Buying silver rolls

[Humboldt]

One of my tellers found several rolls of silver dimes and halves a few months back and has offered to sell them to me.

I'm seeing outrageous prices for rolls on ebay but very few bids.

Never bought rolls from anywhere other than the banks and am wondering what to offer.

Checked cointrackers.com and am thinking 3x or 4x face.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Omega]

Lol, Melt is like 16x face right now, I try to buy at 12-13x face. If you can get for 3-4x, I'd put all my money into that and buy the teller lunch, and dinner.

 

[BuffaloBoy]

don't rip off the teller, pay a fair price and don't be greedy.

 

[Joe777Cool]

If she knew enough to buy them herself, she will know that you are trying to rip her off.

15x face for the 90%
5x face for the 40%

On the other hand, ask her what she wants - maybe she will give you a good deal. Just don't go in expecting to buy silver dimes for 15-20 cents each.

 

[SanMartian]

Ask her what she wants ang go from there, as others have said, don't rip her.

 

[Humboldt]

I'm not trying to rip her off or be greedy, that's why I'm asking advice here.

I'm trying to buy them at a price that is much more than what she paid but less than it would cost me to buy them from a dealer.
I've bought lots of single coins off ebay, but no rolls. 95% of what I've found has been through crh or in the wild (except for a sweet 1946 dime I found this weekend with a friend's detector in my yard this weekend )

She said she doesn't want to make a lot of money off them, but some. Vague answer.

The halves are not sorted by 40% or 90%, she just has solid rolls. Nor do I know if the dimes are all Rosies or if there might be some mercuries in there that have a higher collector value.

 

[Humboldt]

And thanks for the responses.

 

[Omega]

If you can snag em for less than 10x face, I'd be crazy happy

 

[Mr. Silver Stash]

I'd ask the teller what she wants for them FIRST. If teller has no clue what they are worth, I would shoot for 10x face or so. The sound of receiving $10 for every $1 in coins will probably be attractive to this teller. Keep in mind that "on the street" i.e. the local pawn shop or coin shop this teller would probably get 50% of what they are worth or less. Not everyone knows ebay, provident metals and CL, or cares to even do that.

If this teller has 4 rolls of dimes and gets $200, and 4 rolls of 90% halves and gets $400 more (10X Face), that would probably be a great pay day for them, and leaves a good amount of meat on the bones for you. I always keep in mind that we get silver for 1x face and usually pay a max of 12x face at these prices.

 

[Humboldt]

I'd ask the teller what she wants for them FIRST. If teller has no clue what they are worth, I would shoot for 10x face or so. The sound of receiving $10 for every $1 in coins will probably be attractive to this teller. Keep in mind that "on the street" i.e. the local pawn shop or coin shop this teller would probably get 50% of what they are worth or less. Not everyone knows ebay, provident metals and CL, or cares to even use do that.

If this teller has 4 rolls of dimes and gets $200, and 4 rolls of 90% halves and gets $400 more (10X Face), that would probably be a great pay day for them, and leaves a good amount of meat on the bones for you. I always keep in mind that we get silver for 1x face and usually pay a max of 12x face at these prices.

Thank you, that's the advice I was looking for.

 

[Humboldt]

I think a big factor here will be the halves, and whether they're 40's or 90's.

 

[Mr. Silver Stash]

$2 for 40% $5 for 90% (?). Even if you give them melt for the 40% you may be able to lump the 90% in or drive the price for those lower.

Another strategy is do the math all in your head and just round down. For example, at 10x face they have $400 you can get $600 (15x) for them, so offer $250 to start.

Main thing is to get them to say how much they want FIRST. That will tell you everything you need to know about their knowledge of the value. AND if they offer you a low price that you are going to take, HEM and HAW about it for a minute or two, check out the coins a few times, and say ok, I think I can give you that much. Keep cool and you both feel good about it.

 

[Humboldt]

$2 for 40% $5 for 90% (?). Even if you give them melt for the 40% you may be able to lump the 90% in or drive the price for those lower.

Another strategy is do the math all in your head and just round down. For example, at 10x face they have $400 you can get $600 (15x) for them, so offer $250 to start.

Main thing is to get them to say how much they want FIRST. That will tell you everything you need to know about their knowledge of the value. AND if they offer you a low price that you are going to take, HEM and HAW about it for a minute or two, check out the coins a few times, and say ok, I think I can give you that much. Keep cool and you both feel good about it.

True. But she's nice and I wouldn't feel that good about getting her to take a lower price if I know they're worth a lot more.

I've asked her what she wants for them and she hems and haws herself, doesn't have an answer. I want her to make money, and I want to save money.
Also hoping that if, as a teller, she has rolls come her way again, that I offer her a good price so she'll save them for me.

Still not sure how many rolls she's bringing, I think 2 rolls of dimes and 2 of halves. Again, not sure what the dates of the halves are, or even that they're solid (assuming they are).

