Three replies to the same question is rude but my brain just isn’t working well tonight.
For bullion my boss accepts cash — and checks from people known to us. Why? Because with our margin being basically 6% we can’t give 4% of that to VISA or someone and still make a buck. Bullion, from a dealers standpoint, isn’t what we really want to do. Around our shop we call gold and silver bullion “milk and bread”. We don’t make much money on it but we have to keep it in stock anyway because people want and expect it. Over a year, with the ups and downs of the market, we make maybe 2%-3% on all bullion combined. We make 10% on today’s sale but we lost 8% on yesterdays sale because of shifts in the market. That’s just the way it is.
Now if you are buying something like a Peruvian 2 Escudo from the late 1700s in XF at say $900 we’ll be pleased as punch to take you Mastercard. The actual gold weight (agw) is only .1904 of a troy ounce and our profit margin is going to be better than that bullion coin you were looking at. There we can take the hit from the processing fee and possible credit card fraud and still stay in business.
PART TWO
If you came into our shop (or visited a shop near you) I would remember “Actually I wanted a gold chain but I lose everything too easily, so I have no doubt if I bought a gold bracelet in a month I’d lose it.”
Gold in that form we buy farther under melt than we do coin issues – which means we have some great bargains. If you catch us before our weekly shipment to the smelters. In all these ideas kicking around, consider visiting your local dealers. Ask about jewelry. You may just get a nice surprise to consider.
It also doesn’t help that there is a Franklin Mint type mint out there that called (or maybe still does call) itself the United States Mint. People get confused sometimes and their ads do look good. But even with collectors coins like they sell on QVC or the like - simple fact is I have yet to see one of their “deals” we couldn’t beat by 20% or more. In fact, some of the lots we sell end up with one or another of those companies. It happens. Just buy smart and from someone who has been around 20 years or more and you should be safe.
Your average sale is under $10? That’s what it would take to have a 4% edge to Visa. Your numbers are likely more like 1%. Now, sure, when you’re making only 6%, even 1-2% hurts.
My fault; I threw out basic numbers when there are more variables involved. It varies from company to company (one of the reasons we don’t do American Express) and how the card is submitted to us (in person or through Verisign or one of the other online services). And I keep trying to forget the guy who wanted to pay with PayPal even though we were already set up for plastic long before they came along. It’s easier to basically just say no to plastic than figure different prices based on specifics within one form of payment.
Case in point: my wife wanted to surprise me for Christmas a few years ago and ordered a St. Gaudens double eagle from some company she saw in the newspaper. Oh, it’s real enough: but it has a blemish on the face and she paid about $525 for a coin that was then worth about $300. I didn’t have the heart to tell her and I still have it.
I’m sure it would make her feel better if you told her it’s worth close to $1,000 just for the bullion value alone. I don’t know how many years ago “a few” was but nearly doubling the purchase price sounds like a pretty sound investment to me, all things considered.
As it turns out, that’s correct. It could have just as easily gone the other way, and the numismatic value isn’t there, of course, because of the condition issue. But a thousand bucks is very tempting. . .
It may be time to see if I can sell my 2000 and 2001 gold Pandas, which should fetch a premium. I’ve also got a 1910 $10 Indian that has some numo value.
Most of my personal stash I got at percentages under $250 per ounce a few years (OK - a small bunch of years) back when the Y2K people were deciding they were probably not in danger any longer. I cashed half of the weight in when it broke $900. I plan to cash half that weight if it tops $1500.
What I am mostly buying for myself is Civil War Era (short term - the anniversary is coming up and based on the Bicentennial prices will jump drastically. Plus its affordable in high grade) and key date Barbers and Large Cents mostly in higher grades (strictly long term and on a hunch).
Probably not much premium. The high price of gold has wiped out much numsmatic value on many things. Your 1910 Indian $10 has about $500 gold value today(at $1040 gold) and you might get $550.
I agree with Sam. Even during/after a melt like we saw during the Hunt thing, common remains common. It has to start at least partly scarce to really get helped. Indians tend to run “common” and “really rare” (like the 1920-S or 1933) with not much inbetween.
Pandas also got hurt a little by how many different types/designs China has issued. When they first started the design, a lot of people who collected bears wanted them to add to their Beanie Babies and Boydds Bears collections. As the number of designs grew, that side market really dried up. Kind of how the big growth in commemorative issues hurt the stamp hobby.
As it turns out, that’s correct. It could have just as easily gone the other way, and the numismatic value isn’t there, of course, because of the condition issue. But a thousand bucks is very tempting. . .