Ok, someone please educate me. Why would someone pay $30 to $60 an ounce for frational silver? I watch eBay and see people paying $2 or more even for gram pieces. For half ounces $15, really? Why not just buy silver dimes, quarters and halves? IMHO, and again please educate me otherwise, fractional silver is just a way for sliver hawkers to take advantage of sheep.
Maybe they are collecting it and just like the design or are chasing some low mintage in hopes of future appreciation. I agree that they are not worth the premium. Better to save up and get the ounce. TC
People over pay for just about everything on Ebay. I've bought half ounces round for $1.98 over spot per ounce from a retailer. (provident metals) I agree though that paying ridiculous premiums for fractional silver is not a wise investment choice.
Some people buy them with the belief that they are getting a good deal. You see such bidiots on FleaBay all the time. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised that if you polled these buyers, they probably buy from Coin Vault, too. Chris
And? Example: Spot is $20. You have a 2 pound steak your selling. Do you accept an offer of six 1/10th ounce .9999 rounds or two Franklin halves in excellent condition?
Because someone else will too when I want to sell it. I don't have a huge amount of fractional stuff, but I have a small collection of fractional Libertads. I doubt I'll have any issue at all getting what I spent on them back when I choose to sell them. Things are worth what people will pay for them. Now, if you're one of those sorts that believes any sort of premium on silver is stupid, and more ounces is always more better, then yes, fractionals are pointless.
I suppose it depends on how confident I am that I'll be spending/selling the halves in turn to someone who also recognizes their silver content. And, on how fixed I am for small 'denominations' of silver.
Good response. According to both my LCS's, the reason premiums on junk coinage has gone up is the doomsayers are buying them up. Based on that alone, I would think they have more confidence in the US minted coins than some random piece of metal we are assuming is real silver. food for thought So, based on the answers so far someone that is collecting may see a reason to pay very high premiums for fractional silver. Someone that is investing and otherwise protecting their wealth would not see any value in paying higher premiums. I would assume then that this also carries over to the self proclaimed "collectibles" like Silver Bullets, Zombie Bucks, etc... BTW, limited mintage in silver rounds/bars is meaningless in this case. At least for my purpose of discussing this in the bullion section. If I take a Morgan to my LCS they give me the value based on the collectibles market. If I bring them .9999 ingots there are very few "names" they pay a higher premium for, other than ASE's (US Mint), J&M, and a few other globally accepted producers.
I think it has more to do with the price. People probably aren't worried that they are paying 50% premium but maybe $15.00 is all they can afford to spend so they buy a 1/2oz. People pay $24-25 for ASE's which is about 20% premium. I think that's crazy too but some people can only afford one at a time.
