Since this is the "Newbie" forums I thought it might good to post my experience with trading BTC for real world Gold, Silver, and Copper. I have been bitcoin mining for about a month (2600+MHash/s) and really like the idea of exchanging BTC for real world products, I have found two sites other people on the forums have used and I have purchased items from both of them.
My first purchase was from coinabul.com. I ordered a 1oz Silver Bar (US Flag) from them on 3/13/12 and it finally shipped this weekend (3/31/12-4/1/12). I have yet to receive the item so I can not speak for the quality. I did contact Jon@coinabul and he was very prompt with a response. I was not happy with the time it took for the order to ship, but I am happy if finally did ship.
My second purchase was from BitCoinMint.us. I ordered a 1oz US Silver Dollar (minted in 2012) and four 1oz Copper Coins. I ordered this on 3/27/12 and received the items today (4/2/2012). The packaging was very not descriptive but the coins came in a padded envelope and were bubble wrapped themselves, and the seller also threw in a free 1gram silver coin for no charge. I had read in a forum post that if you contact him with multiple items you would like to buy at once he will give you a cut on shipping. I contacted the seller on 3/30/12 to find out if he would give me a break and he did. I have now ordered another 20 1oz copper coins from him using bitcoins and should hopefully receive these items shortly.
My recommendation if you are going to buy silver, gold, copper, etc. coins is to use bitcoinmint.us his website may not look like much, but his service is very fast and easy and he is very fast with his responses via email. Coinabul.com is not a bad service and
Jon@coinabul.com was very helpful and did respond promptly, so if you want something bitcoinmint.us does not carry (i.e. Silver bars), coinabul.com may be your better option.
I will defiantly be buying from both in the future.
Have a good one,
The 1911Moocher
