Four Scary Words: “Silver Delivery Not Possible”
April 25, 2011
The SHTFPlan’s Mac Slavo brings us the story of one Bill Cramer who decided to cash in on his silver profits after a nearly decade holding period (under the assumption he was receiving warehousing services considering he was paying storage fees), confident that he could simply receive the metal he held with a broker, until he heard the following 5 very disturbing words: “Sorry, delivery is not possible.”
From SHTFPlan:
“Bill Cramer of St. Louis was pretty confident everything was on the up-and-up. He purchased 5000 ounces of silver back in 2003 for a spot price of $4.94 and stored them with an east coast broker. When he was discussing his holdings with his coin dealer, the dealer dared him to try and take delivery of the metal.
Bill took him up on that dare and contacted his broker requesting to take delivery of his supposed physical metal holdings, for which he had been paying storage fees for years. As you may have guessed, the broker advised him that physically delivering the metals was not possible.”
Here is how Bill recounts his experience:
So, I took his dare, I called them up, it was June of last year. The metal I had purchased in January of ’03. I said “I’d really like to take delivery of my metal – the five thousand ounces.” They go “well, that’s not possible.” And, I go “well, I’ve been paying storage fees since January of ’03, what do you mean I can’t take delivery.”
“Well, it’s part of the account. It’s called a pool account. And, you don’t take delivery, you just participate in the appreciation.”
So I immediately sold that 5000 ounces at $18.33 and I had my cell phone in my hand and I immediately purchased 2500 silver eagles at $18.41 and that’s how I reconciled the problem of not being able to take delivery of my physical metal from a brokerage account.
In other words: anyone who has “pool account” exposure may want to reevaluate their options. And, if we may add, anyone who has Comex storage exposure in general (University of Texas wink wink) even for allegedly delivered gold, and when massive amounts of “registered” gold get mysteriously shifted to “eligible” status, may want to be reeeeally careful now that silver is about to take out its all time nominal high.