there a flaw in my thinking?  Thanks!

Comment: The reason the dealers bid back was simply the market was so HOT and moving so fast they did not want the risk!! So they said-- if you want to sell-- this is all I can offer. As you know all markets are a bid/offer process! The only "flaw" is that perhaps you assume you could have picked the one day. Yes- it was a one day event. This time there are many other options to lock in prices, again assuming the paper markets are not locked up. Options, ETP's, Futures, Double short funds, and others.

In summary- Always you are in charge of your decisions. Still I think some silver in hand is a good idea, but having the rest held in a manner that can be sold quickly can make sense. Taking silver off the Exchange is about the cheapest way to do so, and yours truly did so on the mini contract taking about 3000 ounces off at the 2008 bottom very near the $9.00 level. Had the bars shipped to a mint and pressed into 1/2 rounds bearing the Silver-Investor.com logo. Thought I might sell them since the premium was the other way (paying much more than spot) at the time. Around $13.50 per ounce. I decided against making any sales but do hand these out from time to time at my speaking engagements.

Thanks for writing--

David