Buying Gold/Silver Face To Face Tips Advice War Stories

Yes it's true. They buy at 10-20% below and sell for 10-20% above.

Welcome to CCF! For new buyers of coins, silver, gold I recommend sticking with LCS and the bigger well known online dealers like SD Bullion, Liberty Coin, APMEX, J M Bullion, Monument Metals, etc, watch their weekly sales.

You can sometimes get good deals on craigslist, local adds, estate/garage sales but the chances of buying fakes is greatly increased. Many of us use tools like magnets, magnetic slide tester, a pocket pinger, etc. to help spot fake silver. There are videos about these and other methods on YouTube. Some of us have electronic metals testers like the brand Sigma. Experience is a great way to avoid fakes, knowing what genuine coins look like, etc.

My LCS has people coming in literally every week wanting to sell coins/bars they bought online from various sites and they have to be told they are fake, proving it with their XRF analyzer.

Obviously LCS and online dealers are going to buy at wholesale price and sell at retail price. Sometimes this is below spot, other times above spot depending on the product, what a dealer already has in stock, etc. It's wise to call around if you have several LCS in your area and ask about prices, compare shop.

For current prices I check ebay sold listings. For example in advanced search check the sold box, type in something like "silver eagle" and you'll see what buyers are paying. Realize prices are going to vary depending on coin condition, buying just one or full tubes, year, if it's been graded/slabbed, etc.

J M Bullion has a buyback page for reference. Dealers are paying above spot for silver eagles which have had very high premiums for a while.

https://www.jmbullion.com/my-accoun...ck-products/

Thank you Livingwater! Excellent info. I have watched a few you tube video. One thing I can't figure out as much is the difference in premium on similar coins. Like gold maples are almost zero premium while eagles and libertads have huge premium. I can sort of understand the Eagles, but not the Libertad's. Obviously the older '33 stuff should have the collector premium. And why do silver maples even have a premium, albeit a small one. I have a .00 gram scale and calipers plus an intelligent mind (how did the last prez put it "I have an excellent brain"). Ha ha
Another thing I can't really figure out, if a lot of people buy gold and silver for preservation of wealth, isn't it kind of stupid to pay a 15% premium for something that you will instantly lose if you ever try and sell it back to the local coin shop? And if you're buying gold and silver for an investment, paying 15% over market also, seems kind of self-defeating unless you're in it for the huge long term which is my plan. But I have to admit some of the methods for acquiring precious metals seems kind of self-defeating sometimes as far as the overall goal

Varying premiums are law of supply and demand I assume. In USA gold/silver eagles are in more demand than foreign bullion. Libertads are more expensive because they often have very low mintage. For example Mexico only made 1,900 1 oz BU gold libertads and 550K 1 oz BU silver libertads in 2022.

Yes you can loose money if you buy but have to sell in short time. Gold/silver spot prices are like stocks, roller coaster up/down over time. There are charts you can see showing historical prices. Like stocks it depends when you buy, when you sell. Average gold/silver prices have gradually gone up over the years, not as good as the stock indexes, but still gains. A few of the major banks sometimes rig spot prices. J P Morgan was recently fined millions of dollars for silver price manipulation.

I don't buy gold/silver as an investment, it's wealth preservation, a good place to store value in case of economic collapse, banks close, etc. The central banks around the world have been buying massive amounts of gold the last few years. Maybe they have less trust in the fiat system.

You can loose money buying stocks/mutual funds too if you have to sell when the market is down.

to Sel-691

you know,, you are the only person I have ever heard talk about that and it is something I have absolutely thought about, especially over longterm,, what is even crazier,, lets say you make a 5-10% return per year over the next 5 years, but inflation has been keeping up with that,,, you have to pay taxes on the gain EVEN THOUGH THERE WAS REALLY NO GAIN!!!

I was the personal representative for my dad's estate. I liquidated his accumulation of modern proofs at the local coin shop. It took about 15 minutes. There was no question of capital gains, because nothing was ever written down. It was a straight cash deal and I left with a check for $15,000 which I deposited in my mom's account. 90% of that came from the gold.

Could I have gone to four dealers seeking a better offer? Yes, but I had a lot of other things much more important to deal with. The coins constituted less than 1% of his estate.

You know when the zombie apocalypse hits no one will care about precious metals at all right?

Hey, what about werewolf zombies! That silver could be melted into bullets!!