Looking to buy silver. Whats the best source?

[mts]

Looking to buy silver. What's the best source?

I'm looking to buy $5,000-$10,000 worth of silver over the next month or so. I've been to the local dealers and the best I've found for halfs is $6. I'd like to pay significantly less than that. I read in another thread that dealers are potentially offering $4 (one person said that he gets 10.8 times face which is $5.40). I'd love to find the people that these dealers are doing business with. But I think that is probably going to be hard to do.

Anyway, here is the question. Where is the best place for someone like me to find a relatively large amount of junk silver coins, bars, and rounds? These sources come to mind. Let me know if you know of any others.

1) Coin dealers - I'm paying above spot at these places. Plus, I'm paying sales tax which is a double whammy.

2) Private individuals - I've looked at Craigslist but the prices seem to be as bad as the dealers. Some of these guys want way over what the dealers want because they've spent a lot of time collecting this stuff and are putting a higher value on it than melt value. I'm contemplating putting and ad on CL saying that I buy silver in hopes that people will contact me rather than going to a dealer.

3) eBay - I don't really like dealing with eBay to be honest. And the prices don't look that great. Plus I want to buy a bunch of it so individual shipping charges is likely to cost me a fortune.

4) Coin roll hunters - I'd love to work a deal with anyone out here who is looking to unload some silver. But I'm not interested in sending a check in the mail to some stranger on the Internet. You'd have to be in Ohio and willing to have me come pick up the silver with a cash payment. I also assume that CRH's know the value of silver and are less likely to give me a decent deal. It's the nature of the hobby.

5) Online - APMEX seems to be about the best price. I've seen others with decent prices but they don't want to deal in the smaller quantities that I'm looking for. APMEX is priced over spot though so although they beat the local dealers they don't beat them by much.

Thoughts? I appreciate the help.

 

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[jrf30]

Re: Looking to buy silver. What's the best source?

I use Bulliondirect.com for my buys. And I buy eagles, since I get enough halves doing my CRH stuff.

 

[mts]

Re: Looking to buy silver. What's the best source?

I use Bulliondirect.com for my buys. And I buy eagles, since I get enough halves doing my CRH stuff.

Thanks, I'll look into it. Anyone else have ideas to offer?

 

[mlayers]

Re: Looking to buy silver. What's the best source?

Put a ad in the local newpaper that you are buying silver coins, rent a room at a hotel make sure you have company there. set up a table be professional. See have many shows up. You can also do this is a bigger city away from your city....Matt

 

[fistfulladirt]

Re: Looking to buy silver. What's the best source?

As far as private sales go, I have not had much luck with my offers of 10-12 times face. People think they are sitting on a gold mine and don't do much if any research if they are interested in selling. They may believe I'm trying to rip them off at that price, till they go to a jewelry dealer and lose their arse.
Local dealers are fairly competetive around here, but it still pays to shop around. Some can even match the online sources, if you figure in shipping costs. ffd

 

[jim4silver]

Re: Looking to buy silver. What's the best source?

mts,

There are pros and cons to all types of silver. My personal favorite is .999 one ounce bars or rounds. I also will get 10 ounce bars sometimes if I get a good deal. Never anything larger than that though (increases risk of buying a drilled and filled bar in my opinion).

I would avoid buying 90% if this is a first purchase for you. My reasons are:

1. Traditionally the value of 90% is below spot. Recently is was above spot and now it is right at spot or so (at least where I live). If you buy alot now and someday want to sell chances are high the return you get will not be as high as .999, which normally is worth more than junk silver due to its purity. There was a brief time in 1999 or so when people where buying lots of junk thinking they would need it for barter (for the year 2000 fears, etc) and the price went thru the roof. So there is a slight chance it could be more valuable than .999 at some point in the future if something else like that occurs.

2. Junk silver is bought by face and not weight. My personal view is that down the road as silver goes up in value across the board, coin dealers will start buying and selling junk coins by weight instead of face. Most junk coins you will see are quite worn down and most likely would not equal the weight that is presumed when buying or selling them (which is .715 of an ounce per dollar face value due to some erosion of the coin due to handling, etc). The coins were .723 troy ounces of silver per dollar face value when they left the mint. If they do go to a weight instead of face value standard, you might have less ounces overall than you thought you had. You can get better quality coins by purchasing late year Franklins or 64 Kennedys though, since these circulated less than dimes, quarters, Walker halves, etc.

3. Junk silver is US currency, and while the risk is very very slim for this, there still is a chance the gov could make melting silver coins illegal again, as they did in the late 60's for a short time. There is no reason for such a ban now since silver does not circulate like other types of metal coins--copper and nickel (melting these is illegal right now). But if they did such a ban the value of such silver could decrease compared to privately minted .999.

