i'm not comfortable buying silver with such selling pressure. I shorted gold instead and I expect Gold to follow silver down. Especially as people move out of metals and into the index futures.
It appears debt destruction is overwhelming the desire for safety. I too was surprised by the move down in silver. Metals are in quite a tug-of-war right now.
Only decent place for any physical silver right now is Kitco's 1000 oz bar. Perhaps they are getting these from selling at the ETF but I don't know for sure.
I only trade silver in futures. It would seem to me that if you don't want leverage and only want to track the price of silver, you should just trade the SLV ETF. Tight spreads, no leverage, and it's a depository for silver. Why would you want the physical with all the hgher fees associated with it?