priorities in buying 90% silver cons

I bought 3 silver dollars at $27 each the other day. Not usually what I go for, but my LCS was out of other 90% and I wanted to pick up something. I remembered that for a long time, it was hard to get any silver dollar under $30. The melt value that day was about $22.50 each, so I paid almost 20% over melt (2 1921 Morgans and 1 Peace, all about EF)
Now I can say I have a few Silver Dollars, but I am not eager to get more, unless I find a better deal somehow.

 

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I just traded all my Morgans for 90% silver. I traded the Morgans for $29(silver was $29.04 an ounce at the time) to the dealer and received 90% at melt. In the future, it will be common for 90% silver to sell at a premium.

 

Tyler, you did very well. I would be glad to get a similar amount when selling silver dollars. Congrats

 

You can! If you don't have a dealer like mine, sell them to providentmetals. They may even give you more than I received depending on the condition.

 

Keep in mind that a silver dollar contains nearly 7% more silver than four silver quarters.

 

I need a little guidance here. I just went to my lcs and priced one 90% silver washington quarter. The price they gave me was $5.89. I intended to buy $50 face and that was not enough to get any slight break on the price. Fine.

A washington quarter weighs about 6.25 grams, 90% of that is 5.625 grams of silver. There are 31.1 grams in a troy ounce, and with my math I would need 5.53 washington quarters to equal one troy ounce of silver. (31.1/5.625) 5.53 washington quarters at their store would be $32.57. Spot is about $28 so that ounce of silver is approximately $4.57 over spot or about 16%.

Where did I go wrong in my math?

Interestingly enough I then asked for the price of a silver eagle... $4 over spot. I asked how much over spot if I bought 40 and she quickly almost laughed and said no break for that small of purchase. The price she quoted me 3 weeks ago for 20 silver eagles was $3.50 over spot.

I need help with my math and perhaps to see what others are paying locally for the same coins. Thank you all in advance.

 

Too much over spot imo - http://www.coinflation.com/coins/1932-1964-Silver-Washington-Quarter-Value.html

That works out to $23.56x face. I wouldn't pay over 21x face at current spot. Maybe 22x if I really wanted it but I just sold all my 90% a week ago at 21.24x face when spot was about $28.80/oz.

 

Try coinflation.com. Its easier, and there they will give you the exact calculation per coin of ASW. Today it appears a quarter only has $5.05 worth of silver in it, so they seem VERY high. I am suspecting you math is not wrong.

Edit: Dang, Fozzy beat me to it. Btw, I would not ever pay over spot for circulated junk coins. Coinflation says 20.2x face, that would be around my limit, (meaning 20.5 or maybe 21 would be it). Smelters pay a pretty decent discount to spot, and weigh the coins, so if a dealer can sell to you by the coin at spot he is making a much better profit than a smelter would give him.

 

Find a new lcs. There is a store near me that charges $6 over spot for eagles. They also rip people when buying. I never understood this business method. I would rather deal in quantity and pay fair prices. I have since found a new dealer who buys eagles at $2.50 over spot and sells at $3.50.

 

My former LCS's premiums would go up or down with the spot price. Seemed the higher the silver price the lower the premium and vice versa. Best bargain was when they sold "impaired" or what I thought of as circulated ASEs becasue they were only $1 or $1.50 over spot.

 

Thanks, everyone, for the prompt and expert feedback. I have an update to offer. I went to another branch of the same coin store (they have 2 or 3 stores) and they were selling 90% silver at .785XSpot. At the moment I was there spot was at $27.54 so that worked out to $21.61 face. That is a far cry from the $23.56 they were trying to get me to buy the day before... in spite of the 50 cent or so drop in silver. I think I'll chalk the difference up to a mistake by the clerk from the first store.

However, they had NONE available to purchase. There was a guy there buying all that the store had left... $2000 worth. The gentlemen working with me said perhaps they would be getting in more this afternoon. He also checked the silver eagle price and they not only raised the price of the Eagles by .50 ($4.50 over spot) but also changed the discount breakdown. 20-99 eagles they are spot plus $4 each up to 100. Over 100 eagles they are spot + $3.50. This is in Illinois.

Cheers

 

The Cyprus debacle spooked a lot of people, and the percentage did rise significantly. But SLV is down sharply AGAIN this morning (down 2.5% as I write this), so you have an unusual disconnect between the physical and paper markets.

There's also the possibility that percentages are up simply because the dealers' phones are ringing.

 

Be patient my friend, if you like it at $27, you will love it at $24.