My usual bucket is British Coins and occasionally ancients. I have been presented with an opportunity to invest in a little gold, I have done some research and I am confused by what I have found. Coin on offer to me (private sale, face to face) is a Canada 1977 $100 1/2Oz 22K Gold Proof coin in box of issue and with certificate of authenticity. I checked Krause - mostly to check that this is a genuine coin as I know the prices there will be out of date. I checked Ebay and found this listing: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1977-Canada...in-Silver-Jubilee-In-Case-w-COA-/190916121700 which implies around USD 1100 for one, plus USD 24 for postage and another possible USD 240 for import. They imply 3 have already sold at this price. I googled farther afield and came up with this: http://www.apmex.com/product/12585/1977-canada-1-2-oz-proof-gold-100-jubilee-flowers a price of around USD 730 plus USD 50 postage and an uncertain import duty. Leaving aside the extras, why such a huge difference in price? What is a fair price to offer the guy? I calculate the gold value for it at about USD 660 at the moment. Do people really pay so much over the odds on Ebay?
I believe this was the first year of issue for a new commemorative set that the Royal Canadian Mint produced. It's The Jubilee Flowers Coin Set 22k 1/2 oz. The coin itself contains 19.66% of find gold and 8.34% of fine silver. Product Specifications Product ID: 12585 Year: 1977 Grade: Proof Grade Service: None Denomination: $100 Mint Mark: Not Shown Metal Content: 0.5 troy oz. Purity: .9167 Manufacturer: Royal Canadian Mint Thickness: 3.2 mm Diameter: 27 mm It currently sells for about $730.00 from several dealers. Hope this helps. You can do much better buying from dealers. You're basically looking to purchase a Commemorative Gold Coin verses gold bullion. There's going to be a difference in price. Best wishes.
Many have sold for under $700 on ebay. I would not pay over $700. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...salic=1&_sop=15&_dmd=1&_ipg=100&LH_Complete=1
eBay prices can vary more wildly and are often a lot higher. The reason for this is not that eBay buyers are insane. Rather that with certain listings (in coins as opposed to bullion categories, although for "bullion") eBay bucks rewards can give up to 10% back (10% with promotions, which I have received). Also on eBay, no penalty for using credit cards (untrue with APMEX, etc) which gives an extra few percentage points back. A lot of folks post about how ridiculous eBay buyers are for paying higher prices, but there is more to it than just the list price. Look in the gift cards category for another example of a game.
But as I just showed, most ebay actual sales prices are under $700. People can ask any price they want, but for a true value of an item, look at true auction sales history.
Thanks for all the feedback - certainly helps. I was not aware of the 10% reward kick back, although even with that, 730 + 10% is a long way short of 1100! With the ones that have sold cheaper on Ebay, I suspect that was before the recent hike in Gold prices. Still don't know what would be fair to offer him!
With your import duties you may want to calculate that as part of the purchase (and any other fees), as if you plan on selling it at any time you'll want to try and recover your total cost. Otherwise it's not a very wise "investment". You may want to buy gold/coins from sources that do not have import duties, even locally. At least until you get more experience and knowledge.
Yes - I have no intention of buying from any outside of UK dealers at present - for import duties and also security of postage reasons. I am only really considering buying this one from a local guy, face to face, as per OP.
To be clear it isn't always 10%. It's typically much lower, but eBay runs promotions and will send messages saying something of the sort, "2 days only, 10% eBay Bucks Rewards" or sometimes it's "This weekend only, 8% eBay Bucks". It's infrequent and irregular so it's hard to really know when they will be or when they were, but it is another variable when comes to looking at prices realized. As Jwitten said, look at all past auction results as opposed to what's currently for sale. After all, the ones you see for sale are the ones that haven't sold.
My honest opinion is I would not buy this coin unless I was getting it under melt. The commems are just not liquid enough for my taste. US, Mexico, Canada and others just don't have the market volume of regular bullion coins or soverigns and other coins.
I would not pay over $700 for the weight alone. having it a proof coin might have some thing to do with the higher price.
my 2016 Krause catalog says it's KM#119, it only comes in proof, mintage-180,396. PF-60 - $950.00 .917 gold. weight- 16.97 g. or 0.5002 oz. I still would not pay that price.
Thinking of getting into this myself, how volatile is the market for precious metals? Is it worth getting into if I can get a hold of some at a low price?
Although I am new into buying gold I have been attentive to gold and silver prices for a good many years due to my interest in coins. The answer is - prices are pretty volatile! I use this website - one of many around: http://goldprice.org/ If you adjust the options to your currency and preferred weighing system and then extend the graph period to 10years or so, you will see how much things have changed. In GBP Gold has gone from around 10 per gram ten years ago up to a peak of around 35 in 2012, It then dropped to around 25 for a few years and has recently jumped back up to around 32. Those are pretty big changes, and if you bought at the wrong time you may have seen a drop of nearly a third in your stock value at one stage. I view gold more as a long term hedge against inflation - particularly likely to be a problem in the UK in the short term. Don't expect to make a quick killing unless you are very lucky. Buying at less than current market value is, of course, an advantage and not as impossible as it sounds: there are many people at flea markets who don't know the value of what they are selling, but even then you can lose if there is a sudden drop...
here's 1995 to present gold http://www.kitco.com/scripts/hist_charts/yearly_graphs.plx and 1995 to present silver http://www.kitco.com/scripts/hist_charts/yearly_graphs.plx
