Palladium and platinum

[Corydoras]

What do you gold and silver people think about palladium and platinum?

[fsk]

Gold and silver are more generally recognized as money. There's no practical objection to using palladium, platinum, or copper as money, other than convincing other people.

Platinum is more expensive per ounce than gold. If you're looking for "value per unit of mass", platinum is the better deal. Plus, the platinum and palladium market are much less manipulated than the gold and silver markets.

Make sure you buy from a vendor who will repurchase, if you need to sell.

[fluoridatedbrainsoup]

I can't afford it. Beyond silver I'm thinking only of acquiring food and water stores, sufficient weapons to protect my investment, and liquor and cigarettes to barter with. I've already got a good pair of boots. Here's a good forum for that sort of thing: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/140/pg1/srtpages

[born2drv]

I'm a jeweler. I'm also a precious metals investor. I'm a big believer in palladium. Pd has been popular in jewelry in china, japan, etc. for the past 10 years or so.... and it's getting popular now here in the USA. I've seen a huge push for Pd in the jewelry industry here now. It's still got a long way to go but with Platinum prices being so high there are lots of benefits. I recently switched my entire bridal sets of jewelry out of 14K white gold and made it in all palladium, a little 18k white gold, and platinum instead. The trend seems to be higher purity. 18k is still only 75% pure.... Pd and Pt blends are made 95% pure most of the time. Eventually I'd like to phase out the white gold completely because of rhodium plating costs and maintenance issues.... but of course people are not really familiar yet with palladium, and 18k white gold is still a lot cheaper then Pt.

Pd's main use of course is not jewelry, it's industrial use, specifically catalytic converters... just like Platinum it can absorb a lot of hydrocarbons. I think both of these metals will be used more and more as emissions standards get tougher.

If I had to pick one of the 2 to invest in it would be Pd. Pt is just too expensive right now in my opinion, but both will go up. Pd is very volatile, be careful, it does swing much more wildly in price.

[Hook]

Pt has gone up more as a percentage than gold over the last few years.

[Dustancostine]

I'm a jeweler. I'm also a precious metals investor. I'm a big believer in palladium. Pd has been popular in jewelry in china, japan, etc. for the past 10 years or so.... and it's getting popular now here in the USA. I've seen a huge push for Pd in the jewelry industry here now. It's still got a long way to go but with Platinum prices being so high there are lots of benefits. I recently switched my entire bridal sets of jewelry out of 14K white gold and made it in all palladium, a little 18k white gold, and platinum instead. The trend seems to be higher purity. 18k is still only 75% pure.... Pd and Pt blends are made 95% pure most of the time. Eventually I'd like to phase out the white gold completely because of rhodium plating costs and maintenance issues.... but of course people are not really familiar yet with palladium, and 18k white gold is still a lot cheaper then Pt.

Pd's main use of course is not jewelry, it's industrial use, specifically catalytic converters... just like Platinum it can absorb a lot of hydrocarbons. I think both of these metals will be used more and more as emissions standards get tougher.

If I had to pick one of the 2 to invest in it would be Pd. Pt is just too expensive right now in my opinion, but both will go up. Pd is very volatile, be careful, it does swing much more wildly in price.

What are the prospects of Pd once (if ever) we get off oil and we no longer need them for converters?

[born2drv]

What are the prospects of Pd once (if ever) we get off oil and we no longer need them for converters?

pd is also used in storing hydrogen and would be perfect for use in fuel cells of vehicles that ran off of hydrogen. there are kinds of industrial uses of pd/pt

[johngr]

Check out rhodium: http://www.kitco.com/charts/historicalrhodium.html

[jonahtrainer]

Check out rhodium: http://www.kitco.com/charts/historicalrhodium.html

Another way hedge funds a scalping consumers. Rhodium is used in small amounts in catalytic converters. The price is very inelastic. Consequently, Ford has to pay whatever the price is. :p

[sickmint79]

not traditional stores of value; good industrial use; palladium can be exchanged for platinum in terms of some anti-pollution properties. some bugs on kitco think palladium is undervalued. also believed that it can be strongly manipulated by russia, who may bring the price up quite a bit when they feel like it. hard to get near spot, must pay a premium. proposed usage and possibility in realistically creating cold fusion; palladium can hold 900 times its mass in hydrogen gas. personally i would get palladium before platinum.