Many people are looking for a way to protect their wealth in times of economic uncertainties. World inflation has grown to around 5 per cent meaning your wealth is being eroded each year if you continue to hold your assets as cash.

Buying a precious metal such as silver is one way to hedge your investment against inflation. Gold and silver are finite resources and as such, will always have an intrinsic value compared to paper currencies which are devalued by quantitative easing.

Buying silver on Ebay is an effective way to make an investment in the silver market. Ebay is useful due to its reputation system which allows previous buyers to rank a seller on their service. If an Ebay seller has had numerous previous customers all report positive feedback then you are unlikely to be scammed or receive poor service. In addition, all purchases made using PayPal are covered by their own payment protection system providing you extra assurance should you have a problem with the transaction.

Your guide to buying silver on Ebay:

1. Check the feedback
   Ideally you want to make a purchase from a seller who has a near 100% satisfaction rating from many previous customers. The more history they have and the more completed transactions the better. Avoid buying silver from a seller who has only sold a few items in the past year.
2. Know your prices
   The spot price of silver is value of one troy ounce of 99.9% pure silver at any given moment. Before you make a purchase online, take the time to check out the latest silver price.
3. Check the authenticity

Silver bullion can be purchased in the form of coins and bars with usual weights of 1, 10 and 100 troy ounces. Make sure they are stamped with a ‘.999 fine silver’ hallmark which means they contain 99.9% pure silver. This stamp is the industry standard.

4. Review the delivery options

Make sure any valuable purchase of silver is delivered using a secure postal system such as UPS or Fed-ex. Ideally the delivery should also be insured to minimise any potential loss on your part.