How to buy bullion without making common mistakes
Hey there folks. I travel around quite a bit. As such, I'm always checking out local coin shops, pawn shops, etc. to see if I can find a good deal on silver or gold. Sometimes yes,,,,,, sometimes no. Obviously, we all would prefer to deal with a "Local Mom/Pop" coin shop in our town. A business that we have developed a personal relationship with. A business that we can trust, and they trust us. Many times, you can find such a place. Sometimes, you might have to travel a little further. Sometimes, it's just not in the cards and you have to deal with finding another source.
So, what I want to do today on my blog, is to talk about what you should be looking for and aware of when buying your silver and/or gold bullion. If you aren't alert, you could be paying a shit-load more than you need to.
For my NON-USA Readers, these rules can apply to you also. Especially when speaking of Taxes (VAT) and other charges. Let's start with the DON'T...
DON'T!!!!!!!
1. TV: DON'T, under ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, buy silver and/or gold from ANY of these TV infomercial type sites. You know the sites I'm talking about. Where they are telling you what a GREAT PRICE you're getting; how the value is guaranteed to go up; and how they've sold hundreds, thousands, or millions of something. They are overcharging more than you can imagine. Just the other day I saw one of these shows, and they were charging around $25 for an American Silver Eagle. Just about any other place, the price is around $18-$19 an ounce. Plus, these TV info shows, charge a minimum of $9.95 for shipping. They are a RIP-OFF.... Under ANY CIRCUMSTANCE. How do you think they are paying to Broadcast on Cable and Satellite. They need to make their money some place. So again, there are NO REASONS AT ALL TO BUY FROM A TV COMMERCIAL OR INFOMERCIAL SHOW. END of discussion, without exception, don't even wast your time trying to think of one possible reason. There aren't.
2. Sales Tax: It's ok for the sellers/dealers to make some money. No one is arguing that. But there is absolutely no reason in the world that you should buy silver/gold and have to pay a city/county/state sale's tax on it. Recently, I was visiting family and friends in Albuquerque New Mexico. I swung by a couple of coin shops. Silver was around the $14 spot price; and Gold was around the $1090 spot price. I expected to pay around $16 for an ounce of silver rounds and around $1150 for an ounce of gold. Well, come to find out, they charge an additional 7% for tax. Not their fault, it's their city/state law. But there's no way in hell that I'm paying that. Silver was going to cost me: $17.12 for generic 1oz rounds. Worse yet, an American Gold Eagle was going to cost me: $1230.50. That's an additional $80.50 for the gold. Now, some of you might think the additional $1.12 for silver isn't so bad. Well, a TUBE of 20 rounds, would be an additional $22.40. That is MORE than the price of 2 more ounces of silver. There are some however, that ONLY pay in cash, and therefor, that's their only choice. Buy it locally and pay the sale's tax. Your choice. I won't do that. I'd rather buy online.
3. Premium: As I mentioned, there's no problem with a seller/dealer trying to make some money. But they don't need to be greedy. You'll find most coin shops are pretty good. They average around $2.00 over spot for generic silver rounds; and about $3.00 over spot for mint silver like eagles, maple leafs, etc. This is acceptable. Most of these shops will charge the same $2-$3 over, whether the price is $14, $20, $40, or $100 an ounce. Again, this is acceptable. Most of these will also buy the silver and gold back from you AT SPOT. You'll find however, that many other places, like pawn shops, will charge a much higher premium for silver and gold. That $16 at a coin shop, will probably cost you $18, $19, or $20 at a pawn shop or similar. Instead of $1150 for an ounce of gold at today's spot price of $1090, the pawn shop type of place will charge you $1200-$1250. And worse yet, when they buy it back, they'll give you LESS THAN SPOT PRICE!!! Keep an eye out for these places.
4. Credit card surcharge: Many of us have come to expect that a retailer will charge 2-3% additional for you to use a credit card. Well, my first bit of advice is, DON'T USE A CREDIT CARD!!! If you truly have to CHARGE IT, because you don't have the money, then you have absolutely NO REASON TO BE BUYING SILVER AND GOLD. Now, most dealers will let you do a debit card for NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE. This is totally acceptable. Even a small processing fee, like $0.50 or $1.00 for the total purchase is fine. If they charge the 2-3% like a credit card, stay away from it. Use a check or cash. Find an ATM.
