I have the opportunity to purchase a MS 69 2008 American silver eagle for $40. Is this a fair deal? The red book says $43 but how much are these going for in the real world? I checked ebay but I'm curious about what they are going for in other places.
$20 seems a little low to me. I would expect to spend about 3 dollars over spot for a BU raw coin. Most every new ASE out of mint packaging will grade MS67-MS70 with a few exceptions. I guess my question would be, why do you want graded, modern bullion? I would never pay that much of a premium for bullion. With that same $40, you could almost get 2 ASEs in near gem condition.
If you were going to buy a 2008 ASE for $23-$24, then send it in and spend $30 on having it graded, then $40 seems like a good deal to me.
In my area, from various dealers I've recently been paying $3 over spot on raw ASE's, and $25 for NGC MS-69 graded ones (mainly because they're easier to store in those holders). $40 is TV coin show pricing.
Hmmmm - the vast majority of ASE's are MS69 to begin with. Spot is around $15, so you can easily buy raw ASE's for less than $20. Having the coin in the TPG plastic doesn't make it an MS69, it was an MS69 long before it was ever sent to the TPG. But as you say, I don't know what I am talking about.
No you're right, I messed up. Instead of $20 I should have said $25. The reason I messed up is because I was thinking of the amount of silver in a silver dollar - about $15 worth - not a full ounce that an ASE has. Mea culpa.
I ended up buying an ungraded 2013 silver eagle for $26. Hopefully it will be a nice one. Thanks for the advice.
