where is a reliable place to buy silver and palladium bullions?

I own silver. It is a major holding that I have in addition to gold. IMO the bast silver bullion to buy are the Canadian Maple Leaf coins. I like them for several reasons.

(1) They are 99.99% silver. The purest silver in the world. American Silver Eagles are only 99.90%

(2) They have a $5 Canadian face value on them. Also the highest face value silver bullion coin in the world

(3) The premiums are lower then the US Silver Eagles and they hold the premium value for trade in more so then any other bullion coin

(4) They look really nice

(5) They come in tubes of 25 instead of the standard tube of 20 for other coins.

(6) Canadian Silver Maple Leafs are low mintage compared to American Silver Eagles.

(7) They are affordable

As for the best place to obtain silver bullion coins I have found that Monex is the best place and offers the lowest prices. There is a catch to Monex though. They require a $5000 minimum pruchase for silver to get started and then thereafter you can buy the coins in 100 ounce lots. Keep in mind they also charge you 1.75% commission on the purchase and a $30 shipping charge for the first 100 ounces and $5 for each 100 ounces after that. So a first order with monex on silver will run you over $6100 on the first order.

If the Monex minimum is too much for you then I personally keep an eye on Ebay. The problem with attempting to buy silver or gold from local dealers is you are subjected to higher prices as they usually get their product second hand. Some do deal directly with the bullion banks but again they will charge more due to the fact that a local dealer doent do the volume that online bullion dealers do.

As for other metals, they have no history of being money or have been used as money anywhere in the world. I personally dont own other metals but think it may not be a bad idea to own a small amount of other metals other then silver and gold.

Also you need to understand that gold is not an investment. Gold is and acts more like an insurance policy. You are insuring that something in your portfolio can never go to $0.00. All paper assets have the ability to go to $0.00. Silver is also in the gold realm as well, so when talking about gold, silver is included.

Gold is money and a store of value. It is the "Currency of last resort" as Greenspan has stated many times through the years. Gold doesnt pay interest, dividends, doesnt restate earnings, has no lawyers, accountants, CEOs or CFOs lying to you on television. Gold doesnt ask for bailouts, doesnt go BK and cannot cook its books. Gold cant be debased or printed at the will of a company or governmetnt and holds its purchasing power.

Gold sits there as a store of value, is labor intensive, and a one ounce coin will not split into a bunch of half ounce coins at the direction of the pin striped bandits on Wall Street. Also Gold is the ONLY asset class in the last ten years to increase in value and retain every dollar of its purchasing power. This is also true for silver as well.

Here is a list of dealers.

Here there are good sites on business http://webfin3.notlong.com/2AAZ3hi