I’ve been noticing that silver has been in the (mostly) below $15 range for the last couple weeks. At one point it very briefly dipped below $14, which was pretty surprising. Problem is, you head down to your local metals dealer to by some you wind up at dang near $20/oz. because of the premiums. Whats up with that?
As I understand it, delivery times on physical silver (and, really, why would you own anything else) are pushed out pretty far. Want a ‘monster box’ (500 ct.) of Silver Eagles? Pay now and we’ll call you in a few weeks when it arrives. And that’s not just Eagles…pretty much all the nationally minted stuff is backed out, too. The generics aren’t much better. Sunshine makes the plancehttes for the US mint, so getting Sunshines is also an exercise in patience. So while the generics have a lower premium than the nationally minted stuff, you’re still looking at waits for anything in quantity.
It seems that the only thing that isn’t on backorder is ‘junk silver’…the pre-’65 coins. Which makes sense since there is no manufacturing bottleneck on those…they’re already made. I want to say the junk stuff was going for around 14-15x face value the other day…which means ten dollars worth of dimes, or ten dollars worth of quarters, will set you back $140-150.
I rather like Canadian Maples and Sunshine rounds for their anti-counterfeiting measures. The Maples are hard to get right now but I can usuualy find some Sunshine Buffaloes in the ‘generic bin’.
I’m not sure where the price of silver is going but I would say its almost certainly going to go up. The days of $6 silver are, I think, gone for a long time. I’d say $15 is about the new normal for this sort of thing. Of course that can change depending on how the markets go…when the markets get wonky people run for something that holds value a little better. And, of course, us ‘anti-government, survivalist’ types always feel a little better with our holdings diversified into tangibles….ammo, guns, fuel, silver, gold, cash, etc.
If you think you want some silver and don’t mind the wait (which really isn’t even a choice at the moment) go rattle the cage of the Metals Pimp.
Have you picked any up from him recently?
I re-found his contact info the other day as my annual review was recently completed and I’ll have some bonus cash to spend on various sundries. I was going to pick up 50 or 100 oz of buffalos.
Has he indicated to you if he’s backed up on delivery due to low stock from his supplier?
Best I can tell everyone, including The Pimp, has some delays. BUT..I haven’t talked to him recently so for all I know he might actually be sitting on some stuff thats ready to ship. All I can say is email him, tell him what you want, and see what he says.
I haven’t been in for a while, my wife’s been out of work with health related stuff mostly since last November. According to a coworker things have changed quite a bit since I last bought any PMs. My local guy was selling 90% junk at straight spot/melt price. I’ve heard from my coworker that the local guy is now charging a $2 per once premium on junk and on top of sales tax on anything under $1000.00 transaction. Coworker also told me he cleaned the guy(decent sized shop) completely out of his last bit of junk and even had to take a handful of crappy 40% Eisenhower halves just to get above the $1000.00 mark.
I hear you on that on Commander. I was looking at some Silver Eagles about 5 weeks ago and noticed that while the spot price was lower I would be paying more for Eagles then when silver was $17. I switched to Maples right then and there but now I think the money will have to start going into ‘the other metals’ like .22LR, 80% AR lowers or Low Parts Kits.
Doesn’t look any better for the rest of the year, shortages are mintage wide with the mines barely making a profit.
What else is wonky? Eight to ten percent world market corrections and silver goes DOWN. I’m past conspiracy theories, some entity somewhere is pushing gold and silver down to keep investors in the paper money. ASEs and Maples on back order with never before seen volume selling but the price stays low enough to make it almost worthless to mine.
There is a reason “may you live in interesting times” is a Chinese curse.
Emailed with the pimp just the other day re: some Valcambi silver (Xmas gifts) and he replied quickly, loading some online for me to order…so it all depends on what you want, I think. (I’d like some Maple’s too…willing to wait…)
http://www.combibar.com/products/100g-combibar-silver/
I loves me some Maples!
Bullion prices, especially silver, are being held down with “paper” bullion (think ETFs), but demand for physical bullion is at record levels. That is why the premiums have gone crazy. The super rich who control so much are driving prices down with paper while stocking up on owning the physical bullion. I wonder why… Have all other preps completed, especially food and water, before investing in bullion.