I have wanted to diverse into silver for a long time. The problem is the huge bid ask spread. When silver was around $13 it was $3 over spot. Now the Eagle goes for $6 over spot. Is this a realistic price? It must be because it is the standard across the board. Can some explain the wide spread?
Physical premium changes ....premium goes up on coins when silver goes real low.. .and the reverse when it goes way up....my personal experience...either way buying through FB groups is the way I buy and sell silver
Sounds like you just got one quote/oops .[>20% is too high bid ask spread] BUT if SLV has a 20% bid ask @13, then that one dealer would be consistant with your math., when it goes to $26 [Educational example/dont try this @home.] My mama told me-you better shop around...………………………………………………………..
The market for silver or gold coins is not as liquid as for stocks. There is no central place where buyers and sellers meet as in e.g. stock exchange.
I used to get a lot of silver from Ebay, but that seems to have stopped now. Then I got it from Channel Island companies. There are online dealers in England that will give you 3% less than spot for bullion. In terms of the premium you have to get the standard rounds for the silver contents price not the special edition year mint coins. Just silver rounds or bulk orders from the mints reduces the price of the premium. You can get really good prices for bulk orders from some of the European mints but you have to get orders of $10,000s of dollars to get the low premiums. Selling in bulk can be a problem, although there are some places you can take the silver into the shop in England that take big orders.
This is new to me, it might be worth getting into this online market. Is it reputable? I know that there were some problems on ebay with silver trading, but it seems to be operating there again at least in the United Kingdom I just checked it out. I got a couple of bargains on ebay. The alternative and perhaps best way to deal in silver and gold is to buy bulk from the mints, this is where the premium seems to fall the most. But it is big bulk deals that get the premiums like minimum of $10,000 and often $30,000 to $60,000 orders.
Basically the kind of people who buy physical silver and gold are generally wingnut idiots who are easy to take advantage of. So they are taken advantage of. That said, the price of a little chunk of something retail is always going to be higher than the wholesale market price. It costs to have a bunch of tiny chunks of something, store it, distribute it, and deal with the wingnuts you sell it to, pay overhead.... Basic economics and running a business, the real kind not the Atlas Shrugged imaginary universe kind. You don't get a single CCF of natural gas at Henry Hub prices when you have it delivered to your house either.