Speaking of arbitrage a la Jason Hommel, I can't be the only one who has had this idea:

-Get a 0% balance transfer offer for 12 months from a credit card (despite what they say about the credit crisis I still get about 5 of these every week).

-Take $10,000 from the credit card, buy a mini-contract for delivery of 1,000 oz. from the COMEX.

-Send the silver to NWT Mint or elsewhere. Get 1,000 silver rounds made. Transaction costs = 10%.

-Sell 1,000 silver rounds on EBay for ~$3 above spot = $13,000.

-Pay off the credit card balance.

Total Transaction Costs = $1,000

Total Profit = $2,000

Lather, rinse, and repeat.

Why aren't more people doing this? If spot inreases from here (it can't go down much more), even better.

Hysteria