Selling silver coins

[wayne_etc]

Hey folks,

With the current price of silver ($46 an ounce) I'm knocking around the idea of selling some of my common roosies and maybe mercs to finance another coil. I checked with one place in town and they were offering 18x face for dimes and quarters. The guy said the market price would have to significantly change for that face value price to change much.
I'm not sure that's a good deal. Has anyone else sold any coins this way? You getting better than 18x face? Maybe hold off and see how high the value of silver gets?


w

 

[Larry (IL)]

It sounds like he is ripping you off, silver has been selling well and right now it is 33X face here on the classifieds. Every classified posted in the last couple of weeks has sold... even bought some of it myself. Here is a melt value calculator to help you with the price: http://www.coinflation.com/coins/silver_coin_calculator.html

 

[MNCoinhunter]

Considering a silver dime's melt value is 33 X's face value, I would think that you can get a better deal with a private sale. With those numbers to go by you can decide what they are worth to YOU...and stick with it. There will always be someone who wants them...good luck !

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Uh, the mistake you're making is to go to a brick & mortar place. Their profit margin (ie.: cut of the pie being the middle-man) is to only pay out 60 or 70% of whatever the current market is. You know, they have to pay for those glass counters, the rent, the employee manning the counter, etc... Then they, in turn, are merely selling it off to refiners. Thus, you have merely sold to a middle-man. An exception might be a jeweler, who actually melts the gold down for his own use in jewelry.

But the best way to get closer to the actual melt value of the spot market, is to sell one the mail-in refiners, who work on large volumes margin, and are the end-buyer-refiner. Like Midwest or ARA.

Another option, if you're talking regular coins (that aren't mangled, surf-tumbled black, and misc. silver jewelry), is to sell to actual investors, who ....... simply want bag silver bulk coins. Ie.: people who are just wanting to buy coins, for coins-sake (people that like to put bags and bags of roosies, mercs, etc... in hiding, simply to speculate, invest, etc.... Because when you think of it, if they go to buy them from a store, or business, they CERTAINLY aren't going to be buying them for less than it works out for the actual silver content, right? (lest the seller simply be loosing money, because they were worth more melted down). So buyers of coins therefore, *at least* have to pay whatever the silver content is. Thus, if you sell to them, theoretically they should be happy with a margin as low as 2% or whatever (ie.: 98% of whatever that day's spot melt market is). Or even straight across to exact dollar amount, etc... The way to find those buyers, I guess would be through ebay or craigslist.

Here's a link to show what the silver content alone is (after refinement to take out the 10% alloys in the US coins). Keep in mind, there's cost involved for refiners to extract the pure silver, so about the most any of the on-line refiners pay, is 90, or perhaps 92% of the day's spot price. Scroll down to the second half of this page, and you'll see mercs, roosies, washingtons, etc...

http://www.coinflation.com/

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Nah, I wouldn't say ripping the fellow off. It's not uncommon for these pawn shops, coin-store, jewelry stores, etc... that have window advertisements "we buy gold and silver", to have markup margins like this (50 to 70%). That's just what they do, and it's their profit margin for having a store-front brick & mortar business. If someone's in a hurry, and doesn't want to wait for the mail, or simply doesn't shop around, there no "rip off" in that.

I mean, so too is beer 2x the amount if I buy it at mini-mart, verses Costco. But ..... you pay for the convenience, speed, laziness, etc...

 

[Dwayne2010]

I love this calculator! I have no way to back this, but I believe silver will hit $100 an ounce by years end. Call em a quack, but I should have bought back in January when it was $26 per ounce. I expect silver to hit 1000$ an ounce in 5 years and this maybe a stretch (Its just a random guess). Gold will hit $15000 an ounce in the next 5 years! Of course, our dollars will have to have become worthless ofr all of this to take place. But, the Chinese are snatching up gold and silver like our currencies are going to be dead by tomorrow.
I keep hearing folks say that when gold was 250$ an ounce that it would never ever get beyond $400. Well, those days are long past us now.

