Silver Stacking - Buffalos VS. Eagles

What's up YouTube? Silver Dragons here and in this video, I'm going to be comparing two very popular silver bullion items. We're going to be putting them side by side and talking about which is better for silver stacking. It's going to be the American Silver Eagle vs. the 1oz Buffalo Rounds. And the results of this might totally surprise you. So let's do it! Thank you so much for watching my video, I sincerely appreciate it. If you would like to learn more about investing in precious metals, or if you just want to watch awesome videos about gold and silver, then make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel. Okay, so let's do this thing. It's the American Silver Eagle vs. the Buffalo, or the Silver Buffalo. Now there's a lot of things that are similar about these two silver bullion items, but there's a lot of differences as well. So let's get into this. Now the American Silver Eagle, what can I say about this that I haven't already said? I've made tons of videos on American Silver Eagles. They're the number one silver bullion coin in the world as far as liquidity and just the amount of them that are out there. They make millions and millions and millions of these every single year, and when I say they, I mean the United States Mint. So American Silver Eagles, very awesome for stacking, absolutely one of my favorites. They are a coin, they are backed by the United States of America government, they have a face value of $1, you can see that there at the bottom. So that's a little bit about the American Silver Eagles. Now what about the Buffalos? Well there's a little bit of a misconception about the Buffalos that they are coins, but in fact they're not. So the Silver Buffalos are nothing more than generic silver rounds. And a lot of them look like this, a lot of them look a little bit different. This one happens to have a date on it right there, 2014, but some of them don't have dates. Let's see, this one here does not. So there we go, let's use this one as an example. Now the Buffalos are made by private mints. So there's tons of different private mints that make these. The Gold Buffalo confuses a lot of people because that is a coin that is backed by the United States of America government. So a lot of people see this design and they're like, oh it must be a coin. No this is just a generic silver round. And then on the other side, it is the Buffalo. And I'm just touching it there. So these get handled quite a bit. A lot of these are a little bit scratched, a little bit dinged up or whatever, but they're generic silver rounds. It does say one troy ounce up there at the top, 999 fine silver. And then this one here looks a little bit different, but it's the same, one ounce of three nines fine silver. It does say United States of America there at the top. However, anyone can put that on any silver or gold piece. It doesn't have to be the government. Private mints can do that. They do it all the time. So anyway, that's a little bit about the Buffalos and about the Eagles. So which is better for stacking? I know that's a question on a lot of people's minds. We're going to get into all of that. So they're both one ounce of silver. And for the sake of this video, they're both three nines fine. You can get generic silver rounds in four nines fine, but we're just going to say three nines fine for the sake of the video. And I should mention too, you don't have to use the Buffalo for this comparison. You can use any generic silver round, but because these are the most popular generic silver rounds, that's what we're using for the video. Okay. So what's different about them? What would lead you to stack one over the other? And probably the biggest thing I'll just mention right off the bat is the price of the two of them. So the American Silver Eagle typically sells retail for about $3 over spot. Now I know you can get them on sale. You can get them a little bit cheaper. I bought them for about two bucks over spot. But for the sake of the video, we'll say $3 over spot is the retail value of the Eagles. Now I'm filming this video in early March of 2020 and the spot price of silver is floating right around $17 an ounce. So I could go buy these right now from my local coin shop for about 20 bucks a pop. Now how much can I sell them back for? This is something you always need to consider when you're buying silver is what is the resellability? So I can sell these to my local coin shop for over spot, which is great. I can sell them for $1 over spot. Now results may vary based on where you live. So you should definitely check with your own local coin shop, but that is what they will pay me. So I could go in there today and buy American Silver Eagles for $20 and sell them back for $18, which gives me a spread, if you will, of negative $2. So right off the bat, I'd be losing two bucks if I bought them and sold them same day. Now I do not recommend that. That is not silver stacking. That is a mistake. But anyway, so that is the price on the Eagles. Now what is the price on the Buffalos? So these are, like I said, considered generic silver rounds. My local coin shop sells these for $1 over spot. Now I know you can find them on sale just like the Eagles from time to time. You can't buy them cheaper. But for the sake of the video, we're going to go with retail at $1 over spot. So I could buy these for 18 bucks. Now how much can