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Big fuss over nothing here. Yes, it looks like there was some mis communication. But I see grousing over a few thousand dollars when we're holding a small growing company with a potential market cap in the 9 figures. Don't scoff, I've seen it many times over the years with small companies that had far less going for them. For all the math wizards here, just take the share structure and figure out what the share price will be when we have, say, a market capitalization of $500,000,000. I use that figure because I can think of 2 companies off hand that did it a few years back with no revenues and just a few good news releases. JMHO
..........al
Mr Roberts makes a lot more sense than the whole of Washington put together. Wall street and the bankers are not stupid. They gave just as much to the democrats as they did to the republicans. No matter who's in control their financial interests will take precedence over the taxpayer. Like I just read somewhere- "if voting could really change things, it would be illegal". Taxpayer beware, protect thyself. Wish I knew the Latin phrase for that. It could be a rallying cry.
.........al
Great board here. A lot of the people that post around here can use all the help they can get. Your "crap stock indicator posts" should be required reading prior to registration on ihub. Keep up the good works.
..........al
remember, parabolas come down just as fast as they are formed.
.........al
I've been checking around the day trader boards and we haven't been picked up by them. Bad enuff we have we have the pump sites. We don't need the day traders playing with this. JMHO
..........al
Hi Shaun and thanks for your kind words. What the uplisting will do is open the stock up to many more investors that will not touch a pinkie. That is due to the 10K and 10Q filings required for otcbb listing. They become far more transparent. What will happen is anyone's guess, but the uplisting can't be bad.
......al
another site, no compensation-
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2148817/
stockguru.com has us also. didn't see any paid for in the disclaimer. all these paid pumpers and daytrading sites are not good for the company. makes it look like a pump and dump like most of the others.
.......al
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2148550/
Hi Shaun- glad to see you still on board. I told you this was a long termer way back when. I don't have an answer, but have an opinion. I know opinions are like--------, everyone has one. The company is in a niche market and as such is not a major threat to the biggies in the industry who's mainstay is the traditional lines. I believe they should and will stay in their niche. The funeral industry has embraced them and their concept and has extended a hand in friendship. It would not be a good idea to try and compete traditional products and bite the hand that is so to speak feeding you. JMHO
...........al
Lurker, just for you, the repost of NAR:
Posted by: racerx992 Date: Monday, December 10, 2007 2:48:46 PM
In reply to: None Post # of 156518 [Send a link via email]
Good afternoon I am the investment advisor of North Atlantic Resources. I assure you it is not a defunct Gold Mining Company or anything of the sort. It is a fund that sources and capitalizes young emerging UNDISCOVERED companies. In fact to date we have provided capital in excess of 25 million dollars to small and mid cap companies. ETIM is one of those companies. We feel along with others that ETIM represents an aggressive small cap company. One that we feel as well will bring our investors a significant return within the next 12 months. If we had to speculate we would place these shares at approximately .50 by year end. We have not sold are not selling shares until it reaches are target price. So for all the bashers who feel the company is not worth buying great. If you're shorting the company even better (although that doesn't make any sense). And for those of you who are nervous I ask one question... What changed about the company since you bought your shares? The answer is quite simple... it has gotten better, stronger financially and closer to the goal of being listed on the Bulletin Board. In fact it's everything Management has told you they would do. So don't panic relax and enjoy the ride. Happy Holidays to all.
For the record, stock manipulation will never end. There is always someone that will do whatever it takes to make a buck no matter what the security or which exchange it is traded on. That includes the bigger ones also. If the average small time investor really knew how bad the odds were stacked against him, he would never even enter the market. There are far more people in the world of finance that are trying to separate you from your money than there are trying to help you make more. It's a fact of life and only a novice wanting to part with his stash will not believe it until it's too late. So in answer to the question "will the manipulation end with the uplisting?", it is a resounding NO. Will we possibly see a share price spike with the uplist? Possibly. I know I have stated before that we would, but I believe the recent share price increase has already factored in the uplist. We may get another spike on the actual day we begin trading on the otcbb. I'll feel vilified if this price holds and we go from here as I expected. I believe the 2.5¢ area is our new plateau. the Qs and Ks will be taking us from here.
.........al
A little common sense -
Guest commentary by Isaac Kahan
Attention: Physical Silver Investors: You have an edge over the Wall Street trader!
