I know, but it's so hard. Look around us? College kids are still going on spring break. People of a certain political party think this is a hoax. People typically of the other political party refuse to heed doctors' advise because they know better. There are a lot of stupid and selfish people all around us.
Selling bullion on a short term basis is not wise. I simply provided a basic example that could hopefully make sense to even the dullest tool in the shed.
There's an old saying that "you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar". Unfortunately, some people go on to rationalize that they can catch ALL the flies with manure.
Bullion dealers are not unethical. There is a thing called "replacement cost". If I sell silver at $13/oz., but it costs me $16/oz. to replace my inventory, then am I unethical to sell it for $18? No. Just the truth.
Its just messed me up I know I not as fluent as you all but.. these premiums got me frustrated.. I was buying rolls of quarters for 115.00 to 120.00... halves were more when silver was 16.00. now when silver dropped to 12 or whatever it is now.. the prices went straight up.. prices now since silver dropped Roosevelt Dimes (65 per roll) Mercury Dimes (75 per roll) Barber dimes 85.00 Washington Quarters (145 per roll) Franklin halves (157 per roll) Mixed halves (157 per roll) 10 oz prospector bar (210) SO THE DEALERS SHOULD BE HAPPY AS ALL GET OUT WHEN SILVER DROPS.. IF SILVER GOES UP THE PRICES DROPS CAUSE PREMIUNS ARE LOWER.. ALL THIS TIME I WANTEDS SILVER TO GO DOWN AND MAN I WAS TOTALLY OFF BASE THOUGHT I COULD AUCTUALLY BUY SILVER FOR 12.. VERY HARD LESSON BUSTED MY ENTHUSIAM OR HOW EVER U SPELL IT.
Yeah, I just had a look at recently completed BINs on eBay. People are still buying rolls of dimes for $75. I found one roll of 1964 Kennedy halves that went for a bit under $110 shipped, but everything else had gone for 12x-14x FV, or even more. If I were looking to buy, I'd look for Best Offer listings, make offers, and expect a lot of rejections. It may take a good long while before people give up and start letting stuff go closer to spot.
I was going to write a long dissertation on "The Law Of Supply And Demand" here, but I decided it was not worth the trouble. Classics Illustrated version, for a market such as Precious Metals where previously sold goods are welcome so long as not damaged: Within an equilibrium range market, the amount of product being offered by producers (mines) plus the amount of product being sold back into the market by previous buyers (private citizens) is approximately equal to the amount of product being purchased by industrial users (jewelers, catalytic converter makers, Kodak back when cameras created images on silver-backed film) plus the amount of product being purchased by private citizens. Result: reasonable premiums taken or charged by middlemen. Within a bull market (prices up substantially) some to many to all buyers stop buying, but sellers try to dump on middlemen. Result: super low to negative premiums. Within a bear market (prices down substantially) some to many to all sellers stop selling, but buyers try to take advantage of low prices to buy. Result: middlemen cannot get product unless they pay reluctant sellers huge premiums to sell their product. These huge premiums must then be passed on to anxious buyers. Saw all three markets while working in Chicago coin shops. You cannot pretend the current market is not the current market.
Actually, I don't....unless it's because this is a temporary short-term issue of not being able to produce ingots and/or coins at any price because of non-supply/demand things like the virus (in the past, I think shortage of blanks might have led to a similar situation).
No matter what spot is there will always be a premium unless spot has included that in which case buying and selling will always be below spot. The mints generally sell to very few people in large locked prices to make money, the distributors do it to make money, so do the end commercial sellers. Spot could be 1 dollar and theyd all want a profit or 50 and same thing. Basically we either have a premium over spot or spot is the premium and buying and selling goes under it.
But as I understand it right now, the premiums are abnormally high because of non-market forces (i.e., The Virus). You can't even get raw/bullion gold or silver at the quoted spot price. LCS's are shut....monthly coin shows (and bigger regional/national ones) are shut or will be shut....basically, you have only online auction sites like Ebay and HA. I've been to shows in recent months where you could buy ASE's at spot, sometimes a shade below or above. No proofs, no slabs.
Many of the sellers like to hold their prices when spot goes down, same thing happened after the last spike. Obviously holding previous prices or trying to market it for higher prices increases the premiums, then they average out again when they can't sell there anymore. If you look at it in the past when premiums are skyrocketing thats when you run from physical bullion