DO!!!!!
1. Cash: If you can find that local coin shop, antique store, or wherever that sells silver and gold, try and pay in cash if you can. WHY? Cash has absolutely ZERO TRACKING. That is one reason there's a WAR on Cash. Many cities/states are trying to get rid of cash. They lie and say no one needs it with debit and credit cards, but they are actually trying to control your spending and trying to get taxes. If you buy in cash, they basically don't know you bought anything. And wouldn't it be nice to not have ANYONE KNOW that you have silver and/or gold??? If you can't use cash, then use a personal check from your bank. It does have a small trail saying you bought something at that business, but it won't say WHAT you bought. Just as good as cash.
2. Debit Card: As I mentioned in the DON'T section, don't use credit cards. But there's nothing wrong with using a debit card. Especially if you aren't too worried or concerned with being tracked. Trust me.... Unless you're buying $10,000+ worth of silver/gold at one time, there isn't going to be anyone worrying about your little purchases.
3. Online: Let's assume that you don't have a local coin shop you can do business with; OR, that local shop has to charge city/county/state sale's tax or they charge too high of a premium and you don't like their business. No problem. There's absolutely nothing wrong with buying online. Here's a hint however. Have a PayPal account, and look at EBAY. IMPORTANT!!!! I am NOT suggesting that you buy from private individuals. Not unless you can really trust them. However, the majority of the big name silver/gold sellers, like APMEX, MONEX, Bullion Exchange, MCM, Scittsdale, and many others that you can buy ONLINE with; ALSO SELL on Ebay. The advantage of buying from the SAME COMPANY, but buying it on EBAY, is that their prices are usually cheaper, they have FREE SHIPPING, and they DON'T CHARGE EXTRA for using a credit card. If you go to their WEBSITE, you'll be charged EXTRA for credit cards and shipping. Plus, the majority of these sellers, have the BUY IT NOW feature, so you don't have to bid. You already know the price. And their prices are set to AUTO-UPDATE based on the spot price. Much better than their websites.
4. Websites: If for some reason you want to deal directly with a seller on their website, have at it. Just beware of their credit card charges and their shipping charges. Same with ebay if you buy from a PRIVATE SELLER who isn't a big company selling via ebay. Make sure you aren't getting ripped off with shipping charges. But for the more experience buying, ebay can be a great source. Especially if you're looking for 90% silver, that's being BID ON. I saw one last night that had $10 face value of walking liberty quarters. Approximately $100 SPOT price; $120 from a decent coin shop. It went for $82. No one bid over that.
EBAY NOTE: The thing about ebay, when you're looking to BID on silver/gold from private individuals, is many people DON'T KNOW HOW TO SELL/LIST ON EBAY!!! If you know this, you can make out great. Some people can't spell or they list things in the WRONG AREA. Or, they give the item a really bad title. Sometimes, the seller is simply trying to SOUND PROFESSIONAL instead of trying to market properly. When people search, they look for things like "Silver Bars", "Silver Coins", "Silver Bullion". This is common. However, if you do some searching around, try MIS-SPELLING the word SILVER. Look under SLIVER. (You'd be surprised). If you can find things most people can't find, you can win some pretty good auctions. Look for "90% Silver", "Pre-1964 Coins", etc. Use your imagination. The LESS PEOPLE bidding on an item you want, the better chance you'll have of winning it. Also, the seller usually sets the DATE for bidding. Some get busy at work, so they do auctions on the weekends for 2-3 days. That's great for you. MOST PEOPLE aren't in front of their computer on saturday and sunday. They are enjoying life. There's a lot less buyers on weekends. Look for items CLOSING on the weekend or LATE AT NIGHT. Finally; if buying on Ebay; NEVER BUY ANY 90% coins, that they advertise in WEIGHT!!! In other words, don't even look at an auction or buy it now that says something like: "2 LB Bag of 90%". Or anything similar. There are 16 ounces in a pound, but silver and gold are weighed in TROY OUNCES. There's a big difference. You will most times pay way too much.
