Reddit Retailers Explode to Buy Silver, Major Trading Sites See Shortage

U.S. GameStop has become a hot topic as Reddit retail investors push up its stock price. After flagging at GameStop, silver appears to be the next new battleground for Reddit retail investors; according to trading data, a large number of individual investors went on a buying spree of silver ETF products last week, causing traders to cry out about shortages.

Several major U.S. dealers in silver, Gold and other precious metals say they are suffering from a shortage of silver, especially after Reddit users on the popular forum WallStreetBets called for members to snap up the precious metal. Precious metals dealers JM Bullion, Apmex, SD Bullion and Money Market marked “physical coin shortages” on their trading platforms this weekend.

JM Bullion, a major bullion dealer, wrote that due to increased demand, there will be a 5 to 10 day shipping delay “from clearing payments”.

Apmex wrote, “Due to the unprecedented demand for physical silver products, we are unable to accept any new orders until the market opens on Sunday evening.” The silver market opens at 6 p.m. EST on Sunday.

Next was SDBullion, which also said on Sunday that it could not fulfill any additional orders until the market opened Sunday evening. sdbullion CEO Tyler Wall wrote on its website, “In the 24 hours after the market closed on Friday, SD Bullion sold almost as many silver ounces Almost 10 times the number of silver (ounces) we would normally sell throughout the weekend before the market opens on Sunday.”

MoneyMetals had a similar warning. The company said, “Due to the extremely high volume of trading over the weekend, we are unable to accept any new orders until the global market opens on Sunday evening.”

A number of popular 1-ounce silver coins are out of stock on all four of these sites and others.

The financial expert noted, “In a normal market, if we sell more than the number of ounces predicted to be sold over the weekend, we can usually find at least one supplier/source willing to sell some ounces over the weekend. However, everyone we have talked to is afraid of a gap at the open on Sunday.”

“Going into Friday’s close, the inventory left at suppliers/silver mills was very low. …… We sold more in January this year than any month last year.”

In a sign that the silver market is now also poised to meet GameStop-style trading, it is understood that last week’s trading retail investors were coordinating a rally to buy silver on the social forum WallStreetBets, 4chan’s biz board, Twitter and other sites.

In a high-ticket post on WallStreetBets, one user wrote that they wanted to push the price of an ounce of silver from around $25 to $1,000 in what they called “the world’s biggest short squeeze. The post was later deleted by the group’s moderator.