There always seems to be an issue when it comes to trading pm's. For the seller, they do not get paid top dollar. Most places only go up to 95% on gold, and maybe 80-90 on silver. For the buyer, can you buy silver for melt? It can be hard, with the premiums places charge such as 1.99 or 2.99 over spot. There are places online where you can sell things for free. No cost to list, and no cost once it sells. Places such as e-crater, or craigslist. I think it would be practical for something like this, but dedicated to bullion. Sellers could sell for melt, and the buyers can buy for melt. No more getting paid less, no more having to pay more.
It's a good idea in a perfect world. However, if a website like that was not policed, scams would run rampant. But, without charging any fees, there would be no one to police it.
Dream on, Detecto... Who runs the site? How does he make a buck? Who keeps the scum and scam-artists at bay? How are issues (there are ALWAYS issues) resolved? Me, I'll continue to buy an' sell where the waters are safer than a Chicago alley.
That's the first thing that popped to my mind....hasn't Tim suggested this before when he was looking for someone to develop the associated website for him?
Yea I'm sure you can go to Utopia and get all this set up for free and find people that will run it for you for free...
Rinse and repeat. You already came up with this brilliant idea months ago. You even wanted somebody to do free web designing. What happens if a deal goes bad and the owner is sued? Do you not remember this? Can a mod close this thread please?
You beat me to it! As for the Ambassador's rehashed save the world idea, it is just another scheme and dream to position himself as that big time player. Now, if there were just a few "[FONT=&]angel investors"[/FONT] willing to give him a chance...
Although it's not bullion specific...this has been done and is done on CraigsList. The problem is...with no fees there is no insurance. There are scams everywhere and you risk being robbed or who knows what else. When you deal with an actual bullion dealer...either as a buyer or a seller you must "pay a fee" in a sense for the insurance you get. You don't run the risk of being ripped off and you are working with a reputable person. This person has costs they must recover...that is why they only pay 90% of melt and sell for 105%. That's the industry. This 15% swing you see is not for nothing...it's for the insurance you get when dealing with a reputable source. I'd rather "pay" that 15% than run the risk of having BIG problems. The bottom line is...nothing worthwhile is when it comes to PMs or coins in general. These are accepted costs you must take into account when investing.
Your question is way too simple but requires a complex answer. CamaroDMD provided the first part, as most people buy and sell through a third party ("the middleman") who also requires a cut of the pie for his troubles, whether that's shop overhead, storage costs, shipping costs, the interest paid on the money sitting in the precious metals, or a little something for his work. As far as selling peer-to-peer (which I believe is what you actually propose) there are venues already mentioned that do allow you to do this. The big question is...who's willing to buy/sell at melt? Consider that most transactions, even from collector to collector, require three (that's 3) parties, unless somebody mines and refines it themselves. So there will always be a middle man somewhere in the transaction. Why are we buying PMs? Mostly for the speculation that it's cheap when we buy it and the price rises so we can sell at a profit. This is investing. The doomsday preppers stockpiling it for use when the world falls apart are not investing. And most of them are not willing to sell at any price. Consider buying at melt today, and then silver drops six or seven dollars an ounce. Are you, holding onto this, really willing to sell at melt and take a loss, or are you going to hold onto it, waiting for it to go back up?
For the most part, I agree. But there are those dealers out there who will sell an uninformed consumer $2000 worth of Kennedy halves for $8000. Or the dealers who will give a person $5 per Morgan/Peace Dollar if they can get away with it. But, even with the coin store that I know has recently paid $5 per Morgan/Peace Dollar, I can walk in there today with $638 in hand and walk out with 20 Silver Eagles that I know are genuine. I don't have to post an ad on craigslist, wait for someone to respond, set up a meeting with them, go to the place we're meeting, wait for them, make sure the bullion is authentic, and then make sure they aren't following me afterwords. That's at least two more things you're paying for when buying/selling through a dealer: Availability and convenience.
It's pretty simple. There is a buy sell thread on this website. You get a guy with a pawn or coin shop or something to sell his bullion at a small premium. A lot of people deal with him, then he gets a good reputation. There are no law suits, no need for policing, and it's not as complicated as some of these posts would suggest.