First: Let me define over whom you have an edge.
In every trading market there are different categories of people trading it. They include:
In the silver futures market, there is the scalper or floor trader: This is the trader buying & selling the item with no attachment to the product itself.
What this trader is concerned with is the difference between the bid & the ask. To explain these terms, know that every tradeable entity really has two prices.
The bid, which is what you get if you sell the item now & the ask, which is what you can buy the item for. For example, If silver is trading at $10.50, the ‘real' number if you want to sell it would be $10.495 & if you were to buy it you would have to pay $10.505.
This half penny in ether direction is the spread that represents the money the floor traders make when they buy from one person & sell it to another. This same system happens with everything such as wheat, sugar & even treasury bonds, etc.
The next kind of trader is the hedger. This trader can be from a gold & silver mining company to a dealer in metals.
For example, a dealer in metals gets an order and sells some coins & bars. He needs to replace this inventory that he just sold & buying from the market is the best & cheapest way to cover his position. The same thing happens when a dealer buys coins & bars but has no customer for it. He will go out & sell a contract on the market so as not to lose money should the market go against him.
The speculator. This trader buys or sells for any number of reasons. It might be that he or she is following the trend or any other system that they have. It might be that they have a gut feeling. It really doesn't matter what the reason is. What does matter is that these are the people that are out there buying & selling & causing the market to move.
These people are helpful in the marketplace as they are providing liquidity & allowing for the markets, such as silver, the ability for the spread between the bid & ask to be only half a penny.
The concern with the different types of traders is that in most cases they don't care about the underlying market. All that the floor trader cares about are making the half penny spreads between the bid & ask & to be able to do it many times in a day. The more such trades he makes, the more times he can earn the spread. All that the hedger cares about are that he can cover his exposure to the market so if he bought the actual silver then he needs to sell it at the best price. In most cases the hedger is not a true hedger in the sense that if he bought silver at 10.5 & now silver is at 10.51 he will try to squeeze out a little bit more & wont sell it till it gets a little higher. By the end of the day these people will try to be flat in the market.
What about the “speculator”? This person is buying or selling for his own undisclosed reasons. He or she feels that the price will go up or down. This is the person that really interests us. Why? Simply put, it is this type of trader who really moves the market.
In the end, the scalper is just trading for the ½ cent the dealer hedger is covering the base so in reality nothing that he is doing is moving the market all that he is doing is buying in one place & selling in another.
But the speculator is the only person that is causing the market to move. How? The speculator is the only one who is really holding a position.
What causes the speculator to cover their position? There are three reasons.
1) To take profit.
2) To cover losses.
3) Found a better market.
For reasons 1 and 3, you can't predict where & when the speculator will get out of their position. The speculator might be using a specific dollar amount & since it is not known when he got in the market it can't be determined what will compel him to get out. The speculator might also be using any number of technical tools available to him. He might be using trend lines, overbought & oversold levels or even just round numbers (for some reason people like to use all round number such as 10 dollars 10.50 & 11 and son on).
Don't worry; we are starting to get closer to disclosing where you have an edge.
To some extent the speculator will have to cover losses. This is done in one of two ways:
1) Essentially, the opposite of taking profit. The speculator says that he has had enough of losing & just bails out of the position.
2) The speculator has a certain dollar amount that they are willing to lose. Now, remember, since it is not known what that amount is nor is it known where they got in, we simply can't know when they will get out.
Now let me interrupt with a little story. It was back in 2002 & a customer/friend of mine comes up to my office & shows me his brokerage statement. His final balance was a little more than one million dollars. I don't remember how long it took him to make this but it wasn't more then three or four months. I told him to be careful because by this time I was already trading for 15 years & I knew that trading with a gut feeling cannot achieve such returns in the long run. Anyway, to make a short story even shorter, it wasn't more then one month later, and he was back ashen faced. When I asked what was happening, he whispered “margin.” To this day I don't know why I had not warned him of this as I should have known that this was the only way for him to make so much in so little time. You see, the margin is a silent killer. Just the mere fact of getting a call from your broker saying that you have to pay up or else . . .
