Those "we buy gold" guys

What is a reasonable discount for those guys?
As I type this Ag is trading at 15.5 or or so making a pre 64 quarter worth about 2.80. I just called some guy and he bid me 2.00 per for about $300 worth, seemed a little low to me.

 

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Pretty low. Its should be at least $2.25 if not $2.50 per coin.

 

Yep, to low, probably wants make large profit margin , check around:kewl:

 

What about dimes (pre-1964).

So here is some math on dimes. A Rosevelt (15.5 x .10 = 1.55).

How would I figure the math on other dimes. A Mercury?

How about a Barber dime?

Also, does condition mean a lot when considering the price on junk silver (pre-1965)?

Thank you much.

 

why sell junk?

Why would you sell your junk silver at this time? It much be a money crunch, - that is something I could understand.

Are you thinking of selling for investment reasons? If so, you are among the first I have heard of. I think silver may go lower nearterm/shortterm, but not longterm. Do you have an opinion?

 

I am one of "those" guys. I own a bullion business.

My buy rate on 90% US coin is 95%.

http://marketharmony.net Look under the "Refining and Production"

 

Hey Sunflower, your math is a little off. To figure the exact amount of silver in a dime or any silver coin for that matter, the silver net weight must be determined. In this case, the net silver weight for silver Roosevelts, Mercs and Barbers as you mention is 0.07234oz, so you would take the value of silver ($15.50 in your example) 15.5 x 0.07234 = $1.12 per dime. I don't have this figure memorized as some may have, but I do use my trusty Red Book for these values. Also, this site will give you everything you need at a quick glance about silver and gold coin values...http://www.coininfo.com/

Next, you have to determine is there a numismatic value to the coin in addition to the silver value. For instance, a MS 1964 dime might be worth a buck or two more than a junk circulated 1964. This goes for any coin. Or a very worn 1916D merc is going to be worth more than a pristine unc 1916 merc.

Lastly, some dealers will try to tell you that circulated silver is worth less than unc silver because of wear and they are full of it. I was once a sucker and fell for this, but all the research I have done on this topic shows that although there is a loss of silver, it is negligible and should not overly affect the value of the coin.

 

Why not just go to coinflation.com ; or is there something bad about that site I don't know about? LoL.

 

web site lead

Jaceravone: Thank you for the web site info. I have bookmarked it. It will be helpful.

Regarding my math, thank you for addressing it. I intended to use 715 ounces per $1,000 face bag as a starting point. That seems to be the magic number my dealers have used as an estimate when selling me Junk bags. At least, that is what I seem to remember. (My memory is not the best).

I agree with your other comments, yet am not as knowledgable.

Thanks.

 

Be careful. Not all old Pre-1965 coins are "junk" silver. Barbers for one usually have a nice premium on them, unless they are worn completely flat. If you sold a Capped Bust half dollar for spot, you'd be a foul. If you have or are starting to get interested in those types of coins, I suggest getting the red and blue book. The price you are offered should be somewhere close to the blue book value, but should be a little more, as prices usually go up. Don't get taken, find out what they are worth before selling. More importantly, learn to grade. Even if you don't think you are good at it, we all started out somewhere learning.

 

Older silver definitely gets a premium - not sure it deserves it though..

When I would go through the "junk silver" at my local coin dealer in 2004/5, there would be a few Barbers (halves, quarters, dimes). Now, no WAY! In fact, about 85% of my Walking Liberty half collection is from junk silver purchases from 4-5 years ago.

Good luck today finding much of anything besides Roosies, Washingtons, Franklins and Kennedys in the junk silver bin. (maybe late date mercurys too).

If you're lucky enough to find earlier stuff at roughly spot, scoop it up all day long.

 

Jaceravone,

Could you elaborate on this a bit. I think as long as silver is less than $20 or $25 an ounce, it's probably true that a roll of silver dimes is a roll of silver dimes is a roll of silver dimes.

BUT (and I don't want to get anyone excited ), if silver gets to $50 and stays there, I suspect there will be dealers/pawn shops/processing facilities that will begin to weigh them because a roll of AG halves does not have the same amount of silver as a roll of UNC halves.

Like I said, at below $20, it probably doesn't matter. But there is probably a breakpoint silver price where actual weight of coins will affect how much you get.

Just my thoughs....

 

I personally will pay less for a LARGE amount of heavily circulated silver coins. In smaller amounts the loss is not enough to add up but anything over about $50 of mostly slicks I will discount. These have to be slicks. If you take a 10 coin pile of average circulated coins and set it next to a 10 coin pile of slicks it'll usually end up being 1-2 coin widths shorter. It's not often we see this many slicks... but from time to time.

 

It's just a good idea to get into the habit of doing your own calculations instead of relying on a website. You never know when you'll be offered something and not have immediate access to your computer crutch.

 

It would be interesting to weigh the slicks and see if the percentage loss in weight matches the percentage loss in height.

 

I have a really easy way to figure out the worth of "junk" 90% based on spot. It's based on the fact that $1000 face of 90% contains ~715 ounces of silver. So 715/1000= 1.4

Remember, 1.4 is the magic number. If spot is $15.70, say, divide the spot price by 1.4. That is the multiple of how much $1 face in silver is worth. So $15.70 divided by 1.4 = 11.2. So a dollar's worth of silver at spot is worth $11.20. Now, that is how much the actual melt value, or "retail," so I take a percentage of that--80% to 95%, depending on volume--to calculate what "wholesale" price I would pay based on spot. So I would pay from 9.5x face to 10.6 face for each $1 worth of 90%. If you multiply those back by 1.4, you get from $13.30 to $14.84 spot, my profit being the difference between that and retail. Play with it and it will become second nature. Works for me, anyway.

 

I would bet it would...

Maybe next time I get bored and it's slow around here I'll do that.

 

Exactly! All of the older junk silver is selling at a significant premium over spot at places like Apmex, not a discount. Go check out their prices for walking Liberties or Roosevelt dimes, the premiums go as high as 21% for the older stuff.

And as people here have pointed out, you want to check for any numismatic value also.

I love coinflation too, but you have to use the .715 figure that most dealers use, not the one on coinflation. This is my "Math for Dummies" method: I take face value of the coins * .715 * spot. Not the most elegant but certainly easy.

 

Thank you everyone for that magic (and easy) formula. I've been collecting for over twenty years. With all the stupid jokes, sayings, metric to standard conversions, and other useless information in my head, you'd think I would have memorized this one a long time ago.

 

I just bought Morgans that I put in a roll. The roll usually holds 20. I was able to put 23 in there. Weighing the coins, most were only .5 to 1 gram less. The average was about .7 grams. .7g X 20 coins is 14 grams. Not even one Morgan. While I was able to put 3 more in the tube. So, by no means is the weight lose equal to the height lose. Mostly, the high point on the coin are what rub down.

I like to think that $14 is the magic price for X10 face. This is what works for me.