Buying Local Vs Online

I just made my first purchase online a week or two ago with gold mart. Great company, but I have not received anything yet. Online is kind of a pain, because if you do a money order... you basically pay for it and then send it in the mail.

Or you could send a check, which is nice, because you dont pay for anything until they cash it. But after they cash it, they wait an additional 7 days until they ship it. So my order should be shipping out this upcoming monday! I dont know why these companies dont accept credit cards, as the credit card companies only charge like 1.3%. I could understand on larger orders, but charging 22$ for shipping seems a little ridiculous.

If you want just straight silver, silvertowne is a great companies with reasonable priced silvertowne bars that have free shipping!

Local is always a good bet, it should be a little cheaper, you get it immediately, no shipping fee's, and you can see exactly what you are getting before you give them money. Its always nice to support the coin stores, especially when you like them as a company. I also have a monthly coin show that comes to my city which is nice and can usually find something I want, although a lot of the prices seem a little high to me.

Another source is flea markets. In my area there is one flea market with 2 coin collectors who have had booths for many many years. One of them sells junk coins for spot, and they are very good condition EF-40 or better most of the time. The kids and I call it going to church, and we all head home with at least a couple silver coins in our pockets every time.

ebay is great as it tells you exactly what something is worth, but the premiums are a bit high.

Goldmart, is the best by far in my book.

Don't forget Provident Metals and SilverTowne. Both of them are good on-line vendors with solid reps.

What side of Houston are you on?

Legally, or physically?

In the US, if you buy from another state and the seller has a physical presence in your state, they charge your state's sales tax.

If you buy from a seller in another state and the seller does not have a physical presence in your state, they do not charge sales tax, period.

HOWEVER--

Almost every state with a sales tax also has a use tax. If you buy from out of state to avoid the sales tax, you owe the use tax, usually the same rate.

In practice, use tax is easy to collect from businesses. Buy a big piece of equipment and have it shipped to you, and there's paperwork involved. Deduct the equipment, and it's pretty obvious you owe the use tax.

Small consumer transactions are a lot harder to collect use tax for. That's not to say if some wholesaler two miles from the border sells $10 million a year to people in the next state, that the state losing the tax couldn't try to get customer addresses from the seller.

Some states have tried this, but if for example NY asks a NJ seller for their records, the seller can point out that NY has no jurisdiction over them.

And a charge per transaction, and a monthly minimum fee, and a monthly machine rental, and...

Where are you getting a 1.3 rate?

True however you need to be very careful, both for your personal safety and for fakes. The few times I've done PM transaction from a craigslist add I always meet the seller in a bank or in front of a police station. I also only by items I am very familiar with.