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All foreign junk silver other than Canadian is now rare ........yea or nay?

bronco2078bronco2078 Posts: 10,244 ✭✭✭✭✭

I can't create a working poll or I would.

I like foreign junk , I tend to accumulate it by country on a continuous basis. It used to be everywhere , now not so much.

I'm talking priced at or near melt. Yes there are E bay sellers trying to sell 5 peso 1948 coins for 30 bucks each. There is no shortage of people trying to do that.

I remember a decade ago passing on a lot of 200 of the Italian 500 lira commemorative coins for back of melt. I remember seeing rolls of half balboas , piles of phillipine 50 centavos , rolls of the macarthur pesos . Not now , where did it go? Melted in the big run up?

Comments

  • OPAOPA Posts: 17,124 ✭✭✭✭✭

    You'll see it again, if & when silver hit's $40+ an oz. It's always been that way. When the value of PM's increase, the margins to spot decrease & vica versa.

    "Bongo drive 1984 Lincoln that looks like old coin dug from ground."
  • bronco2078bronco2078 Posts: 10,244 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 9, 2019 4:15AM

    The premiums sellers are trying to get for common mexican silver on ebay are crazy. I don't see how these fools are going to reach a selling point psychologically .

    If you have 20 circ 72% pesos melt is $120 sellers are posting that for $350 :D . I'm just wondering if they are actually rare because a lot were melted or its delusional sellers. I mean now that you can put up 30 day buy nows for free is it just swinging for the fences? As spot goes up they will keep raising the ask , I can foresee silver hit 50 and they still don't manage to execute a sale because they are asking 80 an ounce.

    I've seen bidders pay double melt for 10% pesos :D , when they are BU they sometimes look nice but they are ugly as sin most of the time. Can you imagine people paying double melt for war nickles? It baffles me

    Just last week I threw a bid at some 30% pesos of melt +10% and they sold for 250% of melt.

  • TopoftheHillTopoftheHill Posts: 187 ✭✭✭

    People can charge what they want....and people can pay what they want. That's a free market.

  • bronco2078bronco2078 Posts: 10,244 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @TopoftheHill said:
    People can charge what they want....and people can pay what they want. That's a free market.

    There is more to it than that though. I feel like the stuff is worth more than any modern garbage because its real. It is much rarer than 90% junk , the demand side of the equation is hard to figure out though because the asks are so high that sales just don't take place.

    There is a big overhang of 90% US junk so sellers that ask for double melt just get undercut. With foreign that doesn't work because no matter how much you like the stuff being a bagholder is not a useful strategy.

    All that being said I still think its much rarer than people realize , at melt its a long term buy

  • Jinx86Jinx86 Posts: 3,710 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I know I've melted buckets of common world coins in the last few years. I pick through it for better material, don't find much worth while. With my new furnace up and running I do plan on stopping up my silver melting even more.

  • OPAOPA Posts: 17,124 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I don't understand your whining. Let me get this straight: You are complaining because you can't buy this stuff at the price you believe is fair? You don't understand what those items are selling for?

    Economics 101...Supply & Demand

    "Bongo drive 1984 Lincoln that looks like old coin dug from ground."
  • blitzdudeblitzdude Posts: 5,965 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Not rare at all just not widely traded because interest is minimal imo. I could barely move that stuff (Canadian included) even when the market was red hot.

    If we ever see a runup again in our lifetimes like 2011 you will see the foreign stuff along with grandmas old silverware coming to market by the truckload.

    Sure it gets melted in some capacity but there is an abundance of already pure silver available, hardly worth the trouble or need to melt junk.

    The whole worlds off its rocker, buy Gold™.
    BOOMIN!™

  • bronco2078bronco2078 Posts: 10,244 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @OPA said:
    I don't understand your whining. Let me get this straight: You are complaining because you can't buy this stuff at the price you believe is fair? You don't understand what those items are selling for?

    Economics 101...Supply & Demand

    Not whining that I can't buy at a favorable price I'm whining that there isn't any available.

    5 or 10 years ago you could buy this stuff at provident , theres no category for it. Provident also had canadian 80% dollars 80% smaller by the 1$ face value lots , 1 peso, 5 peso , 25 peso , 100 pesos for a few bucks over or whatever they priced it at but there is no listing at any price now

    Apmex is the big dog in that area and does have listings but look

    https://www.apmex.com/product/9705/canada-80-silver-coins-1-00-face-value-avg-circ 32% over melt

    they are selling us 90% lots for only 17% over melt .

    You can't tell how much canadian they are selling but if no one was willing to pay that premium they would probably lower the price or put it on sale

    the other day I bought a pile of 72% netherlands junk , about 30 troy ounces , I paid 5% over melt. The seller said he had melted some foreign 90% just the month before because he couldn't move it. He melted cuba he melted older french 5 franc coins , he had melted Aussie sterling coins . I said I would have paid over melt for all that stuff.

    I can't buy it if they don't tell me they have it.

    I just think its disappearing and if you have a long enough time horizon it will be good to grab.> @Jinx86 said:

    I know I've melted buckets of common world coins in the last few years. I pick through it for better material, don't find much worth while. With my new furnace up and running I do plan on stopping up my silver melting even more. What is worthwhile though ? I'd buy reasonably priced stuff in a lot , I don't want to pick out a single coin and have a guy look it up and quote me a price the next day.

    It is problematic to sell but I often feel like its also hard to buy at a shop. The owners will either group by country or purity . I say do you have a bag of 835 silver ? Yup , will you sell it by weight for some price ? Nope they want to look up every single coin in a krause book or on ebay I say tell me a price and you pick 10 troy ounces of your choice and I'll pay cash , and they refuse . Then later they melt it and get less than melt value :D

    I've offered to buy a sack of sterling jewelry they had sitting on a scale and they wont do it. They want to examine each ring. They had no interest in looking at it before I asked about it . Are they really going to put 50 rings in a case for $10 a piece and sell one a month? So it gets melted I guess .

  • VanHalenVanHalen Posts: 4,030 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I really like some of the Mexican silver but won't pay for it like it's a BU pre-1921 Morgan. I almost pulled the trigger on some of these BU 1948 5 peso silvers but just couldn't do it. $13 worth of silver for $26/ea didn't add up.

  • bronco2078bronco2078 Posts: 10,244 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 9, 2019 10:46AM

    @VanHalen said:
    I really like some of the Mexican silver but won't pay for it like it's a BU pre-1921 Morgan. I almost pulled the trigger on some of these BU 1948 5 peso silvers but just couldn't do it. $13 worth of silver for $26/ea didn't add up.

    I agree , I bought some for 20 each a few months ago. APMEX has them listed for 29 , that would be way too much. Counterfeits are starting to appear , there was an ebay seller who was listing lots of them that were all fake a year or two ago.

  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Some of the Mexican designs are interesting... but not at the prices they are asking....Cheers, RickO

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