Popularity Of Copper Rounds? - Coin Community Forum

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On the last day of our club's recent annual coin show, I was talking with a dealer who has been attending for years. He had just attended the FUN show and was heading to the Houston show afterwards. He always brings a large quantity of gold and silver bullion, but I noticed on one of his tables he also had a large number of copper rounds for sale, priced by quantity from a single round to a box of 500.

I asked him about those, and he smiled and said that the profit from his sale of copper rounds alone usually pays for his cost of attending the shows. I was surprised, and he told me that during our show he'd sold an entire box of 500 rounds to one customer at a fairly hefty profit, and that was just a portion of what he sold during the entire show.

I found this very odd - I can understand buying a few as a curiosity (I've probably got 5 or 6 with interesting designs I picked up over the years myself). However, with copper at about $4.50 a pound, I simply can't imagine individuals buying boxes of 500 ounces as an investment. I have to assume they were going to simply turn these around for resale individually.

Any thoughts or observations on this?

I suppose copper is poor people's bullion.

However, resale is a good option for such a large purchase. Depending on the topic, they may sell quick at a flea market.

They are certainly popular. I have a few with interesting designs.

But they currently have about 30 cents worth of copper in them, and even at a wholesale price of $1.50, most of the cost is manufacturing. Therefore as an investment or a store of value it is a poor one, in my opinion.

It might be appealing to those who think that a low price mean means good value.

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Therefore as an investment or a store of value it is a poor one, in my opinion.

Yes I agree with this wholeheartedly. To my mind, the space required to store the copper isn't worth the upside potential. Then again, bitcoin takes up no space and I'm not investing there either.

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It might be appealing to those who think that a low price mean means good value.

I think that's definitely a part of it. When someone's browsing the gold bars and bullion pieces, then moves on a display of nicely-designed pure copper rounds for a couple bucks apiece, I think it's natural to feel that it's a real bargain.

Perceived value?

As a buyer for a hardware chain I have seen copper based products such as basic wiring for electrical more then double in price over the last 2 years. A couple of years ago I could buy a 500 foot roll of 2/0 for around $859 at . Today that roll will cost at wholesale to me around $1959. Could be higher since I have not bought any in a month or so and cost is still rising.... A very quick search shows Scrap copper at

Clean Copper

Bare copper wire is $3.60-$3.85 PER LB*
#1 is $3.50-$3.75 PER LB*
#2 is $3.30-$3.50 PER LB*

and considering how much inflation is increasing copper pricing it is being seen as an "investment"

Also there is a finite supply of copper... which adds to the value perception...

Personally I agree with most here it is a terrible store of value if you are buying as such... That could change though if we keep seeing the value increases as we have in the last few years...

Just my Two Cents worth even though it wont buy a cup of coffee

The demand for copper will continue to go higher through the transition to electric vehicles and other new technologies. The price will probably continue to increase over time. That being said, you would literally have to buy tons of the stuff to make real money. I have seen a lot more copper rounds on the market, so I can see people finding these attractive as a much cheaper alternative to gold and silver.

I've been buying those for years now. I put them in 2x2l'S and then in an Album. After a while there was about 15 pages of them. I gave the Album to my Grand daughter and she took it to school. She said it made a great hit at school.

Edited by just carl
01/25/2022 09:05 am

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