It ain't about the silver!

This is the most bizarre thread. MintState if you ever open a coin shop please notify me, Edited~ I understand the sarcasm behind the statement, it is to the side you find yourself on, but again, it is a buy/sell trade offer which is not allowed in a post in this area.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

are you getting these high premiums from flea markets or an actual coin store? most washington quarters along with other 90% is sold at their melt value at that exact moment from basically every brick and mortar coin store i've been to. and silver dollars have almost always carried a premium for a couple dollars over spot because of their demand. how much of a premium on these things are you running into?

 

This is a weird thread. What's wrong with pricing something at least at the base value of its content metals? That's just common sense.

 

I can understand the OP's frustration though. I sure would hate having to buy all of my misc US and world silver coins at today's silver prices. In fact, I wouldn't, so I wouldn't own all of the crud I do. Heck, I even bought 15-20 or so ounces recently when it dropped down to $26 or so just because I was jonesing for a bulk silver fix. I wish it would drop back to $15 just so I would feel better about loading up on some world coins.

I feel your frustration OP, but its the nature of the beast. These silver coins ARE worth X on any given day as melt value, and a lot of people are just junk silver buyers and will pay it.

Have you thought about collecting base metal coins when prices get high? I switch over to something else if silver is too high for me at any particular point. Personally, I like old copper coins a lot too.

 

Silver coins these days are way over-priced and this over-pricing has adversely affected those who want to collect coins with a silver content not because they are necessarily silver but because they want to collect them as coins. I remember back in 2005 I could buy pre-1965 Roosevelt dimes for 30 cents each, Washington quarters for $1.50 each and WLH/Franklin halves for $3 each. I want these coins for their coin value, not their purported bullion value. I understand 110% where the OP is coming from. These coins should not be priced based off of some "spot value" in the daily newspaper. They should be sold at more of a fair and honest price to those who want to collect them because they are coins. I say leave the buying of silver coins to collectors and the buying of silver in the form of bullion bars, etc. to investors.

 

You know what really buggers my nuggets? When coin collectors jack up the price of silver bullion coins with their numismatic value hullaballoey. Nonsense! Intrinsic value is irrefutable, whereas numismatic value comes from some sort of twisted sentimental feeling in someone's head.

[/sarcasm]

(See, it works both ways. )

 

Is that a Peter Griffonism? Bugger your nuggets?????

 

Nope, that was just me trying to keep things G/PG.

 

I think I am in the camp of this is a wierd thread and I don't really understand it, but to the OP. Define your goal for your collecting, and then work a plan around that goal. If that means you don't buy coins made from PM's at this point in time, so be it. There are plenty of other coins out there. I find Buff Nickels especially nice.

Mike

 

I understand the frustration that the item you collect has gotten more expensive, but to say that the value of the silver content in a coin in somehow 'artificial' is just plain wrong. Blaubart has a point above - the 'artificial' argument can cut both ways. I think both arguments are invalid though. Some people collect for the coin, some people collect for the bullion. They can overlap, and frequently compete for the same items, but both collect for their own perfectly valid reasons.

 

Indeed, and the item usually goes to whomever is willing to pay the highest price...

The advantage I have as a bullion collector is that I can get around collector value by buying non-key dates, well circulated coins, or just straight up bullion coins. But collectors can't necessarily get around the intrinsic value of a coin that contains PM. I suppose the best way would be what Mike suggested above - Shift your priorities until the price of silver falls back down to a more reasonable level.

 

I think that there are plenty of people who start just wanting the bullion, then cross-over more into the collector side. If you had a Venn diagram, there would be two sides and the middle part which has probably been increasing lately. As for certain sellers hyping silver as an investment, that is going to continue whether you like it or not.

 

This is true. I've grown fond of my winged liberty dimes and walking liberty half dollars and I would have a hard time parting with them at this point.

 

I can't think of a single instance in history where a collector was able to purchase a coin without it's silver/gold content being at least the base price, so I'm not sure this is the OP's concern, foremost. However, with the bullion craze, not so much now as it was a few years back, it has made it difficult at best to secure common coins needed for one's collection not because of price, but because of hoarders. Coins that were once plentiful, such as common date Morgans and Peace dollars have all but disappeared for the collectors, at any price. If this is what the OP was referring to, I sympathize. It's frustrating to no end. But, i guess if not for the silver mongers out there, I would have never assembled the fine large copper and token collection I now have. In time the fad will wane and all those pieces of silver will once again flood the collecting community with coin.
Guy

 

It is about the tent pegs. Anyone else get a call form the NRA this week?

 

To the OP, if you want to collect coins with silver content and do not want to be affected by the swings in silver prices you need to start collecting high grade mint state coins. The value of a '32 S Washington in 65 is not affected one bit by the price of silver.

As you go down in circulated grades however the price of silver has to be taken into account. It will impact what you pay for collector coins. It's a fact of life, get used to it. I'd suggest that if you can't face this reality, perhaps collecting copper or nickel coins would make you a much happier collector.
Your complaints are like saying you're unhappy paying $3.87 a gallon for gas and why can't you local station sell it for $2.23 like a few years ago.

 

So what you are saying is that if someone purports to be a "collector", they should be able to buy for less than someone only wanting silver value? If so - and I mean no personal offense - this is beyond laughable.

Let me ask you this, sir... if you were to sell any of your coins, would you be okay with getting only someone else's idea of "collector value" even if this meant leaving a relatively substantial percentage on the table? Over the years I've often found it to be the case that the same people who complain about how much they have to pay for an item, just happen to be the same ones who want to squeeze out every last cent they can when selling.

 

Playing Devil's Advocate again:

Silver coins should be priced at their silver value, not the collector's value. If coin collectors want to collect coins, then let them collect cupro nickel coins. There are plenty of them out there.

Unfortunately, this isn't a perfect world for either coin or bullion collectors. There are coins that don't have PM content, and there are coins/bars that don't have collector's value, but if people are going to sell silver coins at a price that's closer to spot than I can buy ASE's for, then I'm going to buy them.

There is one way to get bullion collectors to stop interfering with your collecting: Price silver coins so they have a higher markup than bullion coins. Sure, you'll have to pay more to get what you want, but at least they'll be available for you.

Unfortunately (again), this isn't how a free market works...

I'm primarily a bullion collector, but I also like silver coins. I wouldn't be happy if my collection consisted of only ASE's, or ASE's and silver rounds. I like the fact that I have some silver coins that have some history behind them, and I'm willing to pay what the silver in them is worth to get them. So, if you want silver coins, you'll have to compete with me to buy them.

The inverse is probably also true. I don't suspect you or the OP collect silver coins for the sake of accumulating silver, but rather for the numismatic value. You probably wouldn't be happy if you limited yourself to cupro-nickel coins. If I want to buy silver coins that do have some numismatic value, then I'll have to compete with you to buy them.

Sounds fair to me...