Silver Dollar Prices More Resiliant To Declines In Silver?

The problem is that when Silver hit it's highs, many if not most dealers were buying very close to spot; in order to be competitive. Even cull silver dollars were being bought at well over $30. Common uncs which had been selling as low as $17 for 21 Morgans and Most Peace dollars, were now all selling for $40 to $50.

Dealers got used to the "new norm". They have very grudgingly reduced the price of their Silver dollars because they had gotten used to the new 'price point" AND because many had paid a high premium for those they had in stock.

Full disclosure. I am a Dealer.

Most dealers that I know in the Midwest buy Silver dollars at about $10 to $12 each. The selling price around here is about $22. On the west coast, I can buy them for $16 to $18; however, most dealers I talk to are buying them at a much tighter profit margin.

A note about dealers and "price points". One year we had a large surplus of "Red Books". The new editions were due out in less than 2 months and the boss wanted me to put ours on the net to sell them. He wouldn't let me discount them at first. After FOUR WEEKS of no sells. He allowed me to discount them. I did and we sold about half. Then one day I accidently put an auction up, using my old template, and didn't change the price on a BIN. ONE of seven sold. The boss was ecstatic. He told me that now that I had "Established a new price point", that all subsequent sales would be at that price point. We never sold another book. They still sit in the basement.

There are a lot of greedy people out there that would rather sell one item for $20 instead of 20 items at $10.

Yeah, I use spot as my price point for common and cull silver as well. Most of the other dealers around here do too. Again for common and cull silver. That's our bread and butter. The gravy comes from buying premium coins at spot and selling them at grey sheet.

One LCS that I used to visit prices his Morgan dollars based on what APMEX currently buys and sells them for. Right now, APMEX has common date Morgan dollars in AG condition at $23, despite the fact that silver is currently around $14 and each dollar only has about $11 worth of silver in it. BU Morgan dollars are selling for around $43. The price for the BU dollars in particular has been very resistant to change, although it has fallen from $49 to $46 and now to $43 over the last 6 months or so. I keep saying that if the price of BU Morgans ever drops to a "reasonable" level I'll pick up a bag of 100, but it has a ways to go before it reaches that point (if ever).

What I've noticed: My LCS sells "junk" silver for 13.5x face. However, the junk bin never has dollars... only halves, quarters, & dimes. Morgans & Peace dollars go for minimum $20. their argument is If you truly are buying junk silver for pm content, it shouldn't matter what denomination it's in.

If you're buying for numismatic value, they have better examples readily available then anything you'll find in the junk bin. I have to admit, I've pulled quite a few nice (although common date) Walkers from these bins on more than a couple of occasions.

Good point! It never occured to me that Mercury's (for example) are 2.5g x (10)=25g
Morgan & Peace =26.73

However...(Correct me if I'm wrong) Flowing Hair halves, Draped Bust halves & Capped bust halves (pre 1836) are 13.48g x (2)=26.96, slightly more silver in 2 of these than a Morgan dollar? But what are the odds of getting any of these 3 varieties @ melt.

The more you know...