This changes the way your thought process works. From having a rational train of though of where you want to buy or sell you go to thinking what can I do to get this guy off the phone! Another thing is that for some reason or other the margin clerks only call you when the extreme is happening. I feel that if I had the ability to take the other side of any trade that is happening because of a margin call I would be extremely rich.
Now back to the program.
All three classes of traders that I spoke about before have margin issues. The least is the scalper because he isn't really holding any positions it doesn't really matter to him. Nevertheless, in order for someone to make a lot of money as a scalper he needs to trade on a large scale. So if a scalper trades 10 times a day with one contract of 5000 ozs silver, then each ½ penny that he makes comes to only $25.00. I don't know anyone in this business that will be happy to earn $250 a day & remember the 5000 represents $50,000 of underlying value. Also keep in mind that no person is right all ten times. So what does the scalper need to do? He has to over trade so instead of trading just 1 contract he has to trade several.
Now the hedger has things a little better because since he has the underlying stock, his margin requirements are lower than that of a speculator. So let's say a dealer sold his silver at $10.00 and re-buys it on the Comex. There should not be any problem because he has the money from the sale to cover any margin requirement. But what if the dealer bought some silver & sold it on the Comex as a hedge? Now he spent money to buy the silver & he needs to have extra money to cover initial margin. If the market moves against him, he will have to cover even more money. Now granted he has not lost money because the silver is his and he now has the choice of going un-hedged or he can sell some of the silver that he has at any price to give him some money to pay the margin clerks.
This brings me to another category: the silver investor.
I will not talk about selling silver short because since silver can go up & up your risk is unlimited.
But the silver buyer that is buying silver with his or her own money & owns the silver will never be forced to get out of the silver position because of the silver market. Silver can go up, down or even stay at the same price. There is no interest to pay because you have not borrowed to buy it. No margin clerk will ever call nor will any broker call you because he has found a better investment.
You remain in complete control of your investment. No one can ever tell you to get out of it. Also, since the silver remains in your possession, there can be no possibility of a bank default that should affect you.
It has been valued since the beginning of time & at no time did it make more sense to own it than today.
Hi Lurker- It's sad to watch at times. I know many people have lost a lot of money playing penny stocks. As most pennys are losers it's not hard to believe that all of them are losers. But most with that attitude in mind either stick with higher exchanges or just go with mutual funds. It's almost pathetic to see someone stick around spreading their own misery as the boat with the profits leaves the dock. A glance from the stern revealing only silhouettes in the exhaust.
.......al
GM all, more publicity:
http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/monday/business/ny-bzcask266011968jan26,0,3638735.story
They're still fans, even from the grave
BY CARRIE MASON-DRAFFEN | carrie.mason-draffen@newsday.com
January 26, 2009
Sports fans, you can take it with you. And the Branch Funeral Home in Smithtown wants to make it possible.
Branch offers caskets and urns imprinted with the logos of Major League Baseball teams, which in this area primarily means the Mets and Yankees.
The funeral home began offering caskets with logos in October and urns two years ago, said John Vigliante, 32, owner and manager of the 40-year-old family business.
So far for the caskets, it's Mets 1, Yankees 0. A buyer prepurchased a casket for himself, Vigliante said. As for the urns, the score is even at 5-5 for the 10 imprinted vessels holding the ashes of dearly departed fans.
Vigliante said he got the idea for the caskets last year while attending the National Funeral Directors Association Convention in Florida.
"I saw them, and I thought it was something [that would interest] somebody that happened to be a fan of baseball," he said.
The tops of the caskets, which are 18-gauge steel with a velvet interior, feature a splash of the ash wood used to make bats. The caskets have 13 colorful logos inside and out, Vigliante said. Ten are team insignia - blue and orange for the Mets and white and royal blue for the Yankees. Other teams' logos are also available. The remaining three designs show the Major League Baseball logo of a player at bat.
The caskets sell for $5,900 with the logos, $4,900 without, Vigliante said. The urns, which he also first saw at an industry convention, sell for $750 with logos and $550 without.
The urns are also made with a team's colors. At the top of each sits a baseball encased in plastic, while the bottom has a replica of home plate. An enterprising family whose deceased relative was a Mets fan got the baseball for its urn signed by David Wright, the Mets' third baseman.
Vigliante orders the caskets through Eternal Image, a Michigan company that he said is the country's only manufacturer of licensed brand-image products for the funeral industry.