Anyway; hope this information is useful to you.
CYA: SE:
So, what I want to do today on my blog, is to talk about what you should be looking for and aware of when buying your silver and/or gold bullion. If you aren't alert, you could be paying a shit-load more than you need to.
For my NON-USA Readers, these rules can apply to you also. Especially when speaking of Taxes (VAT) and other charges. Let's start with the DON'T...
DON'T!!!!!!!
1. TV: DON'T, under ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, buy silver and/or gold from ANY of these TV infomercial type sites. You know the sites I'm talking about. Where they are telling you what a GREAT PRICE you're getting; how the value is guaranteed to go up; and how they've sold hundreds, thousands, or millions of something. They are overcharging more than you can imagine. Just the other day I saw one of these shows, and they were charging around $25 for an American Silver Eagle. Just about any other place, the price is around $18-$19 an ounce. Plus, these TV info shows, charge a minimum of $9.95 for shipping. They are a RIP-OFF.... Under ANY CIRCUMSTANCE. How do you think they are paying to Broadcast on Cable and Satellite. They need to make their money some place. So again, there are NO REASONS AT ALL TO BUY FROM A TV COMMERCIAL OR INFOMERCIAL SHOW. END of discussion, without exception, don't even wast your time trying to think of one possible reason. There aren't.
2. Sales Tax: It's ok for the sellers/dealers to make some money. No one is arguing that. But there is absolutely no reason in the world that you should buy silver/gold and have to pay a city/county/state sale's tax on it. Recently, I was visiting family and friends in Albuquerque New Mexico. I swung by a couple of coin shops. Silver was around the $14 spot price; and Gold was around the $1090 spot price. I expected to pay around $16 for an ounce of silver rounds and around $1150 for an ounce of gold. Well, come to find out, they charge an additional 7% for tax. Not their fault, it's their city/state law. But there's no way in hell that I'm paying that. Silver was going to cost me: $17.12 for generic 1oz rounds. Worse yet, an American Gold Eagle was going to cost me: $1230.50. That's an additional $80.50 for the gold. Now, some of you might think the additional $1.12 for silver isn't so bad. Well, a TUBE of 20 rounds, would be an additional $22.40. That is MORE than the price of 2 more ounces of silver. There are some however, that ONLY pay in cash, and therefor, that's their only choice. Buy it locally and pay the sale's tax. Your choice. I won't do that. I'd rather buy online.
3. Premium: As I mentioned, there's no problem with a seller/dealer trying to make some money. But they don't need to be greedy. You'll find most coin shops are pretty good. They average around $2.00 over spot for generic silver rounds; and about $3.00 over spot for mint silver like eagles, maple leafs, etc. This is acceptable. Most of these shops will charge the same $2-$3 over, whether the price is $14, $20, $40, or $100 an ounce. Again, this is acceptable. Most of these will also buy the silver and gold back from you AT SPOT. You'll find however, that many other places, like pawn shops, will charge a much higher premium for silver and gold. That $16 at a coin shop, will probably cost you $18, $19, or $20 at a pawn shop or similar. Instead of $1150 for an ounce of gold at today's spot price of $1090, the pawn shop type of place will charge you $1200-$1250. And worse yet, when they buy it back, they'll give you LESS THAN SPOT PRICE!!! Keep an eye out for these places.
4. Credit card surcharge: Many of us have come to expect that a retailer will charge 2-3% additional for you to use a credit card. Well, my first bit of advice is, DON'T USE A CREDIT CARD!!! If you truly have to CHARGE IT, because you don't have the money, then you have absolutely NO REASON TO BE BUYING SILVER AND GOLD. Now, most dealers will let you do a debit card for NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE. This is totally acceptable. Even a small processing fee, like $0.50 or $1.00 for the total purchase is fine. If they charge the 2-3% like a credit card, stay away from it. Use a check or cash. Find an ATM.
