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Price of silver - How far will the market be able to stretch?

I guess I wasn't paying enough attention: you're right-wing politically? I thought I was alone on this forum! I'm glad I'm not alone.


Adam
 
Sorry, thought I was replying to Michael Batchelor's earlier post. It was meant for him.
 
adam h said:
Sorry, thought I was replying to Michael Batchelor's earlier post. It was meant for him.
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Yes, I saw your post. There are actually thousands of us right wing lurkers here. In fact, it only takes a little imagination to fantasize that all the "guests" are right wing lurkers.

Of course, I could be delusional. More than one person I've debated in the lounge already thinks so.
 
Photo Engineer said:
The latter product was called Ektaflex "C" and Ektaflex "R" paper, and was terminated by the Polaroid lawsuit.
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So that is why those little 'PMT' like machines disappeared so quickly.

I was given a box of receiver paper for Ektaflex earlier this year. I tried using it in a great qualtiy Olympus dye sub printer I was also given, and it did not work. Oly proprietary paper is now rare as hell, so both the Ektaflex paper and the printer went to the recycling depot in the same trip.
 
The real question that begs to be answered, and should be discussed, is: 'How long can silver based photography last?'

Think about it. With accelerating demand due to silver being incorporated in many industrial processes to manufacture all of the electronic toys we are so fond of, how long do you all think it'll take until all of the silver reserves around the world will simply be depleted?
 

I know this is off-topic for APUG, but Olympus still makes paper for their printers, it's just that you have to Dead Link Removed
 

According to This USGS report, industrial use of silver is declining, not accelerating. Also, current mine production would use up all known reserves in about twenty years or so, but of course "known reserves" can be subject to change. Most of the growth in silver "consumption" in the past few years has been hoarding by ETFs.
 

Thank you for that. I appreciate the correction. It's almost nice to see the opportunist frenzy being a big contributing factor after all...
 
Cesaraugusta said:
Help me on this:


The wording I find vague, but the numbers not so. Sounds like the overall use of silver is increasing.
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It is somewhat vague, depending on what you count as "use," and the time period you look at. And this report is not well organized, but it does show, I think a reasonable overview of production and use. Metals use of all kinds plunged drastically at the start of the recession and then the financial crisis. There's been a rebound in industrial use as the economy improves, but discretionary uses like jewelry are still lagging because of higher prices. And of course photography use still declines. Since some believe that investor hoarding is a direct or indirect result of the various Fed special-asset-purchase programs, it will be interesting to see what happens when those programs end this summer.
 
That article doesn't explain why silver has gone nuts. It basically takes two long pages to reiterate that it has gone nuts !

Besides, even if the author had some new point to make I wouldn't believe him because he writes:

"Silver is a totally pointless metal. (Okay, it does have some industrial applications — but even there it's generally substitutable. It's pointless, or at least a luxury, for ordinary people.)"​

I'd like to see him try and substitute silver for something else in our papers and still have them perform the same. Oh, and my hobby is not some industrial exploit.
 
PeterB said:
Oh, and my hobby is not some industrial exploit.
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For you, maybe not, but for the producers and manufacturers of the material, it is. Also, "photographic use" in these kinds of statistics includes all commercial, industrial, and medical uses of any kind of photographic material, not just consumer stuff.
 

My point was that the author suggested it is only used in industrial applications. Clearly for the vast majority of APUG-ians this is not the case (irrespective of the total worldwide % of silver used by us).

Also the author suggested silver is replace-able by another element. Tthis is clearly wrong for photographic use (assuming one wants to preserve all existing characteristics of the silver based negs and papers).
 
PeterB said:
My point was that the author suggested it is only used in industrial applications.
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He's right. You, for instance, do not buy silver. You buy film. Kodak and Ilford are buying the silver to make the film. Film is made by an industrial process. It's an industrial product. You may use it to make pretty pictures of trees or whatever, but to the statisticians, that's irrelevant.
 
Arghh !! You're splitting hairs here. The ultimate use of some of those films and papers is for the hobby or even the livelihood of MANY APUG members. If you read these sentences again:
"Silver is a totally pointless metal. (Okay, it does have some industrial applications — but even there it's generally substitutable. It's pointless, or at least a luxury, for ordinary people.)"​

He is suggesting the world wouldn't be all that different without silver. NOT true for MANY APUGgers !!

This is very simply the point I am trying to make, that our world would be very different without silver. (contrary to the author's beliefs)
 
bobwysiwyg said:
Maybe it's coming back down out of the stratosphere. One can only hope a bunch of speculators are getting burned on the way down.

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424052970203390704576305213967197384.html?mod=BOL_hpp_latestticker
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Hopefully you're right. There was a previous attempt several decades ago to corner the market in silver, but eventually the Hunt brothers who were responsible got their fingers badly burnt. History has a habit of repeating itself, but some people never learn.
 

Agreed. I'm glad to see silver drop down to the mid $30s per ounce.
 
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