I bought a bunch of Morgans and peace coins during the silver boom 6 months ago. They were all junk coins so I flipped them in the end around the $45 an ounce range. Im looking to get back into morgans again, as well as peace and other older coins. I see craigslist is almost burned out, or at least over saturated with buyers. I found it best for purchasing on the cheap! Where do you guys get your coins now for 'reasonable' prices. Pawns seem out of the questions (the ones that do sell) because they want over value and buy way under. What's the most affordable way?
It's a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Everyone seems to be on the band wagon now and searching for silver. Most of the dealers in my area went from coin dealers to bullion dealers overnight and are advertising heavily that they are purchasing silver. I got lucky and bought a whack of silver from an estate sale that I appraised a year ago when silver was at just over $20 an ounce. The seller sold it to me at that original quote. Other than that, I've only found a few silver coins here and there in coin rolls or pocket change. There's a lot more competition than there was even six months ago.
^ I'd rather buy from Apmex if I was into bullion. They also sell Pre-1964 but they sell their own 1 Oz rounds for $.99 over spot on sale. I do want to get back into coin collecting but like you said, the competition is much tougher now. I started about a year back and it wasn't so bad, I was getting buyers and sellers just about every day and meeting them and even turning people back on emails from craigslist. I posted one recently and hardly any bites as most people are willing to offer top $ for morgans with little to no collector value in hopes of flipping when silver gets back up.
I just checked APMEX's website, right now I'd get charged $37.85 with credit card, 10 cents less if by check/money order. At providentmetals I can get the same 2012 ASE for $35.89. Of course, APMEX might have free shipping, they're just making it up in the cost of their coins being relatively higher. Every bullion site has it's pros and cons, most when you break it all down are almost charging the same amount or only a few dollars off from one another. It's really comparing minuscule differences for the most part.
Sorry I just had to do it. But seriously see if their is a coin shop around you. Some stores have very reasonable prices, one store I pass by at times had Morgans at $25 each. And they were not in bad condition either.
^I think there is one a few miles away. Guess I'll try it out sometime. I just haven't gone there because I've been to 2 different coin dealers and had bad experiences. One had the nerve to tell em he's holding his silver for retirement... so what the **** are you selling? Wheat Pennies? Silver was around $44 then, and I suppose it's a good thing I never bought. He's probably pretty upset right now because I doubt he dumped for just $6 more, he seemed pretty optimistic it was going to skyrocket from there. As far as Apmex - It's the first one I ran into and they did very well with my orders so far. Like you said, miniscule differences, so stick with what I know. It's a $1 less though if you wire.
Ok, I just checked with one of the coin stores I go to which usually gives good prices. They were asking $34 for an average Morgan and Peace. At that time I think they said silver price was around $34 and might go up more.
Average? I think they're feeding you some horse you know what there. I know I'm a rookie, but what does price of silver have to do with value of an 'average' morgan/peace. I thought Numismatic and intrinsic were two different things. Understandably, silver could go up driving the intrinsic value higher than the numismatic. Still, if a 'dealer' would tell me the price of a Morgan based on the silver price I'd turn my back. Guarantee you if the price of silver dropped to $20 he'd say "these coins are getting rare and are worth more than silver" and still mark it for $30. This is why I stay out of coin dealer and coin stores.
The value of the silver in the coin is the minimum value a common, average, worn coin has. Coins worth the metal value have no additional numismatic value (extra value to coin collectors) over the silver price.
When a coin is in low grade and is not a key date. Dealers will sell them accordingly to PM prices. If a dealer is charging you a lot more for these coins then you're getting ripped off.
For truly junk morgans or peace dollars spot is roughly $25 rounded up, so for common stuff I wouldn't pay more than $28-30. A ten dollar premium for a coin valued solely for silver value seems way to high.
^ Thats what I was thinking too. I understand a markup but with the current price that's a $10+ silver spot markup.