Vigliante markets his offerings, which also include products with "Star Trek" images, through local papers, news releases and the company's Web site. He's aware the idea may strike some as ghoulish.
"It's not for everybody," he said. But he noted that many customers approve of them.
"When going through the room, everybody sees [the caskets], and they seem to gravitate toward them," Vigliante said.
I think we'll see 17¢ before .017. This is only the beginning.
......al
Me too.. eom
Hi Basser- been keeping up. little flu bug has me but watching the gains on 3 million shares helps.LOL
.....al
latest from Ted Butler:
Real Silver Availability
By: Theodore Butler
(Editor's Note from Investment Rarities Inc.: It seems that the CFTC casts their net far and wide in search of mischief in the silver market. They've talked to everyone but Ted Butler. It’s imperative that they contact him. It’s hard to know what they are waiting for.)
Much has been written about the actual amount of physical silver that exists in world above ground inventories. Due to decades of industrial consumption depleting world inventories, there is remarkably little silver remaining. I have estimated perhaps one billion ounces of silver bullion equivalent exists at anywhere near current prices, and my estimates are much higher than most published estimates. Considering that the cumulative world mine production through the ages has been roughly 40 billion ounces, that means only 2.5% of that total production remains in bullion equivalent form. That’s shocking. This is one of the key reasons for buying silver, namely, there isn’t much left.
I’ve written countless articles over the years, trying to put this shockingly small amount of silver remaining into different perspectives. I’ve compared it to the total amount of money and credit in the world, namely, $11 billion of silver remaining compared to the many tens of trillions of dollars of money and credit sloshing around. Each ten trillion is a thousand times more than all the silver in the world is currently worth.
I’ve compared the amount of silver, in ounces and dollar terms, in per capita terms, namely, how much there is if evenly divided among the earth’s 6.5 billion inhabitants. For each man, woman and child, there exists 0.15 of an ounce. At current prices that’s around $1.65 a person. Not much of a surplus or overhang.
I’ve compared the amount of silver remaining above-ground to other commodities, and particularly to gold, it’s constant compatriot through millennia. I have explained that because gold was always highly valued as an investment and for jewelry, its high price prevented it from being industrially consumed, in stark contrast with what occurred in silver. Due to this plainly-observed historical reality, the world cumulative gold mine production of 5 billion ounces still exists in a relatively easy to recover form. So even though 8 times more silver than gold was produced throughout history, 5 times more gold than silver exists above ground today, due to silver’s industrial consumption profile over the past 100 years.
Further, when you assign a dollar value to gold and silver above ground inventories, given the current price disparity between the two, the comparisons are even more startling. Because gold is currently running at almost 80 times the price of silver, that means there is 400 times more gold than silver in the world in dollar terms. On a per capita basis, that comes to $660 per inhabitant, compared to $1.65 for silver. In the past, I’ve estimated that maybe one in a million knew these facts. My conclusion was the growing awareness of this situation alone would impact the price of silver for many years to come.
Today, I would like to look at the amount of above ground silver in a different perspective. This perspective is not unique to silver and applies to all investment assets. What I will say may not seem dramatic at first, but I ask you to think it through. I don’t recall seeing these thoughts in print before. My observations are just that - personal observations that I have contemplated for many years. If my observations and conclusions are correct, it could be considered another very bullish factor for silver. It has to do with what exists and what is available.
In today’s financial world, there is often very heavy daily trading of most investment assets, excluding real estate. Stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities, and especially derivatives are traded actively. Due to advances in computers and communications, it’s easier than ever to transact massive amounts of traded assets quickly. I have come to observe that the vast majority of all this daily trading, well over 90%, is just that - day trading. In other words, very little of this daily trading involves the accumulation or disposal of long term positions. Most of the trading involves quick in and out scalping-type transactions. My first observation is that long term holders are basically not involved in this daily trading.
Let me use COMEX silver futures as an example of what I am talking about, although I could use, quite literally, any other traded market. Certainly, I have never publicly suggested anyone buy a futures contract instead of real metal. Yet, even using a futures contract as an example, I think I can illustrate my point. That point is that in futures contracts, most trading is day trading.