 

[Dwayne2010]

Check out this chart for historical Silver data for 2011
http://www.kitco.com/scripts/hist_charts/monthly_graphs.plx

 

[D&P-OR]

Well I think that 18X face is a rip off Wayne.-----Several days ago, my local coin shop offered me 25X face (even for small amounts of silver coins, dimes etc.) and that was when silver was a little lower than it is now.---I wasn't getting any special treatment, they would buy it for that amount from anybody right off the street.----I know you can get more than 25X face---but 18X face??--Huh uh, no way, you can do better than that!---------Del

 

[Nancy-IL]

What a rip off. He's out to make himself a mighty big profit. Don't do it. You can get a better deal on here in the classifieds. HH, Nancy

 

[Oak]

n/t

 

[itsaawgood]

Check on your local craigslist. There are usually quite a few people buying silver coins, and paying more then that. I myself ran a wanted ad for buying silver coins on my local CL area, I was paying 23X face back when silver was around $35/oz. Silver prices are just to high now so I pulled my ads. But like a said...Craigslist is a good place to look for people eager to buy silver coins.

 

[Prep1957]

I just went to one tonite he offered to pay me 8 dollars on ounce for my silver coins be careful out there this was in Ottawa,ILL.

 

[Dwayne2010]

I just went to one tonite he offered to pay me 8 dollars on ounce for my silver coins be careful out there this was in Ottawa,ILL.

I wonder if its not so much that people are trying to rip others off, or if its a case of people having no clue that silver has doubled in price per ounce since Feb 1, 2011. I am guess that its partly the latter. People just have no clue that silver is going up and up!

 

[JOHNMARKHAM]

interesting posts here, im holding off on selling my silver for now..
prices are supposed to go higher..
hh
john

 

[mike keller]

Im gonna try midwest refineries when silver hits 50.00 oz. mike

 

[JimGilmore]

If your trying to say that pawn shops are not theives with a set location...Try again...
Yes, They are buying from desperate people whom often have no means to find a better deal...
But they are in fact wolves in sheeps clothing.
And they are dealing with people whom are usually desperate.
Sure they have to pay the bills...But 50% profit is far from generous.
So I would not go to them ever...

 

[Dwayne2010]

If your trying to say that pawn shops are not theives with a set location...Try again...
Yes, They are buying from desperate people whom often have no means to find a better deal...
But they are in fact wolves in sheeps clothing.
And they are dealing with people whom are usually desperate.
Sure they have to pay the bills...But 50% profit is far from generous.
So I would not go to them ever...

Just playing the devils advocate here Jim. I have zero affiliation to any pawn shops nor have I had to sell anything to them. I wouldn't call pawn shops and owners thieves, so much as opportunistic and businesses. People have a choice to sell or not. The Pawn shop likely tells the person that they will give X dollars for their silver, take it or leave it. At that point, its a persons choice to sell, or leave and find other avenues to sell their silver. Theft is a strong word in my mind. It means taking, without consent or color of right, an others property.
Just saying is all.

 

[jackintexas]

I sold 10 silver rounds when silver was $43.00 a troy ounce to buy a used detector to my jewelry contact. I got $390.00 ($39.00 an ounce).....Jack

 

[jmaryt]

an" educated" consumer is the answer!
this cannot be "overstated",for obvious reasons!
"let the buyer beware!"

(h.h.!)
j.t.

 

[shoot3d]

I was a lurker on the boards for a long time before i took the plunge and picked up a new Whites TDI PRO.
Went to my local dealer to cement the choice of the TDI and when it came down to sealing the deal i asked him if he was interested in any trades????
I then pulled out 40 2007 Silver Eagles of the BU variety.
Well 1 TDI Pro
! razorback 5x10 folded 8 coil
1 set of nice headphones
1 carrying bag and half a dozen other various and sundry items later WE HAD A DEAL.
He stated he didn't do any trading.
Seems that owners of metal Detector shops have a soft place in there hearts for shiny things.
Who would have thunk....