Have these historically held a larger premium based on limited survival as a type? A local shop has them for $540, which looks competitive. He said they are not jewelry grade, raw. I'm on the fence about giving them my business again. They have the atmosphere of "high end" pretentious shop; buzzes you in, disinterested/hurrying attitude. I understand they process individual $xx,xxx transactions daily, why would they want to keep someone working class as a customer for life. I almost felt hustled with my two gold purchases there. Paid for a 1/10 Mercury and as I'm inspecting it on the counter I notice red "toning" on the axe from small white piece of debris. He gave me a "deal with it that's why it was at an attractive price" (25% premium on modern gold, please..) I was asking him for toned gold the previous week so I got my wish I learned my lesson, inspect a coin fully before pointing at the case and putting money down "Sold!" I decided to take a leap and commit to my most expensive purchase ever, $10 Gold Indian. How acceptable is it to walk away from a dealers selection? I spent half as much on my car, why do I feel such pressure to buy? All because a dealer gave me the privilege to look through a requested selection of their inventory. I consistently buy lower priced material and wanted to prove myself as a more serious collector. I hate the discouraging cheapo remarks from dealers (I'll buy $20-$100 of coins a week, usually looking for world or junk.. I like type pieces) Ended up with a cleaned XF 1908 No Motto. Went down to Seattle the next day and saw BU $10 for $40 cheaper Now I look at all my gold coins with no original luster and have gone quite mad. I think this shop did some psychological conditioning on me. I found 1800 h10c, key date seated lib 25c, and bust Halves in their junk bin over two visits. 1863 cent even straight graded XF45. "Problem Coins" aren't worth their time, but for me it's exciting as hell to own better coins on a budget. I keep coming back... Do they really want to send me to the other shops in town? On the other end of the spectrum is a "we buy gold" place who sells pre33 close to melt. When he isn't tweaking, he's pleasent enough to do business with and talk coins. I do love the fact he was arrested for operating without a precious metals selling license (gold is in your business name!). That was fallout from him not holding & melting down a stolen golden domino that was on loan to the local museum from the Smithsonian!
$5 indians as far back as I can remember have never had a larger premium than the liberty heads as far as I remember. All $2.5s do, and the $10 indians do, but historically the $5 and $20 coins from 1907-1932 never really had premiums. Well, the St Gaudens USED to, until they stole the obverse image for AGE and ruined the premiums for those who held the original coin, same as with WL halves. Before ASE they used to be more in demand in high grade because of the beauty of the design.
I haven’t purchased any Indians in a while. I used to buy every one I saw. The gold market is just too wacky for me right now... So I honestly cannot say whether that was a fair price or not. I trade with two local dealers. One is a very low end guy that occasionally has some sweet deals. The other is a high end sort of guy. Both dealers have to buzz you in and in today’s climate, I really believe that is for the best. But that is where the similarities end. Either of my guys make you feel like you are sitting in his living room when I am in their shop. I will not abide a dealer that makes me feel that I am a bother or one that leaves me feeling manipulated. I am sorry you had that experience. That dealer does not want or need your business.
Could you elaborate on why the gold market is wacky? Is it high premiums or uncertainty about the price of gold? With all this money flooding into crypto and gold dropping, I'm questioning my approach in a larger gold purchase. Hell, 100%-200% increase in last two months on these damn "altcoins". Too bad I always sell too early, thinking it's a bubble. Downloads for coinbase app went from 300k monthly to 1 million in January. Every "coin" that was .05-.18 in November is now .20-.80 when will the madness end.
PM always goes up in times of economic uncertainty, as well as premiums dealers charge. Even market is not a good proxy for what it costs to buy physical since you have to know what happened to premiums during that timeframe. I believe he is referring to both market price level and premiums right now. I am in the same boat. I enjoy buying being a hoarder, but between higher market and higher premiums, sitting on my hands right now. Either it will shoot upwards in which I will entertain selling some, or it will calm down after it did post 2012 and market levels and premiums both drop and I can go about my business of hoarding little bits of shining metal. Most money I am dropping for coins right now are for collectible ancients, not any new bullion to the pile, (though I know they are two different purchase decisions anyway).
Bingo.... everyone is buying precious metals right now so dealers can charge a higher price. They know it will sell. I do all my buying when nobody else is buying.
Personally if at a coin show (which are suppose to start back up here this month) or a shop, if the person behind the counter can’t be bothered by me wanted to take a closer look at something I’m willing to give them money for, be it 50 bucks or several thousand dollars, I just walk away. Less frustration, besides if I did buy it every time I looked at it I would remember how I “inconvenienced” the guy to pay him.
I'm torn. My preferred shop in town has a 4.9 on Google reviews compared to aforementioned shop's 3.8 (I'm not the only one who picks up on the pretentiousness). But my primary shop has lesser quality and selection for the same price. They are right on par with ebay, and would never let semi key dates out the door without the highest acceptable bid possible. They have much more integrity, but they recently went from their silver bullion bar junk bin for +$1 spot, to itemizing their art bars to $40 & $50 bins. the ship has sailed on any "deals" to be found locally. It's a fine line between offering market prices based on eBay sold prices, and offering a relatively high priced item with almost no local demand. Ex: amark chunky 1oz bars +$1 at higher end shop, sold for $32-$35 at my preferred shop. They sell for about that on ebay. I guess they'd rather have a full display case.
Well.... I can’t answer to Google reviews or ratings. I can speak to business. When PM markets get hot as they are now, businessmen respond by being opportunistic. They have a much larger customer base right now. Last week my dealer buddy tried to twist my arm to sell him some of my silver. He has a high demand right now..... It just isn’t a good time for those of use that love to hoard silver & gold to buy. I am a loooong term holder. I been holding most of my gold since the 1990’s and have seen these market swings come and go. I will buy when the market quiets down again and dealers have too much on their hands. It will happen. It always does.
I will NEVER pressure someone to take my money. If a purveyor of any goods or services doesn't make me feel welcome and appreciative of my business, no matter how big or small my pending purchase is, I'm VERY ok bringing my business elsewhere. I am also willing to spend more doing so. There is virtually ALWAYS somewhere else to make my purchase. I say virtually only because there could be an instance someone is looking to purchase a top pop and can't go somewhere else to buy that offering. Notice I said 'someone is looking'. That's because I don't own any, nor do I expect to ever own any top pops. I'm much too old, experienced, humbled and cantankerous to allow someone to bully me into throwing my money at them. That dealer would be a hard pass for me. I have zero patience for obnoxious, self important, arrogant rectal sphincters. /Rant
Agree 100%, I may never buy gold again, but probably will - when and if it's below $1000 an ounce, preferably $800 or so, and I may still buy the occasional junk silver lot if it doesn't look too picked over and isn't out of line with current junk silver prices, but now is a good time, in my view to look for deals on early American copper and graded coins, I'm buying graded / slabbed SLQs, silver Halves, and silver dollars - and some world coins, I like the silver Crowns and silver 5-50 Franc coins.
I filled up my Dansco "Crowns of the World" album. I was so excited when I started. Now I've hit a wall. Now to buy another album or just upgrade the set I have. I somehow justified to myself two 7070 US type sets, found an new old stock one in a shop for $25. Incredible they're selling three times that amount on ebay. How can I justify keeping an album that's worth more than the fillers I put in it!
