You guys are a riot. Beginners. Especially whoever compared the metals runup to the dot-com bubble. The precious metals will always be worth something, that's why they're precious. It is an investment subject to risk like any other, but there's no total loss when you hold metals unless they get stolen or the world ends. Not true for stocks, which can become truly worthless.
However, there's no need to hold the physical metal to make money on the market moves. You can trade futures contracts with as little as 5-10% margin. That means you can control 100 oz of gold for 5-10% of its actual value, but if the price goes up and you sell, you collect the full difference on the 100 oz. If the price goes down, you can lose your shirt in a day; but that's where options and stop orders come in. Which brings us to Commodity Futures Trading 101, something it will take me way too long to teach on this site, but if you're really interested in making money in metals markets, you have a head for charts and graphs and numbers, and you have $2000 with which to open an option buyer's account, you can participate. You should google "futures trading" in conjunction with key words such as "course", "instruction", and/or "Larry Williams" if you want to learn. There is a lot to know but you def do not need to be a pro or be rich or have a license to be involved in these and other futures markets. (It does help to already be rich, but that applies to almost everything.)