Anyone Else Noticing A Very Weak Physical Gold Market?

I'm not moving a lot of bullion these days. A year ago those bags of 90% were gone as fast as I could fill them.

I agree the average buyer is looking at the money to buy ONE ounce of Gold and is investing it in other coins. Such as Forty nice Morgans. Or fifty five nice Peace dollars.

Or in high grade coins. For instance for that much money you can get an MS63RB 1909S VDB in a PCGS slab. Perhaps on a good day an MS64BN. And unlike Gold or silver that 09sVDB is going to keep its value.

I also tend to think that "vein" of easy silver is gone. In other words the average person that is having a tough time and has heard about the price climb of silver and gold has already come in and sold.

Unlike most dealers I KNOW that the scrap silver business is not infinite. Most of my friends have their heads in the sand and really, honestly think that only about 10 percent of all the silver "out there" has been scrapped.

Whereas most industry estimates show that....very conservatively...about 70 percent of all US Silver Minted coins have already been scrapped. And about 15 percent are being "stacked".

I remember reading a while back that literally tons of silver art bars were scrapped back in the late '70's, right around the time of the great silver spike of that era. I imagine a lot of junk silver met with a similar fate, CW. Can't find any real numbers, though.

haha~


my local dealer is moving his gold just fine, as with the 2 national dealers I frequent. I myself have sold 3-4 oz just this month. That's not a whole lot by any means, but I had the same 3-4 oz listed for 2-3 months only to have them go within about a week of each other.

Folks are prospecting now they can't aford the prices !
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/peopl...0282065.html

It's paying off for some.
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/14107

"If buyers AND sellers are down-trending, then would it be correct to assume that both are HOLDING? "

Yes, I would say that is very true of me and my area,(Front Range Colorado). Most folks are working and house prices are coming down now, unless you want/need horse property. Most folks seem more interested in a boat, motorcycle, or an ATV than Gold or Silver.
The choices of PM's at the Coin/Pawn shops are tiny and boring. Then add in the risk of fakes and cored bars, many do not want the risk.
I myself have not bought any Gold since it was $400/oz. and I have not traded for Gold since the S/G Ratio was about 36/1. That may sound crazy for some of you out there, but for a little guy like me just can't afford the risk. My PM play money is whatever I can pull out with my wits, blood, and sweat. For the last two years I have been pulling Copper, about every six/eight months I cash in and collect about $1,300. Add that to some pocket change I keep and I can pick up two tubes of ASE's, but for all that work I can not even get one Gold oz. I could get a 1/2 and a 1/4 but the high premium just kills me.
Couple days ago I was looking through my wifes jewelry box for a tie clip, found a loose 1/10 AGE I got her around 2001. Got me thinking about Gold again...... went to my local Pawn shop that never has any good PM's and he had a 1/4 Gold Maple Leaf, was gonna let me have it for spot. I walked away, at $1660 an oz. Gold has no where to go but down.
Sorry, but that is how this poor ole hillbilly sees it.

This is less about the price of gold than it is about the loss of buying power of a dollar. To say that $1660 gold has no place to go but down is the same as saying that the US dollar has no place to go but up. Anyone here really think that? If so, it would be interesting to hear your reasons for it. I would list my reasons for that but can't think of any!

Consider this: when I was a kid in the early 1960s, a gallon of gas cost a quarter. Today, that same gallon of gas costs $3.85 (at least in my local area). This is a ratio of 0.25 / 3.85 = 0.065. In just 50 years (yikes!) the dollar has lost 93.5% of its buying power. The political and economic policies that caused this are still in effect. How can we expect this to do a 180 degree turn when the same dollar devaluing policies are still in force and are likely to stay in force? That is what it would take for gold to decline very much in price. Just sayin'...



This is a concept that should be challenged. I am not convinced that this is correct, even though it seems to be a common perception, especially among Keynesian economists. They have been wrong about so many other things that this could just be another one of them. Devaluing a currency steals the buying power of our own citizens, so it could easily be a wash with equal damage done there and to the debt. Besides, if we devalue the currency beyond a certain point, others will not want our currency any more. A lot of US citizens don't like it all that much now, let alone after it has been devalued even more.



As one of the few here who was alive and at least semi-conscious [] in 1960, I can vouch for this. But it is actually better than that. A 1960 US quarter has 0.1808 oz. of silver in it. At $30 an oz., that is $5.42 worth of silver. Gasoline is actually declining in price when measured this way.

Well if it is at all possible, that's the only way I can think of anyway.