OK, forgive me here - I have never posted in this forum on ET! I admit knowing very little about the silver futures and options markets...heck, I know little about the spot market as well I do own a little gold and silver physical. Usually, I can go on eBay and see "silver rounds" out there for sale - I mean quite a few different auctions. Some of the auctions are for quantity 1 - 1 oz. rounds; some auctions are for quantity 10 - 1 oz. rounds., etc. you get the picture. There used to be quite a few such auctions. Now there are VERY few such auctions. There seems to be a shortage of silver rounds...here is the question - why has the spot price of silver not sky rocketed with such a REAL shortage of silver? Thanks, gastropod
Manipulation by banks like HSBC that are shorting the hell out of it. One day the silver will just be unavailable and you will see the mother of all rallies. You can still buy silver rounds at APMEX.com for a little over $20 as of this writing.
What's interesting is this, we got some bullion silver when spot was around $10, since that time spot is up over 90%, though dealer's offer is up 40%, they say that's what's mining company is willing to sell to them for, no matter if spot is up 90%.
Whether silver is at $5 or $50, the markup for physical minting is relatively the same for key bullion products but can change based on supply/demand. Silver eagles always had a $2-$3 premium over spot. Put that into perspective in % terms at the $10 spot price versus the current $19. On the other hand, I remember markups for certain generic rounds being $2 when silver was $9-10. Currently, many of those are only $1 markups. You have to price that in.
you can always hedge some of your physical with something else or try selling * with a reserve * on ebay
There's no shortage of silver. Go to kitco or apmex or tulving and you can get whatever you want. Just because marginal sellers of a few ounces of coins are in lighter numbers on ebay tells very little.
Nice try, but if silver spot really drops, the guy on the other end is going to say "oh i dont want it anymore" Or more likely, he will just never send payment or contact you.