Hello all,
As many have said already, it's a good time to add these pretty coins to your portfolio/stash. With Silver under $17 USD's, it's a steal IMO. One of the most undervalued assets at this time.
This is a weekly chart from ~2009, since hitting the peak in 2011, it looks to have completed a 5 year bear market, consolidated and is now slowly breaking back towards the upside. I may be biased, but with the loooooong consolidation, when it breaks (hopefully to the upside), it's going to go briskly. Short covering and hedge funds piling in should give it a good push.
I think purchasing these for X-mas or birthday gifts is a great idea, because the person that receives it will not only feel and see the value of the coin, but will be observing price appreciation over the next 5 maybe 10 years. You can get a sleeve of 20 and package them in their own plastic container for the gift.
With the crypto market on fire, I can see why some investors are shying away from the metals. With BTC, ETH and all of the other alt coins going parabolic, it's easy to see fast $$$ within weeks or a month. The metals market may get you 10-15% on an annual basis going forward. (With a few outlying years)
But we all do not purchase the physical metals for 100% year over year gains. They will always have inherent value and the look and feel of the metals is hard to explain to others that have never held or possessed a coin.
I'm anticipating a breakout year in 2018, the GDX and GDXJ should follow with higher yearly gains.