DO!!!!!
1. Cash: If you can find that local coin shop, antique store, or wherever that sells silver and gold, try and pay in cash if you can. WHY? Cash has absolutely ZERO TRACKING. That is one reason there's a WAR on Cash. Many cities/states are trying to get rid of cash. They lie and say no one needs it with debit and credit cards, but they are actually trying to control your spending and trying to get taxes. If you buy in cash, they basically don't know you bought anything. And wouldn't it be nice to not have ANYONE KNOW that you have silver and/or gold??? If you can't use cash, then use a personal check from your bank. It does have a small trail saying you bought something at that business, but it won't say WHAT you bought. Just as good as cash.
2. Debit Card: As I mentioned in the DON'T section, don't use credit cards. But there's nothing wrong with using a debit card. Especially if you aren't too worried or concerned with being tracked. Trust me.... Unless you're buying $10,000+ worth of silver/gold at one time, there isn't going to be anyone worrying about your little purchases.
3. Online: Let's assume that you don't have a local coin shop you can do business with; OR, that local shop has to charge city/county/state sale's tax or they charge too high of a premium and you don't like their business. No problem. There's absolutely nothing wrong with buying online. Here's a hint however. Have a PayPal account, and look at EBAY. IMPORTANT!!!! I am NOT suggesting that you buy from private individuals. Not unless you can really trust them. However, the majority of the big name silver/gold sellers, like APMEX, MONEX, Bullion Exchange, MCM, Scittsdale, and many others that you can buy ONLINE with; ALSO SELL on Ebay. The advantage of buying from the SAME COMPANY, but buying it on EBAY, is that their prices are usually cheaper, they have FREE SHIPPING, and they DON'T CHARGE EXTRA for using a credit card. If you go to their WEBSITE, you'll be charged EXTRA for credit cards and shipping. Plus, the majority of these sellers, have the BUY IT NOW feature, so you don't have to bid. You already know the price. And their prices are set to AUTO-UPDATE based on the spot price. Much better than their websites.
4. Websites: If for some reason you want to deal directly with a seller on their website, have at it. Just beware of their credit card charges and their shipping charges. Same with ebay if you buy from a PRIVATE SELLER who isn't a big company selling via ebay. Make sure you aren't getting ripped off with shipping charges. But for the more experience buying, ebay can be a great source. Especially if you're looking for 90% silver, that's being BID ON. I saw one last night that had $10 face value of walking liberty quarters. Approximately $100 SPOT price; $120 from a decent coin shop. It went for $82. No one bid over that.
EBAY NOTE: The thing about ebay, when you're looking to BID on silver/gold from private individuals, is many people DON'T KNOW HOW TO SELL/LIST ON EBAY!!! If you know this, you can make out great. Some people can't spell or they list things in the WRONG AREA. Or, they give the item a really bad title. Sometimes, the seller is simply trying to SOUND PROFESSIONAL instead of trying to market properly. When people search, they look for things like "Silver Bars", "Silver Coins", "Silver Bullion". This is common. However, if you do some searching around, try MIS-SPELLING the word SILVER. Look under SLIVER. (You'd be surprised). If you can find things most people can't find, you can win some pretty good auctions. Look for "90% Silver", "Pre-1964 Coins", etc. Use your imagination. The LESS PEOPLE bidding on an item you want, the better chance you'll have of winning it. Also, the seller usually sets the DATE for bidding. Some get busy at work, so they do auctions on the weekends for 2-3 days. That's great for you. MOST PEOPLE aren't in front of their computer on saturday and sunday. They are enjoying life. There's a lot less buyers on weekends. Look for items CLOSING on the weekend or LATE AT NIGHT. Finally; if buying on Ebay; NEVER BUY ANY 90% coins, that they advertise in WEIGHT!!! In other words, don't even look at an auction or buy it now that says something like: "2 LB Bag of 90%". Or anything similar. There are 16 ounces in a pound, but silver and gold are weighed in TROY OUNCES. There's a big difference. You will most times pay way too much.
Anyway; hope this information is useful to you.
CYA: SE:
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