Silver Bullet Bullion – 2024 Buyer’s Guide

Inflation got you down? Enjoy collecting silver and gold? Have you considered buying silver bullet bullion?

Precious metals are known to be a hedge against inflation, they’re good for times of economic uncertainty and civil unrest, and they are a hard, real asset quite unlike a paper note (dollar). The value is the material itself You can literally hold the wealth in your hand.

The advantage that silver has over gold is that it’s 1) cheaper to buy, and 2) because it has less value per unit, it’s easier to use as money for bartering. I mean, how do you barter with an ounce of gold?

For reasons like these, and knowing that it can be used for bartering post-collapse, preppers have historically had a particularly strong interest in buying silver.

Fortunately, preppers have many choices when buying survival silver. You have junk silver, bars, coins, and newer to the market – silver bullets.

No, I’m not talking about silver bullets used to kill werewolves, but silver bullet bullion. In other words, silver that has been forged into the shape of different caliber ammunition.

If you’re new to buying silver, you might be wondering if these silver “bullets” are a good way to buy and stock silver. The answer is – it depends.

Why Buy Silver Bullets?

There are two main reasons people buy silver bullets:

1. as a form of investment/inflation insurance, and
2. because they’re just dang cool.

If your objective in buying silver is strictly as a form of investment or as a hedge against inflation, silver bullets are probably not the best type of silver to buy. That’s because silver bullion in the shape of a bullet costs more per ounce of silver than regular 1oz silver rounds.

If your goal is to get the most silver for your dollar, why spend more money per ounce for something that is simply in a different shape?

That said, this is not a hard and fast rule. I have bought and sold silver many times before, and I can tell you that while you pay more for 1oz Silver Eagles, as an example, than you would for the same amount of silver found in pre-1965 coins (junk silver), it is much easier to sell Silver Eagles. People simply desire them more.

However, if you’re looking for a great gift idea for the precious metal enthusiast in your life, or you just want to add some diversity to your silver collection, silver bullet bullion is where it’s at. They’re still affordable and offer much more personality than a regular silver round.

Silver bullets are fun to give and collect! Just giving 1 oz silver rounds could be viewed the same way, but if you want to give them something with intrinsic value that they enjoy, that shows thought for their interests, and is something they likely wouldn’t buy of their own accord, that’s where silver bullets really shine.

Are Silver Bullets Expensive?

Compared to other forms of silver, yes, silver bullets cost more. A 1oz silver bullet is going to cost you 20-30% more than a generic 1oz silver round, as an example. The reason for this is production cost. There’s an economy of scale set up with producing large quantities of silver rounds that a manufacturer cannot get with making silver bullets, simply because they sell more rounds than bullets.

So, if you’re looking for a way to put $1000 into precious metals as some means of inflation insurance or the like, putting it all into silver bullets is not the way to do it.

All you’ll be doing is wasting money on silver shaped into a particular mold. If you’ve got money to burn, then go for it. For the rest of us, this is a waste of money. Silver bullets are meant to be more of a novelty item, a fun collectible, or maybe a holiday gift.

If I was looking at placing large amounts of money over time into silver, I would instead look at silver bars, rounds, or eagles.

With silver (or any precious metal for that matter), the less frills you choose, the cheaper your price/ounce will be. It’s because of this that I think the most economical way to invest in silver is to put it into generic 1 oz silver rounds that you know for a fact are silver. Any type of coin with numismatic value to it only means you’re going to be paying extra for fanciness.

3 Places to Buy Silver Bullets

There are three main locations to buy silver bullion: local shops, online precious metal sites, and on general online retailers.

1 – Local Shops

Out of all three locations for where to buy silver bullets, this is where it’s going to be the biggest hit or miss. Some days you may find plenty of silver bullets for sale at your local pawn shop or coin store. Other days, you may strike out.

I’ve also noticed that the prices at physical stores can vary wildly for precious metals as well. For example, a few months ago, 1oz silver rounds were selling for around $26/ounce at one pawn shop in town. A coin store ten minutes away was selling them for $36/round, while yet another pawn shop was selling them for $50/ounce. The same product, the same day. And yet, there was that large a swing in price between retailers.

If you want to get your money’s worth here, you need to do a bit of shopping around first.

Here’s what I like about local brick-and-mortar shops, though: the owners know their stuff. While there are always going to be people out there who might be knowingly or unknowingly selling a fake product (a bigger issue with gold), I’ve found that most of the guys in my area are knowledgeable in their fields and don’t want to harm their business (or jeopardize their freedom) by selling fake silver.

No, they will not sell silver to you at spot price either (junk silver sometimes being an exception). If you ask, you’re only going to experience a degrading look and curt laugh as the owner explains to you why you’re the stupidest person to come into their store all day.

2 – Online Precious Metal Sites

The most reliable place to regularly find silver bullets is going to be at your online precious metals retailers. Some of the more popular of these options include UniversalCoin.com and MoneyMetals.com. I have found online shopping to be the most convenient way to price shop silver, and I have had a fine experience buying silver online without ever encountering a problem. The package is tracked in the mail and often requires your signature to receive it.

The catch here is that you get the best deal if you’re buying more than one silver bullet, round, coin, bar, etc. Typically, these retailers will offer you a “bulk” discount, giving you a few cents off if you’re buying 5-10 bullets or more. You also need to consider the cost of shipping as well.

I can pay $10 in shipping and handling to have one silver bullet (worth $40) to be shipped to me, or I can pay $10 in shipping and handling to have five silver bullets (worth a combined value of $200) shipped to me. Which is the better deal?

One more caveat I’ll add here is to beware of subscription services with some of these retailers. These might be good as a way of dollar cost averaging the purchase of precious metals, but you don’t want to get caught automatically buying when you don’t intend to make it a regular habit.

3 – General Online Retailers

I think out of all three of your options, this is where you must be the most careful, and also where you’re most likely to encounter higher prices. You can sometimes find silver bullets for sale on eBay, Amazon, or through other venues that you wouldn’t typically think would be a source for precious metals.

The main caveat here is that you need to know who it is that you’re dealing with. If you’re dealing with somebody with terrible reviews on their account, you’re likely to have a bad experience/buy fake product. You want to make sure you’re purchasing genuine silver in your bullet.

It can happen to anyone – it happened to me! Early in my silver buying days I made the mistake of thinking I found a great deal on a 1oz silver bar. It was German Silver, no big deal, right?

Well, as it turns out German Silver is an alloy of copper, zinc, and nickel. This retailer preyed on people not knowing the difference between German Silver and .999 fine silver.

Silver Bullet Bullion Summarized

As preppers, we often prepare ourselves for what life would be like should society collapse. It’s been pointed out before that society has roughly three days standing between itself and utter anarchy. When societies collapse, they resort to barter economies. Hyperinflation often accompanies societal collapse, and the fiat currency that people relied upon beforehand often becomes worth nothing more than the paper it’s printed on.

Silver has a long track record of being used as a form of currency – virtually the same age as humanity. When fiat currencies fail, silver retains its value. It is for reasons such as this that silver is often the “gateway drug” for those looking to get involved in investing in precious metals.

It’s more affordable than gold, easier to get one’s hands on, and one can start investing in it right away with nothing other than around $30 (as of this writing, anyway). Silver bullets are just another fun way to invest in this inflationary hedge.

*Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor, nor is this financial or investment advice. If you are looking for either financial or investment advice, find somebody legally qualified to give it to you.