On a typical day, maybe 20,000 COMEX silver futures contracts are traded, or close to 100,000 contracts in a week. The amount of silver that these contracts represent is enormous. So enormous that it would be absurd to think that real long-term silver holdings were actually being sold by old owners and bought by new owners. 100,000 silver futures contracts is equal to 500 million ounces of silver, not much less than a full year’s annual mine production.
Currently, there are around 80 to 85,000 silver contracts in existence (open interest). We know from published data, including daily open interest statistics as well as weekly COT data, that very few of the total existing open interest changes hands daily or weekly. Long term holders don’t trade that frequently and couldn‘t possibly trade in the amounts represented by daily and weekly volume statistics. Therefore, most trading must be daily in and out trading, with very little being carried overnight.
Away from futures trading, it is even more obvious that long term holders don’t trade frequently. They sit and hold. Think of how many times you buy or sell real estate, or real silver or gold, or bonds and stocks and other long term assets in a typical year. I would estimate, that over the course of a year, that no more than 5% to 10% of long term investment assets get turned over, including real estate. That’s over the course of a full year. Divide that 5% to 10% by the number of days in a year and you will come up with a very small percentage for how many long-term holdings are actually transferred daily.
This brings me to what I am driving at. When I write about there only being one billion ounces of above ground silver bullion in the world, I am vastly overstating the amount actually available for purchase at any point in time. As just discussed, very little, maybe 5% to 10% may be available for sale over the course of a full year, incredibly less on a daily basis. The distinction I am trying to make is between what may exist of an item and what is available for purchase or sale. There may be one billion ounces of silver in existence, currently worth $11 billion, but there may be only 50 to 100 million ounces, or $500 million to $1 billion available for sale in any given year. Not $11 billion.
As stated previously, this phenomenon is not unique to silver, it applies to all investment assets. But because silver’s inventory status is so limited to begin with, it takes on special investment significance. For example, when this phenomenon is applied to gold, it suggests that of the 5 billion ounces of gold in existence, only 250 million to 500 million ounces would be available for sale in any given year. But that still suggests a dollar amount of $200 to $400 billion being available for sale in any year, at current prices. (It’s that same 400 times more gold than silver ratio in dollar terms). My point here is simple - an item with only half a billion to a billion dollars potentially available for sale would experience much less selling pressure than an item with a potential $200 to $400 billion available for sale.
An additional observation is that the actual percentage of the amount of an asset that may be available for sale is influenced by price. At a low price, less is available than what would be available at a high price. The amount of what is in existence and what is available is a discussion that pertains to the supply-side of the supply/demand equation. Low prices constrict supply (availability), while high prices encourage supply to come to market. The current low price of silver will necessarily restrict supply and availability to lower levels than the normal 5% to 10% turnover of long-term assets.
What I am trying to introduce here is the difference between what exists and what may be available for sale. While we can all measure accurately the amount of visible silver in existence (in ETF’s and COMEX inventories) to the ounce, none of us can be sure of how much of that silver is actually available for sale near current prices. Just because we see it documented and visible doesn’t mean it is available for sale. Even the actual owners of silver stored in COMEX warehouses, for instance, are often surprised when they discover that their silver is counted as inventory. The first thing I hear from them when they discover this, is "my silver is not for sale." That’s my very point.
That this difference between what exists and what is available for sale is so underappreciated, is a powerfully bullish force for silver, simply because it won’t be underappreciated indefinitely. As it is, the small amount of silver in existence is bullish by itself. That amount being reduced drastically by the reality of availability is hard to comprehend. And if your head is spinning with trying to reconcile just how little real silver is available for purchase and the current ultra-low price, look no further than the great silver manipulation. It is the only plausible explanation. Help me fight that manipulation, but don’t fear it. Put it to your advantage by buying what little real silver is available.
Tighter Physical Supply?
There are a number of developments that may point to tighter physical supplies of wholesale silver. The amount of silver flowing into the big silver exchange traded fund (SLV) has been impressive since the first of the year. It looks like index funds have rebalanced their portfolios and this has resulted in the holdings of SLV reaching a new record of close to 230 million ounces, up 11 million ounces since the first of the new year.
