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 Replies: 14 / Views: 2,141 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
586 Posts |
Starting from this year, APMEX offers free-shipping; then Providentmetals followed; Gainesville also started to accept personal checks. Yesterday Texas Metals also offered free-shipping; and I noticed silver.com lowers their minimum purchase for free-shipping from $500 to $300. It is NOT even April! Why are they so desperate to move their inventory? Last week's gold COT report gave me some hint. Commercials' short position is near a bottom now, however Large Specs' long position still persist. What does it mean? I am afraid gold will oscillate between 1190 and 1220; until Commercial builds up their short position again. And by the time US dollar will finish the correction. Then gold resumes its downtrend, to possibly 1085 or less. JM2C |
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
5394 Posts |
I hardly think anyone online with a REAL business is desperate to move their inventory. A good company with a solid business plan will do very well over time. If any one really knew what markets or economies would do they would not have to work for a living. Gold and Silver could go up , they could go down . The Fed could raise interest rates ( they won't ). You could get struck by lightening in a snow storm (you won't). Any one playing the markets with this stuff is playing with fire.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
586 Posts |
@Pacificoin,
I am just doing a comparative analysis to last year. Many online dealers didn't offer free-shipping unless you made a large purchase; why now? and all of sudden, altogether trying to fight for small purchases? Something has changed.
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Valued Member
Australia
369 Posts |
It's called Competition.The world is awash with stock and part time sellers. Some people think they need to try things to improve the bottom line but they are kidding themselves.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2543 Posts |
Because it is a buyer heavy market and good business people take advantage of a market heavy with buyers. On a side note, no offense, but yet another thread proselytizing your position on PM's, this time under the guise of dealer sales? They are all getting very tedious and cumbersome. Just my Two Cents. |
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Valued Member
United States
56 Posts |
I'm my case the answer is simple. It's human nature. I'll tend to stay on the website of the company who offers free shipping longer. If I 'm just looking to stack, then 99% of the time I'll buy from them, but if I'm on the hunt for a certain piece then all bets are off. As you all know, the cost of shipping doesn't even come into question then. You'll pay anything if it's something you've needed for a long time
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Pillar of the Community
United States
808 Posts |
Good observations, leon. I'm not so sure if I'd call free shipping a desperate move so much as a strategic attempt to close more sales and reduce the number of abandoned carts. Market conditions aside, anything that helps maximize the total volume of successfully completed sales seems to justify free shipping policy for most Internet based businesses, PM's included.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2019 Posts |
Competition. Quote:Merriam-Webster defines competition in business as "the effort of two or more parties acting independently to secure the business of a third party by offering the most favorable terms".[5] It was described by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (1776) and later economists as allocating productive resources to their most highly valued uses.[6] and encouraging efficiency. Later microeconomic theory distinguished between perfect competition and imperfect competition, concluding that no system of resource allocation is more efficient than perfect competition. Competition, according to the theory, causes commercial firms to develop new products, services and technologies, which would give consumers greater selection and better products. The greater selection typically causes lower prices for the products, compared to what the price would be if there was no competition (monopoly) or little competition (oligopoly). However, competition may also lead to wasted (duplicated) effort and to increased costs (and prices) in some circumstances. For example, the intense competition for the small number of top jobs in music and movie acting leads many aspiring musicians and actors to make substantial investments in training which are not recouped, because only a fraction become successful. Critics have also argued that competition can be destabilizing, particularly competition between certain financial institutions.[7] Experts have also questioned the constructiveness of competition in profitability. It has been argued that competition-oriented objectives are counterproductive to raising revenues and profitability because they limit the options of strategies for firms as well as their ability to offer innovative responses to changes in the market.  In addition, the strong desire to defeat rival firms with competitive prices has the strong possibility of causing price wars http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competition |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
606 Posts |
I wonder if with more and more LCS going out of business if that creates additional online demand for smaller orders.
It also seems like more companies are coming out with their own series (i.e., Zombucks). This is smart because I tend to buy more than just the coins when then come out, often to reach the free shipping minimum.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
586 Posts |
@MontanaCMR,
You have pointed out a very important fact: Online dealers are competing with LCS now.
Looks like the retail demand of gold and silver has crashed nationwide. We're probably not very far away from the bottom.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
3692 Posts |
I'm so glad I pay insider prices for my bullion; I don't have to deal with small-time nonsense from dealers anymore. Then again I don't gamble; I flip the metal the next day: pure and simple demand-driven market from custom orders.
Why would a handful of online dealers affect the global price of a metal. That makes no sense. One has to consider Asia, including India, Turkey, Europe... USA is NOT the ultimate market, not even close.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5854 Posts |
Everyone dealing in bullion is selling basically the same things and other than customer service, the only other way someone can differentiate their products is through price. If your competition offers a better overall value, you are going to have to meet or beat them if you want to sell.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
586 Posts |
@Libertad,
I don't think a handful of online dealers can affect the global price of a metal, either. The banks which provides the "gold fix" is doing the work. However, in gold futures report, they are all classified as commercials.
Online dealers know more than we do, no kidding they're making a living out of it. Whether they're related to those gold fixing banks, I don't know. But it seems to me that prices tend to fall after online dealers' special offering; statistically for past two years. What can I say?
Edited by leon1998
03/30/2015 9:36 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3343 Posts |
I follow $10 Indians as bullion coins. Using ebay for indexing, I do not see any shift in the bottom-end prices (slightly above $700) for major dealers like Lawrence and APMEX since December. Availability appears way down. These are collector coins and sell at a premium over bullion, but the prices are driven by bullion. "Two minutes ago I would have sold my chances for a tired dime." Fred Astaire
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Pillar of the Community
United States
586 Posts |
Many online specials on gold and silver, sigh.
I am afraid that gold will retest 1150 ... well KING dollar is very strong.
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Replies: 14 / Views: 2,141 |
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Posted 03/29/2015 4:02 pm
