So Kitco has a new minimum order for gold & silver bullion, two freaking thousand dollars!!!! what say you?
If they've got so much demand they're having trouble filling orders, it makes perfect sense for them to prioritize large orders, which provide more profit per unit of labor.
Wow!! I bought a few rolls of ASE’s at a time from them over the years but wow. But I reckon now it’s, “Go big or go home” time.
Another crazy dealer not to buy from. They only want the big boys buying from them, not us average Joes.
I don’t have all of the facts, but will point out one circumstance where such a policy would not only be justifiable, but makes sense. Considering the costs and risks a business incurs to operate competitively in the bullion industry, the lower one cuts its margins to remain competitive, the more the purchase price must be to compensate for those costs and risks. Obviously, KITCO spends much more than most of its competitors, if not all of them, in bringing informed commentary to he market. While most of its commentary does seem self-serving, it actually serves its competitors as well, and one must recognize this as a cost, especially if it influences decisions made by all bullion buyers, consciously or not.
Got an email the other day from a vendor stating on how they still had silver available for purchase, and further down they were offering $6.95 over spot for ASEs.
Yeah, I assumed that meant "BU, any date". Proofs and "key dates" would go higher. Here's a weird one: with the current price of silver $28.02, JM Bullion lists the 2018 BU ASE at $44 and change, buy-back price $29.22. They list random date BU ASEs at $38 -- and buy back at $32.52! Seems to me "seller's choice of dates" should always carry the lowest price. I wonder if they're just having trouble keeping their site updated.
I can tell you it's no piece of cake to do so, even when they have staff dedicated to that purpose. There's a lot of information that requires maintenance in the "Back office" of a good eCommerce website. I'm a lone ranger, and find it pretty taxing at times.
I can well imagine! From watching sites like JM Bullion and APMEX, I'm pretty sure they have their pages wired to update prices each time you load the page, using formulas based on current spot price. That isn't too tough to set up, and is a lot easier to maintain, but they obviously have to make sure they've got the formulas right. The results I quoted make me think they've got some formulas with problems.
It's only gonna get worse with minimum order requirements and higher premiums as silver becomes unattainable. To the Moon Alice
Maybe, but if their supply chain costs and spot bifurcate for some reason, they can get in trouble pretty fast if they link their updates to spot. My guess is it's a bit more complex than that. Still they may tie in to their wholesale sources via a portal in order to drive updates.
Big deviations between spot/ paper price and actual physical cost including premiums indicate silver is heading higher. I would imagine the difference will narrow and merge eventually at some point, but who knows lol. It's gotta be a logistical nightmare for these bullion dealers hedging their purchases in these times, especially with the supply disruptions.
I agree. The other day I picked up a "just back in stock" roll of XF/AU Walkers for $250. The culls were listed at $270, and were pictured right next to the XF/AUs on SD's website.
I've been checking regularly for these, as SD had the same price discrepancy a few months ago, but by the time I got the "in stock notification," they were gone. This time I saw them back in stock and ordered right away. About 2 minutes after I ordered, I received an email stating they were back in stock. Clicked the link again and they were gone.
Seems pretty normal to me. If my warehouse is too busy, we cut the small orders of just a few pallets to ensure the full trucks go out. Sorry, but just business.