I see her a couple times a week, my store has a business account there and I have a personal account. Maybe ask her to leave the rolls so I can see what's there. Been doing business with her for years so I think she'd be ok with that, especially if I give her some money up front.

 

[Humboldt]

Appreciate all the responses, thank you.

 

[Humboldt]

If she knew enough to buy them herself, she will know that you are trying to rip her off.

15x face for the 90%

Wouldn't that be offering $1.50 for a 90% dime worth $1.58 melt?
Still just trying to figure this out.

Thanks

 

[Mtldealer]

For the average joe not CRH they don't want to deal with getting on the internet and dealing with the right people that will pay them what it's worth. If they walk into a coin store or pawn store they WILL get ripped off. I pay my tellers exactly what coinflation says they are worth in hopes of them doing all the work and me "brokering" the deal. They become repeat callers and look enthusiastically for more. I try to think of it as gaining a employee. If that is too expensive for you then you might want to let her keep them till she's ready to sell them. The last thing you want is for someone to think your trying to "con" them. I know it may not be what you want to hear but karma (or whatever you want to call it) nicely comes back around. Just my 2 copper pennies.

 

[sjlund]

Call a local pawn shop, find out what they would pay, and then beat their price in your offer. Teller gets a better local deal than they normally would and you pick up some silver under spot - everyone wins.

 

[ArkieBassMan]

Just keep in mind that a "fair price" is very subjective. I personally do not like the term. Who gets to decide what is "fair" and why do they get to decide? Here's an example: The best paying place in my town right now that I can find is a pawn shop paying 8X face for 90%. If I offered someone 8.5X face for his silver am I being fair? One could argue that I am paying above what anyone else in town is paying, therefore I am being more than fair as I'm the highest paying cash buyer in town. One could also argue that as I type this, melt value for 90% silver is 15.61X face, and physical silver is still easily selling well above spot (often 20X+ face) therefore I'm ripping the guy off. Which is it? Fair or unfair? Who gets to decide and why? Both arguments have validity.

Obviously the best ploy when buying anything is to let the seller open the negotiations. This apparently is not going to happen in this case. You've given this teller multiple opportunities to set a price and she so far hasn't which isn't the ideal situation for you. Rarely does anything good come from making the first offer. You could make an offer that the teller thinks is way too low, gets offended, and refuses to deal with you. Or you could make an offer that is 2X-3X higher than the coins could have been bought. Sometimes tellers with coins to sell are full of bad information. I have another example: About 2 years ago while on a CRH road trip while waiting on the manager to open the vault and retrieve my goodies, a teller asked me if I was a coin collector. When I answered yes, she said she was moving and had "a bunch" of silver dollars she wanted to sell. She wasn't allowed to discuss it at work, so she wrote her phone number on a business card and told me to call her. That weekend I called and she had 10 circulated 1921 Morgans (apparently 10 = a bunch). I asked her what she wanted for them. She said that her best friend's husband knew all about coins and said they were worth at least $200 each. When I told her that he was mistaken and that was about what I'd pay for all 10, she basically accused me of trying to take advantage of her, and that she "knew" what the coins were worth. She then called me a couple of names I can't repeat on here and hung up on me.

I generally try to buy as cheaply as possible. I won't resort to lying to do that though. That is where I personally "draw the line" in buying/selling negotiations. If someone offers to sell me 90% silver at 3X face, I'm buying all they will sell and not losing a second of sleep over it. However, I wouldn't tell them its only worth 3X face to try and score it cheaply.

There is really no right or wrong way to handle this. Figure out the price that in your opinion is "fair". Offer that and hope for the best. Good luck!

 

[BuffaloBoy]

without reading the previous comments, I know I can get 90% of melt value for my 40% halves, so i'd personally offer the teller 80-90% of melt value for her silver due to the fluctuations in the market. I have been offered to buy silver from tellers on the past but never had the spare money, but i told them the honest truth, i wouldn't sell for less than "x" amount per coin, They were all thankful for my honesty and that is how you build relations with banks, and these banks know i search for silver, they support my hobby.
HH

 

[Humboldt]

Well that worked out for both of us.
I was neck-deep in trying to re-network our front POS computers, inventory computer, and credit card terminal. After 2 hours on the phone w/ tech support re-programming our cc terminal through dial-up, and playing with a router and 9 plug switch, I was frazzled when she got there.

Still reluctant to give me a price but eventually said she'd take $200 for them.
She knew they were worth more but didn't want to go through the hassle of a coin shop.

4 rolls of dimes (actually only 198 coins, she mentioned one roll was 2 short, but she also pointed out 3 mercs)
2 rolls of uncirculated 1965 halves.

So she got 5x face to put towards grad school.
I got $430 of silver melt for $200.

We both came out ahead.