One the most lingering question my Gold and Silver Buyer's Guide left readers with was "how do I sell?"

Mr. Cramer and I actually agree on gold's direction. But I want to emphasize the point: knowing why you're invested in a certain sector is at least as important as knowing which sector to invest in.

And it's my personal belief that Jim Cramer's over-the-top, made-for-TV investment analysis could be detrimental to someone who invests in gold on his advice.

His reasoning to buy gold now has almost nothing to do with gold's main trend. I'll quote Money News quoting him:

""Gold stocks peaked 30 days before gold peaked," Cramer said on CNBC, referring to gold's record high of $1,432.50 an ounce on Dec. 7.

"Now look at gold stocks going up, even though gold (itself) is doing nothing.""

Okay, I have several problems with Cramer's analysis.

The biggest one is that it's not...really true at all.

After my last article about my predictions for the price of silver I’ve received dozens of emails asking about buying precious metals in a variety of tax-sheltered accounts.

Most questions were about IRAs.

And while I AM NOT a tax accountant, or even a regular accountant, or even especially well versed in the labyrinthine intricacies of tax-law, I did some research, and I think I have a helpful answer.

But you might not like what you have to hear.

First - I advise you to speak to a tax attorney before making any big decisions regarding your IRA.

The first thing you need to know about adding gold or silver to your IRA is that not all IRA custodians are set up to do so.

The only way you can be a successful investor is to be a student of possibilities.

To that end, I’ve recently received some questions about silver that I’d like to share with you.

I’ll start with the most bullish question:

“How high do you speculate it will go and what time era? Also, can you recommend the Best Silver Dealer to Buy/Sell Silver to?”

Before I get into silver’s potential upside, I’ll answer the second question first. I recently put together a few articles on how I buy physical silver and gold.

You can read them (for free) by clicking the links below:

How to buy silver and gold Part I

How to buy silver and gold Part II

How to buy silver and gold Part III

Gold’s Bull Run began in 1999. There’s no question about it. Just take a look at this 13 year chart of gold prices:

So...it’s confusing for the esteemed editors of The Wall Street Journal to say that buying the metal in 2007 meant that you were “early to the gold trade.”

But this past weekend’s story in The Journal titled “A Gold Bull and His Prediction: $10,000 an Ounce” makes just such a claim about Shayne McGuire, a pension manager with $330 million worth of gold held in the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.

I've been on quite a tear writing about gold and silver of late. That's not because I think you should run out and buy them right now. In fact, I think you should wait.

Wait for what I believe will be a substantial correction, and therefore, a buying opportunity for physical gold and silver next month when Ben Bernanke announces his plans for Quantitative Easing.

I'd look for a 5-10% correction following his announcement as a great time to make some purchases.

In the meantime, there's a specific stock opportunity that's shaping up nicely.

On September 1, 2010 I urged you to buy shares of Freeport McMoran (NYSE: FCX) under $80 a share.

I've heard some people say that you should own 5% and sometimes 10% of your net worth in precious metals.

I wouldn't put such a hard and fast number on it - instead I'll give you a simple metric that will help you decide if you have the bare minimum of gold or silver that you might need in a worst-case-scenario.

After all, we're not buying gold and silver necessarily because we 100% believe that a currency crisis is inevitable, or that our dollars will be rendered worthless, no ifs ands or buts.

I buy gold and silver because of the increasing likelihood of that event, but I'm not absolutely certain that such an event will come to pass. If I was absolutely certain, then yes, I might transfer 70-80% of my net worth into gold, silver, durable goods and potable water.

Yesterday I talked about why, when and what precious metal bullion you should buy.

To recap, I believe that Bernanke's Federal Open Market Committee announcement on November 3^rd could present a buying opportunity for gold and silver.

Today, I'm going to briefly tell you how to make sure you're not getting ripped off - and I'll tell you the precious metal vendors I use myself as well as what you should do with your gold and silver once you take delivery.

The first and most important number you NEED to know before you buy a single ounce of gold or silver is what's known as the "spot price."

The spot price refers to the up-to-the minute price for gold or silver on world commodity markets.

You might see spot prices listed for the NYMEX or the London Commodity Exchange, but one is as good as another. There might be small differences, but nothing large enough for concern.

This potential selloff is good news for people like me - who have been dollar cost averaging into precious metals for years - but it also represents a solid buying opportunity for investors who have never bought any physical precious metals.

I'm looking at the FOMC announcement as another buying opportunity, and I urge you to do the same.

If you're interested in buying precious metals, but haven't ever felt comfortable buying from "mainstream" retailers that you see advertised on TV, hear about on the radio or get emails about, then today's letter is for you.

In this issue (and continued in tomorrow's) I will explain exactly how to buy precious metals, how to store them, as well as when, how and why to sell.

While I've been answering many of these questions in a piecemeal fashion throughout issues of the Resource Prospector, I thought I'd once and for all cobble the information together in one place.

Like anything, if you're just getting started in buying gold and silver it can be a somewhat daunting process.

That's because there are about as many different precious metal vendors as there are types of coins, and it can be a bit of a minefield if you don't know EXACTLY what you're looking for, how much you should be paying, and perhaps most importantly, why you're buying precious metals in the first place.

I recently received a question from reader David W. which seems to encapsulate just about every possible angle of this topic:

If you don’t yet own gold it’s not too late. As soon as possible, buy gold, whether it’s bullion, stocks or the State Street SPDR Gold ETF (NYSE: GLD) if you must.

Gold’s run is by no means over, and I can list dozens if not hundreds of reasons why gold should be a part of your portfolio – the biggest reason being that gold is the best way to insure against the planet-wide epidemic of weakening currencies.

Gold is exciting. It’s sexy. Gold’s stocks especially are fun to watch and study closely. Drilling results, assays and ore mineralization might sound boring to you, but trust me, it’s exciting to own a stock ahead of major findings.

So I could talk about gold all day, but right now another commodity in a less-exciting sector is bouncing off its lows. It’s an energy commodity that we have a lot of in North America – enough to last 100 years by some estimates. It’s cleaner than gasoline and coal, and it can be used as fuel in power plants as well as automobiles. And right now, I believe the trend has the potential to be at least as profitable as the bull market in gold.