I sell them back for? My local coin shop will pay me spot for these. There are some coin shops out there that will pay you under spot for generic silver, especially if it's damaged at all. I think that's absolutely terrible. I would never take that. Always try and get at least spot for your silver for sure. So anyway, for me personally, I'll get spot for these when I sell them back. So that will give me a spread of negative $1. So if I go in today, buy them for $18, I can sell them back for $17. So right there, that's a video, end of video. No, there's actually a huge reason to stack Eagles over Buffalos, but so far it seems like the Buffalos are the clear winner because you buy these for cheaper and yeah, you don't get as much when you sell them back, but if you look at the spread, you're doing a dollar better on the Buffalos over the Eagles. So why on earth would anyone stack American Silver Eagles when they could just be stacking Buffalos? Well, there are a lot of factors that come into play like liquidity, the fact that these are coins, these are trusted, these are backed by the United States of America government. A lot of people like that. So when you go to sell your Eagles, every coin shop in America will buy them and probably in the whole world. These are always being bought and sold, so you're not going to have any problem offloading these at all. As far as generic silver goes, typically you're not going to have any problem offloading those either, but there is one little issue that you might run into. So I don't want to make this entire video all about taxes and stuff like that, but the one little issue you might have is the 1099B form. So I am bringing this up in this video because a lot of people don't know about it or there's a lot of misinformation about this. In fact, I did make a whole video on taxes and buying and selling precious metals and all that kind of stuff. I'll put a link up to it in the quarter as well as in the description of the video. If you want to check that one out for yourself, I highly recommend it. But basically the short answer is the 1099B form is for when you're selling precious metals to a bullion dealer. If you're selling American Silver Eagles, you do not have to fill out a 1099B form. No matter how many American Silver Eagles you sell, the 1099B form is basically what the IRS put in place so they could capture people who were trying to either launder money or basically do some sketchy stuff with precious metals where they're sort of hiding where their money is and things of that nature. But I guess tax evasion is the best way to put it. That's why the IRS started the 1099B form. But with American Silver Eagles, you will not have to fill out that form when you sell them in any quantity. So I could go to a coin shop and sell them a million American Silver Eagles and not have to fill out that form. On the form, you have to put your name, social security number, all that stuff gets sent right to the IRS and they know that you made a sale. So it's kind of nice not to have to fill that out. And like I said, you don't have to fill it out when you're doing Eagles. Now for generic silver rounds, and buffalos are included in generic silver rounds, you will have to fill out that form if you're selling 1000 of these or more. So I guess for the smaller stackers out there who their stack is, you know, maybe a few hundred ounces or something like that, they're not gonna have to worry about this at all. But for the bigger stackers out there, the guys who are really moving a lot of weight, you definitely need to factor that in. And you know, you might be the kind of guy that keeps really good records of everything, you plan on paying those capital gains taxes when you sell and all that good stuff. But just keep in mind, if you sell 1000 or more of generic silver rounds at a time, you will have to fill out the 1099B form. So that is one reason, at least that I could think of that people like stacking the Eagles better. So and then the other reasons that people would stack Eagles over the buffalos is that they just like them more, they like the fact that they are a coin, they're backed by the government, a little bit more trusted, they feel better buying selling something of that nature. So it does come down a little bit to personal preference. But I would highly encourage you to do your own research, talk to your own local coin shop, ask them, how much do you buy back the Eagles for? How much do you buy back generic silver rounds for? And then sort of factor that into your silver stacking goals and see which is better for you personally. But when it comes down to silver stacking, these are both excellent options. Generic silver and Eagles are amazing for silver stacking. I encourage you to stack both if you can, have a little bit of a stack of Eagles and generic silver. I think you really can't go wrong when you have diversity within your silver stack. But when it comes to which is better over the two, I don't know, it's kind of a toss up. There are things that are better about both of them. Obviously, the price definitely is a factor. So I'm going to leave you with that. If you have any questions for me or any comments or any thoughts or anything that I missed, leave those down below in the comments section. I do want to say a massive thank you so much for watching my video, and I'll see you all in the next one. Silver Dragons!