Additionally, delivery patterns in the usually quiet January futures contract on the COMEX have resulted in a much higher than normal level of actual deliveries of over 1200 contracts (6 million ounces). This continues a pattern of delivery in the non-traditional months that started with the October contract last year. There has also been, over the past 6 weeks or so, an unusually large transfer of stored silver in COMEX-approved warehouses from the registered to the eligible category, of some 15 million ounces. The most plausible explanation is that the silver is being transferred into the cheaper to maintain eligible category because it is intended to be held (and not redelivered) for a long time. Interestingly, the amount of silver that has been transferred to the eligible category coincides with the amount (3000 contracts) taken by the raptors (the 9+ commercial traders) in the early days of the past big December delivery. I had never seen the raptors take such deliveries before.
In the "heard it through the grapevine" category, a very reliable source told me that the Central Fund of Canada issued new securities in their gold only fund, as opposed to their balanced gold/silver fund, to avoid the hassles of actually getting hard to find silver. Undoubtedly, this was a suggestion from their underwriters. If this is true (as I believe it to be) it is an accommodation to the silver manipulation, or rewarding bad behavior.
Finally, a reader gave me a heads up on a government web site where citizens can comment on a variety of issues. It’s called the Citizen’s Briefing Book and can be accessed here - http://citizensbriefingbook.change.gov/
The comments concerning the silver manipulation are thoughtful and interesting. Type in "commodity futures trading commission" to read, vote and/or register your own comments.
I don't know if I posted this to this board before or not, but here is my take on a total economic collapse. Do I think one will happen? NO. But I do believe there is a possibility however small. It's not so much the economic collapse I fear as the social disorder that will accompany it- watch Detroit for the trigger. As remote as I may think something like that may happen, it doesn't hurt one bit to prepare to a certain extent. I'm not one of those radical survivalists ready to move into a cave, but I see no harm in being prepared. My physical holdings of precious metals will do me no harm and a whole lot of good whether we have a collapse or not. Even if we don't there will definate hard times ahead for all that have not prepared. Wall street and the banks have taken care of themselves. Gov't will survive at any and all costs. It's up to the individual to prepare and protect himself.
.......al
You hit the nail on the head- major recognized coins
.......al
EBAY- actually quite the contrary. A very large majority of my silver is in US 90% pre 64 coinage. I do have other "stuff" that I have picked up along the way but my main goal is the US coins. They have the silver content which can be good for sale at higher prices, but also good to use in barter situations in a collapsed economy.
......al
from our friends in York, PA:
http://ydr.inyork.com/ci_11521252
A Phillies fan for eternity
Red Lion resident Sam Steckline had the Phils skipper make his mark on Steckline's final resting place.
By JIM SEIP
Daily Record/Sunday News
Updated: 01/21/2009 09:21:05 PM EST
Red Lion resident Sam Steckline, left, had Phillies manager Charlie Manuel sign his Phils-themed urn Wednesday at the York Sports Night celebrity reception.
Sam Steckline stood in line waiting for Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel to sign his urn. Asked about his unusual autograph request, the Red Lion resident smiled.
"I'm a diehard Phillies fan," he said.
Steckline, 56, purchased the red, white and blue Phillies-themed urn from an online company, Eternal Image, which also sells Star Trek and Major League Baseball-themed caskets. The aluminum urn, with a manufacturer's suggested retail of $799, features a base in the shape of home plate and a baseball on top.
Despite being flanked at the York Sports Night celebrity reception at Heritage Hills Golf Resort and Conference Center by Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry and Hall of Fame receiver Raymond Berry, Manuel received
The line of fans waiting for Phillies manager Charlie Manuel's autograph stretched across the room at Heritage Hills.
the most attention. The line for his autograph stretched to the room's entrance, with about 75 people waiting for the skipper to sign bats, balls and photos.
And one urn, the final resting spot for Sam Steckline.
"That's my team," said Steckline, who hopes to be cremated after his death. "I don't feel like wasting land. So I'm all set when I die."
Organizers who realized what Steckline had in his hand, experienced a nervous moment when Manuel tipped the urn on its side to sign his autograph.
"I thought something was going to spill out all over the table," Sports Night's longtime emcee George Trout joked afterward.
Steckline wants to have each of the living Phillies enshrined in Cooperstown autograph his urn -- Steve Carlton
has already signed it -- but Steckline made a special exception for Manuel.
"It says 'World Series Champions 2008' on it, and who knows?" Steckline said. "It could be the last time I see them win it."
