Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dmccarty, post: 448834, member: 16058&quot;]<b>Straight Talk</b></p><p><br /></p><p>Hello All,</p><p>This is my first post here, though I have been reading around this forum - and other highly reputable forums for some time now. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I wanted to take a minute to address some of the valid, however mis-understood concerns you have in the following quotes: </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>A few weeks ago, I wrote on <a href="http://goldismoney.info/forums/showthread.php?t=313111&amp;highlight=APMEX" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://goldismoney.info/forums/showthread.php?t=313111&amp;highlight=APMEX" rel="nofollow">Gold Is Money</a> about this very subject. A writer for Motley Fool picked up on the post and is writing / has written an article for them explaining what is really happening.... So you guys aren&#039;t the only ones concerned about this.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Here is a brief synopsis of this post but you can read the <a href="http://goldismoney.info/forums/showthread.php?t=313111&amp;highlight=APMEX" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://goldismoney.info/forums/showthread.php?t=313111&amp;highlight=APMEX" rel="nofollow">original here</a>:</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>As many of you know, there is a HUGE disconnect between the paper and physical market - which is very apparent right now. The spot price is influenced more by the COMEX paper contracts than anything else. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>As the huge stock market companies (AIG, Bear Stearns, JP Morgan..anyone..) are desperately trying to raise capital, pretend that a recession isn&#039;t here or looming, and stay somewhat liquid - they sell off assets. Namely, tons of paper contracts, futures, shorts, etc., at firesale prices - this drives the spot price down.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Meanwhile, you have a glut of people (Drusus called them idiots) flooding the market trying to escape from the debacle the stock market has become - they are buying up physical metal in droves... which causes the mints (the US Mint in particular) to <a href="http://apmexdealer.blogspot.com/2008/10/us-mint-halts-gold-and-platinum.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://apmexdealer.blogspot.com/2008/10/us-mint-halts-gold-and-platinum.html" rel="nofollow">ration or even discontinue the production of investor coinage </a>causing further physical shortage.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Dealers, like APMEX are very much caught in the middle of this riff. On the one hand, we have investors like Drusus and Coleguy, who rightfully want to purchase investments and have done so for some time without much competition. (Drusus - if we could find Krugs, we&#039;d load up on them - no one has them, anywhere. If we did find them, they&#039;d last for minutes or at best hours and be snatched up in a heartbeat..keep reading)</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>On the other, we have the Distribution Wholesalers, who are asking us &quot;How much are you willing to pay&quot; when there are many other dealers that are out of product, with many customers trying to buy, creating insane competition and driving up cost.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Believe me, if we could even touch product for lower premiums, we would - but the market is extremely tight - so we are paying much higher premiums to the wholesalers than ever before. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>In fact, our profit percentage really hasn&#039;t moved much at all - though from your perspective, I can see why you&#039;d think it has. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><b>From the GIM Post:</b> &quot; As an example of this—recently <b><span style="color: #ff0000">APMEX</span></b> paid up to $5 over spot for 17,000 Silver American Eagles just so we would have something to offer. Within 24 Hrs of making those SAEs available online, they sold out at $6 over spot! We have been seeing this happen almost on a daily basis for the past two months. Last Friday in fact, our servers almost buckled as a result of all the orders being placed at the same time.&quot;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><b>KEY Take-Away to Notice here</b> - the sale price was $6 over (which people gladly paid since we completely sold out in less than 24 hrs) - of which we had $1 - the other $5 went the the Distributor --- so I ask you, who&#039;s gouging who??? This is the situation with just about all of our &quot;bread and butter&quot; products - take a look at the <a href="http://www.apmex.com/APMEXTop40/Default.aspx" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.apmex.com/APMEXTop40/Default.aspx" rel="nofollow">APMEX Top 40 Page</a> - the product just isn&#039;t available in the market right now...investors aren&#039;t selling (they&#039;re hoarding), mints aren&#039;t producing (they&#039;re rationing or discontinuing) and the Distributors are competing heavily. What product we do secure ( we are scouring our resources daily ) sells out literally in HOURS...what does that tell us about the market.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I understand your frustrations, I really do. Hopefully, this post will help everyone understand what is really happening, strange as it may be.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The folks at GIM understand. The people behind Motley Fool get it. I&#039;m sure that everyone here at CoinTalk can understand it too - especially when it is clearly and honestly addressed.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Thank you all for your support in the these very odd times. Who knows when business will resume in a &quot;normal&quot; capacity, but you can rest assured, we want it to normalize too...[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in