Michigan Show report with pics

Justacommeman · April 9, 2011 7:07AM

I went both Friday and Saturday. Friday the floor was buzzing about silver and gold prices as expected. This turned into a bullion show pure and simple. Silvertowne confirmed to me on Friday what I saw with my own eyes. More buying then selling by the public. Saturday the bias was definately pro buying. Dave Nazzaro was non stop both days and Silvertowne was busy as usual.

Silver and gold prices on the floor fluctuated wildly on Friday with the market and most bullion minded people were seen checking Kitco non stop. It reminded me on our PM Forum.

. On Saturday some of the bullion guys felt comfortable posting buy/sell prices.

Dealers told me that they were having problems keeping silver in supply. As Wingsrule reported there were lots of 100 oz bars for sale. I did see a few being bought on Saturday by the public.

I went to the show with intent of selling some silver and replacing it with some gold. My personal silver/gold ratio has gotten out of whack recently with silver outperforming gold. I was hoping to trade/sell some silver and putting some proceeds towards a 10 oz gold Fortuna bar. No luck. Not a one in sight. However, my pursuit of one lead to an interesting deal. see below. MJ

This is was Silvertowne's table on Friday around 11:30am ninety minutes into the show. A nice line already just to get to the table. There was a lot of sterling silver platters and heirlooms destined for the inferno piled behind ST's table. They were doing a fair amount of scrap buying. I sold them a 100 oz JM bar for $4050 at market close. This was $.40 behind spot. I could have probably gotten a few dollars more someplace else but I always like making at least one deal with them a show. FYI- Leon was said to be doing a little better health wise.

On Friday on my way to being shut out on the gold Fortuna bar Dave Nazzaro told me he had an interesting 5 oz gold bar he could bring in on Saturday. He did not disappoint. He sold me a 5 oz gold Engelhard bar @ $50 over spot. He took in a 100 oz JM bar from me in partial trade. He gave me $4100 for it. I made up the difference in cash. Dave is one of the best bullion dealers I have ever worked with. He is fair, knowledgable and genuinely a great guy.

These were Dave Nazzaro's buy/sell prices on Saturday.

Wingsrule · April 9, 2011 7:29AM

Nice score, MJ!

streeter · April 9, 2011 7:52AM

MJ,

Any idea what ST was paying for scrap sterling silverware?

Yesterday morning, I got a call from a friend traveling through Amarillo who bought what he thinks is about 3lbs of teaspoons, forks, ----scrap from a junk shop in Amarillo as he was hunting for antiques. About 60 pieces

$75.

Meltdown · April 9, 2011 7:56AM

That's an awesome gold bar! Nice report...

PerryHall · April 9, 2011 8:23AM

Neat gold bar. What's the story behind the three holes on the back of the bar?

Schmitz7 · April 9, 2011 10:39AM

Nice photo of the Silvertowne line, but you caught my back-side. I was there with my two son's (one in the RSC soccer jacket and the other in the green jacket with me in the middle). We were selling 90% silver. I agree this ended up being a bullion show. I saw a few dealers selling their 90% bags to Dave and Silvertowne as well.

Tim

Justacommeman · April 9, 2011 12:55PM

<< <i>Neat gold bar. What's the story behind the three holes on the back of the bar? >>

Those holes I believe were made to get the piece to exactly 5 oz..............Someone will be along to correct me if I'm wrong

I've always wanted one of these London bars.

Just a point of clarification. You could have bought just about anything at the show if you paid up. 10 oz Englehard bars were $430. Overpriced ASE's could be bought. Generic silver rounds at 1.00+ etc etc. A lot of dealers were buying for customer wants at their shops. Some of the out of town one coin shop town guys were telling me they were having a difficult time replacing silver in there stores.

MJ

Justacommeman · April 9, 2011 12:58PM

<< <i>MJ,

Any idea what ST was paying for scrap sterling silverware?

Yesterday morning, I got a call from a friend traveling through Amarillo who bought what he thinks is about 3lbs of teaspoons, forks, ----scrap from a junk shop in Amarillo as he was hunting for antiques. About 60 pieces

$75. >>

Sorry,I didn't pay attention to that. I should have as it looked like a fair amount of it was being sold. I don't think I will be going back tomorrow. MJ

morgantype · April 9, 2011 3:29PM

Great report!

Also, those were some great buy prices on the circulated silver dollars.

Nice bar, I will have to add this to my want list!

BigE · April 9, 2011 4:47PM

Thanks for the report MJ. Very sweet bar, with London stamp and being Englehard! Bet its a nice feeling offing the 100 ouncers for something easier to carry, piles of silver are nice but they sure are hard to move about

---------BigE

BigE · April 9, 2011 4:49PM

BTW, just a thought on the holes, might be there to show purity all the way through the bar, in addition to weight--------BigE

gsa1fan · April 9, 2011 8:36PM

Our big regional spring show is nest weekend in Dalton, Georgia. I remember last year waiting in line before the show opened.

I was third in the door making a be line for Silvertowne's tables. Not one but 2 elderly gents darn near knocked me over running to get to Silvertown's table first.

Silver was around $18 then. Gold $1,155. This was 1 year ago prices.

I'm looking forward to the stampede of this Friday morning's opening of the GNA

PerryHall · April 9, 2011 9:32PM

Is it unusual for gold bars to have holes drilled in them? Can we assume that you weighed that bar to make sure the holes weren't drilled by someone other than the manufacturer? When I see a bar with holes drilled in them, a red flag goes up.

Justacommeman · April 9, 2011 9:42PM

PH, I've only seen a handful of these London Engelhard bars. Each one had these holes in the back. The last one offered to me at $300 over spot per ounce. They are very collectible. This is why I was thrilled to purchase this at less then a premium then AGE's.......MJ

Edited to add this bar weighs exactly 5.0000 oz. MJ

TheBigB · April 9, 2011 11:22PM

Cool old bar, I'm jealous.

Weiss · April 9, 2011 11:46PM

Great report and great pics!

jmski52 · April 10, 2011 12:12AM

Thanks for the report, MJ. I bet that bar has a nice heft! We need reports like this to be reminded of what is really going on with the physical market. Sounds like a healthy market, still.

PerryHall · April 10, 2011 12:57AM

<< <i>PH, I've only seen a handful of these London Engelhard bars. Each one had these holes in the back. The last one offered to me at $300 over spot per ounce. They are very collectible. This is why I was thrilled to purchase this at less then a premium then AGE's.......MJ

Edited to add this bar weighs exactly 5.0000 oz. MJ >>

If they all have holes like this one and the weight is correct, you certainly have nothing to worry about. Those drill holes were probably for adjusting the weight due to gold's high value---they certainly didn't want to give away any free gold. I collect older silver bars and they frequently weigh slightly over their indicated weight and I never see any adjustment marks. Of course when siver was only a few dollars per ounce it wasn't a big deal to give away a few cents worth of silver compared to the cost of paying someone to weigh and adjust the bars. You have a nice looking and highly collectible bar and I sure wish I could afford to collect them.

Michigan Show report with pics

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