4. Refiners normally pay less for a lower purity coin/bar if you decide to sell to a refiner (I have only heard this second hand, in that I never have sold to a refiner). I would imagine if the price of junk stays at spot or above, it would be worth more to any buyer--refiner, dealer, etc, to repackage and sell in a "junk bag" than melt it down.

PROS of junk silver:

1. Is US currency, thus chance of counterfeits is slim and it is widely recognized.

2. Old silver coins are cool.

3. If silver ever goes to zero you can spend them as currency.

4. Could be usuable as a "barter" item if necessary, but so can one ounce rounds--I don't see the whole "barter" thing ever happening in my opinion, since probably less than 1 percent of the population holds silver in any real amounts (other than perhaps jewelry).

As far as .999, I personally avoid most gov minted silver coins (although I prefer modern gov minted GOLD coins due to the harder to counterfeit theory) because the premium on the silver coins is usually much higher than privately minted silver coins. The exception to this is the Mexican Libertad, which I have been able to buy at lower premiums a few times and I think they are the best looking gov minted round, especially the more recent form of the coin. I do have some American silver eagles and Canadian Maples that I bought when silver was much cheaper, but if silver skyrockets like many believe, I don't think the premiums are gonna remain and it might just be worth as much as a generic .999 bar or round.

Just my 2 cents, good luck in whatever you buy.

Jim

 

[mts]

Re: Looking to buy silver. What's the best source?

Thanks for the additional info. Jim, good points and I've considered some of them already. I'm probably looking to buy 30% junk, 30% rounds, 30% bars, and 10% silver eagles/maples. As I said before I don't want to pay a huge premium for collectable coins and even silver eagles tend to fit this description. So I'm limiting the number of silver eagles I'm looking to buy.

I agree that silver rounds and bars are probably the best bet for buying pure silver. I'm a little partial to the older coins simply because they do have some minor collectible value over rounds. However, I'm looking to buy older halves as opposed to quarters and dimes because I just see the latter as being something that is commonly mistaken for common clad. So if it ever gets to the point where I need them for barter I figure you've got a tougher sale to try and convince someone that something that looks like a commmon quarter or dime is actually worth much more than face value. With older Walker and Franklin halves that is less of a concern in my opinion. It looks like an old coin and thus immediately seems to possess greater value.

So thanks for all of the info and tips. I'll keep looking at the different options that have been given. I tend to agree that people selling silver on Craigslist think that they are sitting on a goldmine and don't really know the value until they've gone to a coin dealer and are offered only $4 per half. Perhaps I should note that in any ads that I put on CL.

 

[quiksilver]

Re: Looking to buy silver. What's the best source?

Pawn shops or dealers sometimes have good prices but no stock if they have good prices.

People will often give better prices then dealers but again they are hard to find and you may not feal secure.

COIN SHOWS are the best way [for price] in my opinion because you can shop around for the best price in a matter of minutes . Also no paper trail if your concerned.

Goldline and Northwest Territorial Mint are safe sources if you can wait.

I believe that taxes may depend on how much you buy. I was told when purchasing from different sources that they would only charge tax if less then $1,000 another said if more then $10,000.

Shop around ask questions and read this forum.

 

[DAS7NY]

Re: Looking to buy silver. What's the best source?

Try craigslist? You may have some luck. It's local and you can do everything with cash. I suggest using paypal though, just as insurance.

 

[ArkieBassMan]

Re: Looking to buy silver. What's the best source?

Your best bet for a "bargain" is dealing with individual people. To be more specific, people that do not know exactly what their silver is worth. My mother's neighbor (why do I ALWAYS hear about this AFTER the fact??) recently sold some silver coins to a local dealer. He had about $12 in face value (quarters, dimes, a few halves and 1 silver dollar). The dealer told him he would buy them for the silver value and offered $80. He thought he got a GREAT deal. I asked him about dates/mintmarks etc. and he had no clue as to what I was even talking about. For all he knows the dollar (which was a Morgan, in 'great' condition) may have been a 'CC'. The halves were all Walkers and Franklins. Some of the quarters were Standing Liberties.

My advice is to place an ad on CL and see what happens. Good luck.

 

[SFBayArea]

Re: Looking to buy silver. What's the best source?

Put a ad in the local newpaper that you are buying silver coins, rent a room at a hotel make sure you have company there. set up a table be professional. See have many shows up. You can also do this is a bigger city away from your city....Matt

You can also go to where they are buying at those hotels or places and ask for the prices. Then offer customers who go there to sell something a little higher than what those operations are buying at. Try to not make it obvious that you're a buyer. Be sure to bring lots of cash with you. That way you get a better deal than what dealers are giving you.

 

[AGCoinHunter]

Re: Looking to buy silver. What's the best source?

