At A Coin Show Today

im surprised they had one too
I go to 2 a month and was worried I would miss one this month because this weekend I was at a party for the Kentucky Derby and this coming weekend I am going to Maryland for a hair metal festival!
I am luckily only missing one of the two shows this month

The buy prices were a little low compared to what dealers here offer.

For Ikes, most offer $1.05 to $1.10 tops.

For Buffaloes with dates, most offer $0.40 to $0.50.

For dateless Buffaloes, they seem to offer $0.10 to $0.15.

$3/each for Merc dimes is a good buy price for common ones. The biggest shop in town is buying 90% silver at 20.5x face as of yesterday.

I was at a gem and mineral show this weekend and it was much like you described at the coin show,hardly any customers and very few dealers. I stopped by to see one of my favorite dealers(who also cuts his own stones)to see what he had. As usual,a lot of high quality goods at average to slightly higher prices. I was looking for a particular stone for my collection(Benitoite for those of you with a gem interest).He had a couple of beauties but they were a bit out of my price range but before I could even say"That's a bit more than I wanted to spend",his wife cut the price in half if I bought both stones,which I did IMMEDIATELY before she changed her mind. I hung around to chat since this dealer does a lot of shows and I asked about sales,traffic etc. at other shows and he said this whole year has been awful and he is going to cut back to half the shows he normally does and many of the dealers are quitting,dumping their inventory and getting out. I told him to let me know when he wants to reduce his inventory,I like unusual stones which is what he specializes in.

Wow - 2 to 4 a month! I would like to be able to do something like this but don't think it will ever happen.

I'm also fortunate enough to have a show almost every Sunday. Sometimes there are 2 shows on the same day. But usually we're good about avoiding holidays.

The last show on the 1st, when silver was at it's high before it plummeted that night, there was absolutely no shortage of silver. There was literally a glut. What ever it was you were looking for, it could be found.

When silver dropped through the week, I made a few calls to some dealers who set up at these shows and they claimed they were sold out.

Horse Hockey. This same thing happened a couple of years ago when silver first touched $20, and then fell to below $10. If there was no "shortage", it was obscene premiums that literally doubled the price.

There is no way they moved that quantity in that short of time. I'll bet the farm when the price shoots back up they will have the same items, in quantity, sitting on there tables.

Now I know what's going on, and I'm cool with that. But don't insult me by lying to me. Bottom line, they have a bunch of inventory they don't want to sell at a loss. I would do the same thing. Just be honest.

One thing that is not cool, is that dealers are bumping up the "numismatic" value ahead of the melt values. Artificially inflating there true collector value.

Junk Peace and Morgans could be had for $16-18 each last year when they melted at $13-14. When they started melting at $18, they were asking $22 or more. At the last show they were melting at $36, they were asking $40... It seems they have a value of $3-4 above their melt. Regardless of what that is.

$12 dollar Walkers last year, were $20 coins this year, even though their melt was was far less.

I'm curious to see what happens this Sunday now that silver has dropped so much, if it's still there by the end of the week...

I would have given her more than face.

We used to do 40 shows a year before the coin market collapsed.