Asked about the urn, Manuel didn't look up from his autograph duties to note: "That's a first."
The Phillies skipper seems unfazed by the sudden stardom brought on by his team's unexpected playoff run. The Phillies' only other World Series championship came in 1980.
"Just meeting the fans," Manuel said. "And watching them. And seeing them. I think it was one of the biggest things of my life. You realized how much they loved it.
"Hey, nothing will ever top that parade we had. It was just absolutely fantastic."
Pegged by detractors as a country bumpkin when he and his Virginia twang arrived in Philly as a special assistant to the general manager in 2003, he has become a beloved character.
Manuel, to his credit, hasn't tried to change. He still sounds the same way. He still travels back to his hometown of Buena Vista (pronounced Bue-nah Vest-ah) near Roanoke, Va., in the offseason.
"Where I grew up, I wouldn't trade it for nothing in the world," he said. "I think it's part of who I am. I had a tremendous -- what do you call that? -- a tremendous childhood. Any time I get a chance to go back there, it's exciting. And when we win a World Series, it makes it more enjoyable. Everyone wants to see you, everyone wants to talk about it, and I've seen people I haven't seen in years."
The World Series skipper still hasn't won a coach of the year award. He's never mentioned as one of the game's best tacticians. But he seems content with his current turn in the spotlight. He's confident the final questions about the 2009 season will be answered. The loss of left fielder Pat Burrell will be "offset" by the signing of Raul Ibanez, he said. And "whatever (Ryan Howard) gets (in arbitration), he's definitely worth it."
He's the manager of the world champions. People bring him mementos, and yes -- even urns -- to sign. And it sounds like he's loving it.
"I've heard people say that we backed in or the Mets choked," Manuel said. "You know that's so far from the truth that it's unreal. ... They can take that and put that in their pipe and smoke it."
EBAYaim- just a suggestion, but stick to silver coinage you are familiar with. Personally I am almost strictly US silver coinage. Easy to buy and there has always been a market to sell when the time comes. However, I wouldn't hesitate to pick up Canadian Mapleleafs, Chinese Pandas, or Austrailian Koukabaras (sp) if the opportunity arose and the price was right.
........al
On one hand you have central banks all over the world trying to inflate their way out of the mess created by the greed generation. On the other hand you have investors watching all this going on and wondering how all this money being printed up is going to affect the purchasing power of their own holdings. It is certain to make for volatility in the gold and silver markets until it all comes to rest.
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GM Lurker, I do believe Bee gave a plausible explanation. But yes it should officially come from the company. Trading debt for equity, especially to insiders is very positive IMHO. I'm away most of the day but will be back looking forward to the upcoming company release.
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Captain Jim- I strongly second seabiscuit's post. Unfortunately it's up to the individual to track these people on Ihub. If you look for it, it's quite obvious. Too bad we can't start a board that names names and Ihub handles.
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There may come a time in the future as more and more people realize how worthless their paper money is becoming as the central bankers release more and more of it into the economy that this board may become overrun with posters about the precious metals. That may be a good time to start a separate silverbug board. In the meantime until that time comes I do believe most are comfortable with everything staying right here. We have some good people posting here and I'd hate to lose them. I've been into precious metals since the late 70's, have read and digested quite a bit of info since then and still have learned a lot from reading this board.
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littlejohn- 15% under spot wouldn't be bad if the spot price was the real world price, which it is not. For example, right now the spot price of silver is $11.22. To get the melt value of US 90% silver coinage multiply the spot price X .715
11.22 X .715 = 8.0223
melt value is 8.0223 X face value
Anyone willing to sell their 90% coins at 8X face value would have people knocking down their door to get it. Even on Ebay sellers are getting around 10X+ for "junk" silver. Time of day doesn't seem to matter, gold and silver are hot items on Ebay. Gold is acting in the same way. The spot prices and the real world prices have decoupled. It's called backwardation. Google it for a better explanation than I can give.
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littlejohn- I have done some research on that in the past and recently. Most of these big advertisers buying gold and silver, send it bring it or whatever generally pay 15-25% under spot. Somebody has to pay for all that advertising. You would do better selling on Ebay.
