I went to my six favorite coin pick up places this weekend. To my surprise no one had any silver eagles. One of the fellows that I have become good friends with told me his suppliers are charging him 19x and said they have him on back order. I try to pick up four or five silver eagles every two weeks. I have all these guys putting me on a call list for when they get more inventory. Is everyone else seeing this same thing locally? Thanks Biged
ASE's are out of stock here too, and I don't think it's just a matter of not wanting to sell because they still have Maples and generics for sale. Provident was pretty much out of stock on ASE's this morning, except for the key and semi key dates that sell for a premium.
I was confused about this because a week ago I bought 4 ASE for $30.00 each from this guy. I believe he has ASE in stock and pulled them because he paid a higher price. I could be wrong but he had about a 100 ASE when I bought those last week.
When I buy ASE's at my LCS, I usually buy a roll. Anything more than that, I buy online. But I have seen people buy 100 ASE in a single purchase at my LCS. Given what's going on with silver between Friday and today, I wouldn't think those 100 would last very long.
At a show yesterday, I listened to a number of dealers talking and trying to deal over their cell phones in the lounge area. Basically, the larger ones had plenty of ASE ro sell , but their asking prices were over $30 and they weren't backing off. Some did have 1 oz silver pandas for $40 and they sold well to the surprisingly large % of asian buyers, who were also interested in US numismatic valued coins, even though they were using 2014 redbooks as their pricing guide ( as were most dealers). Overall Feeling. Silver and Gold were selling well, but the bullion was staying in the dealers cases unless the premium was well over The Old Normal. New people were entering the coin game. The Dealers still spout the "Manipulation!!! mantra" while hiding their bullion until a better time. The largest bullion deals talked among them was (7) 1/4 ounce AGE, and a roll of 1922 Peace dollars at $800. The dealers privately seem to feel that the PM will be back sooner than JPM talks, and that they were surviving well on coins without the bullion bonus, hunkered down. One theory was that if there was any manipulation it was primarily by the larger bullion dealers to limit their losses, but as with all 'conspiracy theories' there is no strong facts.
This morning my local shop was charging $31 each or $30 by the roll. He admitted the premium was steep, but was unwilling to take a large loss. He said he would rather wait things out and see what happens.
