Thoughts on eBay bullion

Hi All,

I'm not sure how many of you visit eBay often, but I've noticed that every time I click on "Daily Deals" there are bullion listings. Sometimes there are even bullion listings shown on the front page! Usually the listings contain very reasonable prices from reputable dealers.

I was very happy to see that eBay teamed up with the Perth Mint to create a 1oz gold bar. That must prove eBay provides a large market for bullion buyers. Perth and eBay coming together is great news in that it increases access and exposure to the common folk/retail investor. Maybe, this may attract people into the hobby by reducing barriers to those who may have otherwise never thought about purchasing physical bullion. Obviously one downside would be that this could reduce sales at LCS. However, if the overall market grows for physical bullion, this could actually help local shops even if their individual market share falls. I would love to hear all of you thoughts.

Thanks.
Tyler

 

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I haven't seen a lot of people interested in bullion later get interested in numismatics. It's always been the other way around.

 

I agree that interest in coins is quite different from interest in bullion, although related.

I think a barrier to people purchasing bullion is the cost. Not many people want to fork out $1300 - 1400+ for a coin. Maybe there should be some better options for less than 1 oz.

 

From my experience with those listings that are priced usually higher then what I can find if I take 5 mins to go do some searching. This is where I find my EBay bucks deals from as well. Mine appear usually right after the coin advertising.

 

It may not be a ton but a percentage do. Some is always better than none. The metal run up a few years ago brought some new blood to numismatics

 

The front page is populated with things ebay thinks you want to see. This will differ from person to person. Ebay tracks what you search for. Other tracking services also follow what you do so more targeted ads can be shown to you. You can install browser extensions that will show you just how many services are tracking your activity at any given moment.

 

My wife and I started with bullion. Once the silver bug bit us, we fell in love with coins as well.

 

You must be happy it wasn't gold first. Just imagine how expensive your fillings in your mouth could be.