I've been watching Ebay sales of Silver Eagles, and am wondering why there aren't many pre 2008 Silver Eagles being sold. It seems like the vast majority of ASE up for auction are the last 3 or so years. I don't remember it being like that before the recent uptick in spot prices. What am I missing? Is there a reason?
I would suspect that it has to do with the mintage's being much higher in the last few years with the upturn in gold and silver.
Since this is in the Bullion section, I'm take it that the OP means the regular Unc bullion ASEs and not Proof, Unc-W mintmark or any slabbed collectors versions. My thoughts about what you are seeing have to do with a serious increase of people buying silver and perhaps trying to flip them based on current market volatility, both dealers and individuals. I'm not saying they are doing well or not, just that there are more buyers focused on PMs right now, demand is way up and with that a lot of buyers with less knowledge may be biting at eBay offers, which tend to price pretty competitively. There may also be those who bought into PMs and are already financially in a place where they are forced to cash out, panic at seeing recent dips and sell after only a couple years or less holding their PMs. These sellers may have bought newer date ASEs in the last three years. Another reason, which is probably obvious, but the demand is so high that older ASEs have sold out and are being hoarded. Dealers have sold out of the older ASEs and they can't be had in quantity. Also, dealers tend to charge a higher premium for current year ASEs. The mintages on 2009 and 2010 ASEs are ginormous and readily available.
Nothing makes for selling panic like margin investing. You would think somebody would learn from history, but buying on margin leads to margin calls and magnifies losses leading to panic selling. Without margins, you can never lose all value. With margins, you can lose more than you invest for the hope of higher returns. We've been in a sideways market and that leads to risky investment behavior.
