So, as a new bullion investor, I think I was just sent through a crash course at HKU. I wanted to buy some junk silver, so I found my way to silvertowne and they seemed like the best deal as I could use a credit card without an extra cost AND they have free shipping. So I wanted to know what my cost per ounce was, which took me to this website U.S. Silver Dollar Melt Value Calculator. I elected to get 2 $20 Face Value bags so I put in 4 $10 face value bags. This told me my 2 bags combined would have a total of 30.938 ounces. At the time of purchase the total for both bags was $903.90 and lead me to believe I was a cost per ounce of $29.22. As per usual, upon receipt of my purchase I dug around a little bit more and found that the universally accepted weight per $1 FV is .715 which means my $40 FV bags only have 28.6 ounces making my cost per ounce $31.60/oz. The day I purchased these the spot price was $27.62/oz. So tell me, did I get ripped off, or does this seem like a reasonable price for junk given the spot price? $3.98 over spot seems like a hefty premium for junk, but then again I am new as I stated earlier. For perspectives sake, I calculated out my cost for the ASE's I bought 8 days earlier. I bought 2 tubes of 20 ASE's for $594.92 each and shipping is $15.95. This gives me an effective cost per ounce of $30.14 with 40 ounces of silver and the spot price that day was $26.90/oz so the premium for the ASEs was $3.24 which indicates to me even more what a rip off the junk silver was. Am doing my math right? This could very well be a somewhat expensive mistake I have made, but, at least it wont break the bank! Live and learn. **EDIT: Funny story, as soon as I posted this, I went back to that calculator website and saw this little guy at the bottom "*This calculator is only for use with 90% U.S. silver dollars minted from 1878-1935."** Lesson; read the fine print! Thanks ya'll! Pat
The problem was you went to the silver DOLLAR calculator and Silver Dollars have more silver in them than an equal amount of other silver coins. So 4 quarters has less silver than one silver dollar.
Well, there is a lesson in life called live and learn, and it appears you just lived in. To be fair, right now premiums on 90% are as high as I've seen them in 4 years at least. When dealers are offering spot +$2, it's going to cost you more, so you didn't get killed. Spot dropping to $23 didn't help you much either. Either way, if I were you I wouldn't fret it too much. Especially if you bought it to hold.
I'm not fretting, just laughing. This is my life story, I always learn the hard way! So what I'm seeing is the silver bars through silvertowne are a better value than the "junk" bags, is this inverse of the normal silver market? Also, where can you find junk silver at a $2 premium?
You probably could have bought for less, but you certainly didn't get ripped off. Everyone new to bullion starts learning the best places to buy different things and that's what you're doing. Enjoy your metal.
Even though it looks like a good time to buy from big sellers with the spot down, it's really a terrible time. They don't want to take a loss on their inventory, and right now that inventory is in the hole, so they won't offer good deals. Wait a few weeks until they have no choice but to sell, then buy.
Not only that, if you're gonna buy silver right now buy locally. I bet you could get a better deal than buying online. Just a thought.
Remember dear fellow, the thing that doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Been there and done that and you'll gettum next time tiger........
I agree... I have often found better deals at coin shows where a dealer is selling silver bullion rounds. I like buying locally anyway.