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Yes, I saw this coming way back when and started buying up as many Krands as I could afford and get my hands on. Most came from Tulving. I also purchased a couple bags of 90% US coins at the same time period at around $4.70-80. I picked up more at around $6 and have been getting it in bits and pieces where I can. Mainly at auctions. I do believe silver will give a better % return than gold. New uses for silver are found every year consuming more and more of the metal. Many silver mines have closed recently as the cost to produce is more than the artificial spot price. I may be wrong on the silver as many more blogs are speculating the FED may just up the POG to as much as $10,000/0z. We discussed that here last week as the perfect place to put all those dollars being printed to avoid hyper inflation. It's all just a theory right now, but who knows. It seems everything the gov't does just makes things worse. We're up to almost $9 Trillion bailing out everybody when the gov't could have purchased all those sub prime mortgages for under $3 Trillion. The US economy is in shambles and the US gov't is bankrupt. No one in authority will admit it. Remember all that talk about an Amero currency? I pooh poohed it for a long time, but I'm not anymore. I also not too long ago believed the gov't wouldn't attempt to confiscate gold, but now I'm not even sure about that anymore. Obama is running around now say the problem won't go away this year. I think he is too short sighted. The pain has just begun and there's lots more in the cards for the USA.
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EBAYaim- I was going to do that myself, but as I had been reading and posting here prior to my idea, I emailed 4G and asked for his OK to do so. Silver and gold historically are very close relatives and I didn't want to step on any toes by just up and starting another board. He invited me on board to add silver interests to the Goldbugs board so we are keeping it on one board. If the posting ever got out of control, which it hasn't even come close to breaking that plane we could segregate the two metals on 2 different boards. That doesn't preclude you from starting your own board. I just gave the short history here.
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libel- agree there, I always said and have been labeled as a negative for it, why increase the A/S unless you are planning to sell them. I can't remember one time where a penny stock company has increased the authorized and not issued them into the float.
.......al
Yep, good old Clayton was blowing smoke up our collective rectal cavities while he was dumping shares as he PR'd the buyback. Does he have any friends at all left on this board?
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Jim- I've always maintained to take the numbers from the TA as accurate rather than from any CEO. TAs can get into trouble for giving out false info and there is a liability issue too. A TA can only do what the company instructs it to do. They can't act independantly nor do what they think must be done. So the numbers have to be accurate. This issue was hashed out last spring and summer when Clayton was saying one thing and the TA was giving different numbers. Funny all those posters that were saying the TA was wrong have disappeared. I've got some of them membermarked. It's called follow the pump and dumpers and beware.LOL.
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So it may seem. The real issue is Clayton and credibility. As of now the only thing they have in common is they both begin with the letter C.
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Lurker- I don't think bankruptcy is in the cards either. I was just setting parameters to the extremes.
Another example- I played CMKX a few years back. Bought in at .0001¢. I got out at .0005¢ but it went as high as .0009¢ that day. I believe the O/S were around 100 billion, not a typo that was Billion.
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Should we buy gold? I'm sure for every opinion that hits the internet that says yes we should, you could find another that says no the run is over. Separating the wheat from the chaff after reading dozens of articles can be mind numbing at the very least. Personally, I recco going far beyond the should or shouldn't buy gold articles. Look at economies of the main players in the world. Study macro economics and how it can affect currencies. A look at the dollar and how many more of them can they print. These are just a few items of many that will affect gold in the future. I'm sure several people posting on this board could add dozens more items. Bottom line - gold is not just a simple metal and a store of value. It can be complicated by many factors, hence my penchant for the macro view. But I do confess I am currently not buying gold. I loaded the boat at $350. But I am grabbing as much silver as I can afford for the same reasons I am pro gold. I also strongly suggest holding the physical and not buying paper gold unless you want to trade it like any other paper security.
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So far we can't accuse Clayton of dumping shares today.
.....al
LC- couldn't agree with you more. I'm sure we're not the only ones here wanting to know. Has anyone called Tony?
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Hi basser- they have approved paperwork from the SEC for the uplist to the OTCBB. Going Nas or Amex will not be as difficult paperwork wise as they already have it done and approved. The barrier to higher exchanges is the share price. I'm sure they have enough shareholders. Divesting of the preferred by Clint could very well be to eliminate another barrier, we don't know. And it could be just wishful thinking on my part. Let's get this to the BB first.
.......al