Have you looked at Monarch Precious Metals? I have never used them but I hear they are fairly reasonable and have coupon codes from time to time. They sell .999 AG and AU. I have been watching their prices for a while and might pull the trigger on the next AG drop.

 

[DigginThePast]

Re: Looking to buy silver. What's the best source?

Never had a problem when dealing with Tulving.

http://www.tulving.com/goldbull.html

 

[obediah]

Re: Looking to buy silver. What's the best source?

I use Bulliondirect.com for my buys. And I buy eagles, since I get enough halves doing my CRH stuff.

Thanks, I'll look into it. Anyone else have ideas to offer?

I know a guy on this forum who sells his via Caigslist- you might see what you can find out there- even run an add to buy.

 

[Rich Hartford]

Re: Looking to buy silver. What's the best source?

I've bought from local dealers before and this is how I do it. I pull out a wad of hundreds. "Here's ten grand that I'm going to spend today for (whatever)". "Give me your best price !" Of course I tell him that I'm going to compare his deal with the other players.
Always show them the green, because all of these coin dealers are a bunch of greedy cheapskates whose hearts starts thumping when they see the cash. They play it cool with the poker face and all, but you can spot that jugular vein pumping away.
You will get a deal.
Personally I'd stay far away from any type of coin with a numismatic value. With the economy the way it is anything old and valuable whether it's antiques, baseball card collection,etc. is going to lose it's value. This means collectable coins too.
I don't believe in survival coins. If it came to that I'd rather have $1,000.00 in tobacco.
HH
Rich

 

[mts]

Re: Looking to buy silver. What's the best source?

Thanks all. Some really good advice here and it's going to take some time to digest it all. I appreciate everyone taking the time to respond. I think I've got several good options as long as I'm willing to work a little at it.

 

[mts]

Re: Looking to buy silver. What's the best source?

So a quick update. I found out that there was a coin show today in a local town. I went down and paid my two bucks admission. There were about 30 dealers or so. Not a big show by any means. What I've learned is that coin dealers really don't want to deal with the likes of me. It's not that they weren't nice. It's just that very few of them want to deal in junk silver. They'd obviously prefer to sell high priced coins that are shrouded in plastic. Anyway, I did come across a couple of guys with junk silver and one of them had about 50 Franklins. He wanted 6.50 for them. I started counting them out and emptied the box. He just looked at me like I was from Mars. I asked him how much he would sell the whole lot to me for. He asked for $6 and I offered him $5.75. It was near the end of the show so he took it. I paid him cash and walked out the door.

I paid less than spot price but he still probably made a good healthy profit. I'd like to get them even cheaper still so I placed a Craigslist ad. But from what I've seen of people advertising to sell they are asking way too much. Most of these guys are looking for $7+ for halves which is insane. I'll see what kind of response I get. If anything exciting happens I'll let you know.

As for the suggested web sites I've looked through them all. Bulliondirect.com looks the most promising and has the best prices from what I can tell. Tulving has better prices if you can meet their minimums. But I don't appear to meet the minimum order requirements. They have a 500 coin minimum on silver rounds which would be over $8K. That's more than I wanted to spend on just rounds. I'd consider spending up to $10k total but as I said earlier I'm looking to diversify a bit and get some each of rounds, bars, junk coins, and silver eagles. The other web sites all look good too but are around the same price as APMEX.

Thanks again for all of the great advice!

 

[taropatch]

Re: Looking to buy silver. What's the best source?

Nice job on the Franklins there. $115 per roll is good but you want to do better. Many have tried silver want ads on Craigslist, myself included, and gotten no responses, but its free and worth a try. If you ever hit garage sales, make sure you ask about coins because sometimes it works. I forgot to ask at a garage sale once, a month later when they had their second yard sale, I did ask only to find that he had been willing to sell earlier but had simply given it away to relatives because it was too "heavy" to lug around.

 

[greg23]

Re: Looking to buy silver. What's the best source?

i would put an ad in your local paper,or on Craigslist,or kijiji.I usually buy from 6 or 7 people a week.not just silver though.Gold coins,Jewellery,bullion.Try it.the worst thing that can happen is that you dnot get any responses to your ads.

 

[mts]

Re: Looking to buy silver. What's the best source?

Thanks taropatch and greg. Yes, I do want to do better than $115. I'd like to get them for $100 per roll. But maybe I'm being too greedy. What is a good price in the current market conditions? Dealers appear to pay as little as $80 per roll and sell them for $120 per roll and up.

Greg, if you don't mind me asking, how much do you usually pay when buying on Craigslist? I did put an ad on CL last night and have gotten two responses so far. But I think it is just people fishing for numbers. I don't think I'll find any takers. I've stated that I'm pretty much wanting to buy for 10x face value. We'll see if I get any takers.