I havent been to a show in a couple months, but I have a show coming up in a couple weeks. I usually bring some 90% to sell, then I use that as my spending money for the show. Wondering if there are any more recent anecdotes on actual sale prices so I know what to expect.
PS: the buy / sell / trade forum here is dead as a doorknob last couple months so I cant use that for comps at all.
Silver Seeker on YouTube just did a video of calling coin shops and seeing what they were paying. It was brutal A great time to buy but a terrible time to sell!
Quote: Silver Seeker on YouTube just did a video of calling coin shops and seeing what they were paying. It was brutal
I found the link
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Guy called 10 shops and said he had silver dimes and quarters for sale. Of the 10 shops he called, the buy offers ranged from 30x - 48x which converts to $41.95 - $67.13 per oz. That's on a day when spot was $85/oz and NGC estimates about 63x.
When sliver was $77, I traded 10 1oz generic for $700 for a coin I wanted. I also sold him a rarer 10oz Engelhard bar for $800. I would not have sold it except I knew he wanted it for his collection and he treats me right.
I guess we are finding silver is not as liquid as we would have hoped.
Quote: When sliver was $77, I traded 10 1oz generic for $700 for a coin I wanted. I also sold him a rarer 10oz Engelhard bar for $800. I would not have sold it except I knew he wanted it for his collection and he treats me right.
Well done!
Quote: I guess we are finding silver is not as liquid as we would have hoped.
The LCS has to make a meaningful profit, and they must have buyers for the product. Even ebay takes 13% off the top, plus shipping and local taxes. Middle men also take risks like rapid price fluctuations and counterfeits. A 25% buffer seems pretty reasonable.
They can't have it both ways but they do which I find very frustrating. They need their customers to stay in business but yet they are low balling to protect themselves which everyone understands but what about the customer? How are they protected? Why should we be stripped back 25% of spot when the dealer will turn around and sell it for over spot? It just seems like a one-way street. So it's OK for me to take potentially thousands of dollars less than what it's worth? I just wish enough people would say "no-deal" and let them suffer the consequences of only looking out for themselves. Dealers seem to be forgetting who is buttering their bread. I understand we are in a unique time but it needs to be a win-win situation, and it's not!
Quote: The LCS has to make a meaningful profit, and they must have buyers for the product. Even e--bay takes 13% off the top, plus shipping and local taxes. Middle men also take risks like rapid price fluctuations and counterfeits. A 25% buffer seems pretty reasonable.
Yes and no.
For decades the spread was consistently 3-5%. Sell to a dealer or refinery for a few points under, they sell to the next guy a few points over. There was plenty to go around. Supply and demand were generally stable. There was little risk and quick turnaround. A dealer could make a nice living at those margins. In that world, a 25% buffer would be wildly underpriced, something a pawn shop might offer.
But that video @Kurrykid recommended shows the wide range is buy prices out there (25% - 50% under spot) today. That's not natural. That suggests that there is no market for silver in hand at full spot, that's just a number for Comex paper, and supply and demand are out of sync. There are two unlinked markets for silver in hand vs paper contracts (futures). So yes, 25% under is reasonable in this world.
PS: with the market volatility the last few months I'd take a 20% hit selling to another collector, but not to a dealer.
Today I called APMEX and Money Metals to determine what they will pay for $80 face value of 40% silver Kennedy half dollars. The offer from Money Metals ($1,335.20) is much better than the offer made by APMEX. Money Metals calculated this amount by discounting the current spot price of silver by $20(!) per ounce, and then using that figure for the amount of silver in 160 half dollars. The discount (26%) is larger than I anticipated: i.e., they are offering $8.35 for a coin with a melt value of $11.20.
Yeah, it's pretty brutal what they are offering nowadays. It's a strange time that we are in...a lot of discouraged stackers because of how we believed we could always get close to spot if we ever needed to sell. Lessons learned!
Quote: Today I called APMEX and Money Metals to determine what they will pay for $80 face value of 40% silver Kennedy half dollars.... The discount (26%) is larger than I anticipated: i.e., they are offering $8.35 for a coin with a melt value of $11.20.
I'm not surprised. Even 90% US silver is going under melt these days. 20% under is normal as discussed earlier in this thread.
Plus, those 40% Kennedys aren't really "silver", they're billon. Yah, they have silver, but it's relatively low so they're difficult and expensive to smelt. Thus, they're less desirable and carry a steeper discount especially to a bulk dealer. Same with WWII Nickels and lots of world coins like 20th century Scandinavian and Mexican coins.
Having said that, those rolls and bags of 40% Kennedys rarely end up in a smelter, they just trade back and forth like 90% silver. The steep discount with 40% is just a hedge in case the coins ever do get smelted.
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Posted 03/09/2026 4:05 pm
A great time to buy but a terrible time to sell!
