What price do you consider a good buy/sell price for "junk" silver?

What price do you consider a good buy/sell price for "junk" silver?

I tend to buy around 15/16 times face for 90% from my dealers. That leaves me enough room to make a little on ebay and keep anything that is better than junk silver. I buy a few hundred dollars worth at a time and search for anything good. For example, I'll keep mercury dimes, standing liberty quarters, or older washingtons and roosevelts. All dollar coins I keep, and of course barber coins. basically anything with different designs than current coins.

I also get good .999 rounds in the same fashion, but that's another story.

Its kind of like my upgraded version of coin roll hunting. More profitable too
Still time consuming, but it increases the value of my collection/stack much faster.

 

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On the way down, isn't it usually whatever you can get?

 

Not sure what you mean?

 

Just going on the title and selling mostly. When silver is on it's way down, as now, from $40+, junk silver especially, doesn't it sell for even below melt? Whatever you can get as silver prices come down ...?

 

Not at all. Junk Silver is selling pretty well over melt right now. I even sell 40% silver over melt.

Physical silver usually is selling at least 10% higher than the paper stock price.

Current melt value per $1 face value is 15.849. So that's about 16x FV. Junk silver is selling around $20 per $1FV, give or take depending on quantity and quality.

 

I'm just basing my conclusion on the many auctions that state "below melt" and sell for below melt. Seems to be a lot, right now. I'm sure you understand all this better than I, plus, you must have a good clientele base of people who pay over melt.

Here is an example... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Almost-3-fu...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

Ah, foreign coins are a different beast. I was talking about 90% silver. I saw a lot of canadian silvers in there, those are 80%. Some foreign coins have odd silver contents. For example, some silver canadian coins have 50% silver, like the dimes of 1967, but some of them have 80% silver and the same total weight! You cannot tell them apart without extensive measures.

I some foreign coins have 72% silver like pesos. Others in the 30s, sterling silver sometimes. It's a real mess trying to value foreign coins for melt, so typically those lots don't do well.

US 90% silver sells well, especially if the lot contains coins besides washington quarters, roosevelt dimes, and kennedy halves.

 

If you can hold.

 

Well it's over $22 this morning, so maybe 18x face is the new price?

 

For buying or selling?

 

That's for buying. I think you might still get it a little cheaper, but not much. As for selling, I would look at a blue book and get at least what it says in there for 2013.

I am only talking about dimes, quarters and half dollars, not silver dollars which have more silver and always command a higher price. I think around $30 is still a good price for a common silver dollar.

 

A lot of 90 percent silver carries a numismatic premium (e.g., Morgan dollars and Barber coins). A lot of foreign silver coins also carry significant premiums (e.g., Chinese and Japanese coins). If I had bought just Morgan dollars since I began stacking, my net worth would not have taken a beating when silver came down from its highs. As for the junk silver with no significant premium, it should generally carry less of a premium than, say, Silver Eagles.

I have said this and will say it again: though numismatic coins are generally less liquid than bullion, they are an even better hedge to downturns in the silver market. This year, most of my purchases have been of numismatic silver.

 

I got three fairly worn silver dollars for $55 yesterday. Two Morgans and a Peace. That works out to 18.33 x face value.

 

To me, there never is a set price. Of course, it always depends on the silver market. "Back in the day" you could buy everything save for silver dollars at melt, unless it was "better". "Better" back then included nice VF+ WL halves, barber, SL quarters, XF/AU mercs, etc. Anything less than that was true "junk" and you paid melt, and received 85-90% of melt when you sold.

I have noticed "junk" silver nowadays included some stuff that used to be "better" like barbers, but overall the price of junk has gone up versus the silver market. Usually the best deal I can find from a dealer is 1-2 times face over melt. I find it at melt occasionally. I wonder if we have truly started to finally "run out" of junk silver in peoples drawers, and most junk silver is now in the hands of coin dealers.

 

I think you might be on to something. The amount of "junk silver" has to be running out now. Roll searchers must be finding slim pickings by this time. Even common kinds of "junk silver" are hard to find nowadays. I can't think of a place locally to get any. There's still some on the internet, but the prices are up.
Here are bags of random 90% going for at least 18x face.
http://www.apmex.com/category/17/90-silver-generic-bags-ready-to-ship

 

I buy my silver at 17.5x as of today.

 

Morgans are at 22-25 ea

 

I only buy when it is under spot buy it cheap and stack it deep

 

I consider 40% junk halves at spot a good buy ... so long as I'm in the mood to buy and spot price seems ok to me.

 

do you guys have other hobby's? I buy silver off other hobby forums I am on or trade for it