Silver Eagle Price?

Yeah, my local coin shops charge about $3-$6 over spot, depending on what year. The local pawn shops, charges $10 over spot regardless of year. Even these premimiums are enough to deter me to buying other silver coins. I would never pay double for an eagle. Do some shopping, you should be able to pick one up for around $20 right now.

was in my LCS a week or so ago and they had ASE's for $22 when it was in the high 16's spot range so that does sound alittle on the high side. some of their gold coins were slightly over spot while some were WAY over spot. EX: I ended up getting a canadian commemorative half oz gold, for 625 (20 over spot) but their chinese panda and AGE halves were 725 (120) over spot. I have literally no idea where these prices came from. his krugrand 1 oz's were 75 over which didnt seem too too bad.

I had no idea the Mint practiced bias in their selling. Heck, that's enough to never buy an ASE again, just on principle. You'll never hear me recommend buying one again.

The best place I've found to get them is APMEX (spend over $100 for free shipping) and pay with a check. It takes forever to get though but paying with a check saves you a bit and you don't have to deal with a shady seller on ebay who might be selling counterfeit coins.

Dave, that is not the way it is at all. When the Silver Eagle program was first legislated. The goal was to first, deplete the U.S. precious metal stores, that were just sitting there doing nothing. But also to give the average citizen the opportunity to invest in precious metals and as a byproduct, avoid another Hunt Bros. situation.. To this end the program has been wildly successful.
Well "investment" implies a two way street. Not only the ability to buy, but the ability to liquidate when necessary. The assurance of this also had to be provide by the legislation. Hence the stringent requirements involved in becoming a U.S. Mint Authorized Purchaser.
http://www.usmint.gov/consumer/Silv...irements.pdf

You have to not only have the ability to widely sell, but must also show the long term ability to buy back under all market conditions. This is why APMEX, being the only major PM retailer on the list of 11 APs, always publishes a "buy back" price along with a sell price. This, rightly so, establishes a two way street of investing in silver and gold from the gov't. Otherwise the whole "everyman" PM investing market would collapse on a pile of fly by nighters, selling .... selling ....selling during the good times, and then disappearing durin the times that people want hedge their bets.

Where have you been? The selling to approved distributors is the way the ASE's have been done since 1986. The government wanted move the things in quantity to get rid of the silver stockpile, and they didn't want to have to deal with small orders from individuals ad run the risk of returns if the silver price changed. Not to mention the headache of constantly have price to the small collector changing all the time. But anyone can become an approved distributor, you just have to meet the qualifications. Something like 5 million in liquid assets (The mint wants to make sure you can pay), a certain amount of time having been in the market buying and selling PM, and agree to minimum orders of 50,000 oz of ASE's.

I agree with others that a average price for silver bullion
Eagles is about $4.00 over spot.

In my opinion the ASE/AGE program is one of the U.S. mints
most successful programs. They pretty much sell every ASE
they make.

No matter how the mint/government set up the selling of the ASE's, they are still a good buy.

Each state is different, so I can only use Florida as a
example.

In the local coins shops I go to, ASE are $4.00 over spot, unless you buy larger volume.

Most cases you have to buy a monster box to get the best
discount. (500 coins)

If you are selling, they will pay spot when you bring them back to sell.

The closest to ASE's are bars and rounds. They sell for $2.00 over spot.
But in Florida you have to pay tax on bullion if the sale is under $500.00. No tax on U.S. coins.
In this case ASE's are considered a U.S. coin.

When the LCS here buys rounds and bars from walk in customers they pay $1.50 to $2.00 under spot.

The buy/sell ends up being very close to the same price.

I think there is more confidence in the ASE's as far as quality silver.

I try to advise people to learn what coins buy and sell for, so they can decide what is the best deal for them is.

I agree ...

If they were only sold by the mint, as single coins or rolls.
The price would be much higher.

There would be much more overhead.

Adding 10 to 30 million more coins to sell through
the mint store ... sounds like a nightmare.

The government is not suppose to compete with private businesses. They could not sell to
large volume dealers at a lower price, then sell to the public at a different price, through the mint store.