Just in terms of bullion, that is, not as a collectible. In other words, the price I can expect to pay for various denominations (1 oz., 1/2 oz., 1/4 oz., 1/10 oz.) of non-rare/not-mint-condition American Gold Eagles and the prices I can expect coin dealers to pay to buy them from me.
Have you tried e-mailing Samclem? That’s the easiest way to answer your puzzle.
No, I haven’t – but I’m looking for more of a daily price chart (akin to the spot gold price, but for coins).
The American Eagle prices are directly related ot the “spot” price. You can follow the live gold price at kitco.com.
Our coin shop pays “full” spot price for the coins. If spot gold is $449., we buy eagles at $449. Of course, local conditions can affect this. It would not usually be MORE than that, and sometimes less.
Thanks. And what’s the markup above spot when a customer wants to buy Eagles from you?
We sell Eagles at $22 over spot. If we are lucky and have them in stock from buying them at spot from sellers, then we make $22 (on a $500+ sale).
But, quite often we have to buy them off the “market” and they cost us $10-15 OVER spot. Then we make little.
The fractional pieces are bought/sold at a slightly higher percentage. They aren’t the economical way to buy gold. The 1 ouncer is.
Just for your info, we buy K-rands at minus $10 and sell at plus $15.
We buy Canadian Maples at minus $5 and sell at plus $20.
The eagle is the biggest seller. Again, your local dealer may work on different spreads, depending on the local gold coin of choice and his profit margin needs. Smaller dealer needs to make more 'cause of low volume.
As an amateur collector, I still don’t understand this completely. An ounce of gold is an ounce of gold, if one is just buying and selling it as bullion investment. What difference does it make whether it’s an Eagle or a Krug? If you melt it down, it’s the same puddle.
On the up side of all this, I bought 23 ounces a few years ago at $265 (Eagles, Rands and Maples). 
Well, bullion is all about trust. If I just hand you a block of yellow metal and say, “here, this is gold … pay me $450 an ounce for it…” will you trust me?
We trust that the US mint has not adulterated the gold with any lesser metals … and trust the Canadians (slightly less, maybe), and trust the South Africans (slightly less, maybe) …
Thanks for all this info., Sam.
The reason for the difference in the spreads on the different gold coins is literally due to supply and demand.
If I were buying gold as an investment , with the idea that I was gonna sell it when it hit $800/ounce, I’d buy the cheapest coin, because when the price is sky high, we’ll have lines of sellers and we’ll be paying the same price for an ounce of gold in any form–about $10-30 UNDER the spot price of gold. At that point, we have all sellers, and few buyers, so all the gold is getting sold to the refineries, who pay about 99% for the gold. This scenario is based on our experience in January, 1980, when gold went to $800US from some months earlier at $200.