I went to the Arcadia, CA coin show yesterday. Picked up a few Barber Dimes, several Barber Quarters and several Standing Liberty Quarters. Putting together year sets of each series. Completed the Barber Quarters, but still missing 2 dimes and quite a few Standing Liberty Quarters (just started in on this series). Well attended show - busiest I've seen since I started going to the show some 15 or so years. There were so many tables set up that some had to be setup in the lobby of the auditorium at the Masonic Lodge. If they want the show to grow, they're going to need a bigger venue. Dealers were buying silver at almost 100% melt for small items like spare/cull silver dimes and quarters. THE POINT OF THIS THREAD I noticed something new (to me at least). The dealers are now pricing the run of the mill G thru VF boxes/bins of coins as "melt value + specific dollar amount". Each coin has a specific +$x amount written on the back of the 2x2. Then there is a display card showing the melt value for each denomination. It used to be that they just had the asking price written on the 2x2.Now I guess melt value has become a huge percentage of the value of the coin and the numismatic value is relegated to a fixed dollar amount. Anyone else seeing this trend? Has it always been this way at the shows you've been too or is this also new to you?
I have seen that for Silver Eagles and other bullion but don't recall seeing it for pre-64 Silver. It does seem like a newer thing based on the melt prices being more volatile for the last year.
Interesting development, advertising their SELL premium to melt. I haven't seen this before. Were they advertising BUY prices relative to melt as well?
I don't recall ever seeing this before. Seems like a good idea, a lot less repricing for dealers on lower end coins when the silver value is more than the numismatic value. I think this might catch on. In some ways it also seems more transparent for the buyers.
Your question/comment made me realize a mistake in my wording. I said they had "...display card showing the melt value for each denomination..." when in reality they called it the "bullion value" not "melt value". So I guess they had some leeway in terms of setting their "bullion" value to whatever percentage of "melt" they felt they could get away with. Although we coin buyers pretty much know what melt is when we walk in the door! Yes, there was one (at least) dealer who had a display card showing his buy price. It seemed really close to melt, yet when I offered to sell him 55 cents worth of 90%, he still went to his calculator to figure a price (which he didn't say what it was, but I know the display card said something around $25), then slashed it to $20. I really wanted to leave the show and did not have the energy to tell him off, but I'll remember next time to boycott the asshole. I assume that's how they been setting prices all along, but I was never sure. So if my assumption is correct, that makes it very transparent. And simpler to understand how poor of an investment each coin is!
