How to sell American Eagle Gold Coins

Hello. I have some 1998 1 oz. Eagle/Liberty coins that I want to sell for
my mother.
All the dealers I called are offering me less than the spot price of an
ounce of gold.
I was under the impression that the gold coins were worth more than just the
daily gold price?
So, it gold closed as $440/oz. I would think the coin was worth $400 + X,
not less than $440.
Since I know absolutely nothing about the gold coin industry, can someone
please enlighten me
on my misconception?

Thanks.

"Leor Amikam" wrote in message
...
Hello. I have some 1998 1 oz. Eagle/Liberty coins that I want to sell for
my mother.
All the dealers I called are offering me less than the spot price of an
ounce of gold.
I was under the impression that the gold coins were worth more than just
the
daily gold price?
So, it gold closed as $440/oz. I would think the coin was worth $400 + X,
not less than $440.
Since I know absolutely nothing about the gold coin industry, can someone
please enlighten me
on my misconception?

Thanks.

Just as they will charge you somewhat more than the true bullion value when
they sell it to you, they will give you somewhat less than true bullion
value when they buy it from you. Besides the ordinary markup/profit they
are entitled to make, they often can't turn the merchandise right away, and
must make allowance for a possible decrease in the value of the bullion.

Classic gold coins (made before 1933) are a different story. They often
have numismatic value far exceeding their bullion value.

James

I see. Thanks for the info.

"James Higby" heezerbumfrool[at]hotmail[dot]com wrote in message
...

"Leor Amikam" wrote in message
...
Hello. I have some 1998 1 oz. Eagle/Liberty coins that I want to sell
for
my mother.
All the dealers I called are offering me less than the spot price of an
ounce of gold.
I was under the impression that the gold coins were worth more than just
the
daily gold price?
So, it gold closed as $440/oz. I would think the coin was worth $400 +
X,
not less than $440.
Since I know absolutely nothing about the gold coin industry, can
someone
please enlighten me
on my misconception?

Thanks.

Just as they will charge you somewhat more than the true bullion value
when
they sell it to you, they will give you somewhat less than true bullion
value when they buy it from you. Besides the ordinary markup/profit they
are entitled to make, they often can't turn the merchandise right away,
and
must make allowance for a possible decrease in the value of the bullion.

Classic gold coins (made before 1933) are a different story. They often
have numismatic value far exceeding their bullion value.

James

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 19:59:33 -0600, "James Higby"
heezerbumfrool[at]hotmail[dot]com wrote:

Just as they will charge you somewhat more than the true bullion value when
they sell it to you, they will give you somewhat less than true bullion
value when they buy it from you. Besides the ordinary markup/profit they
are entitled to make, they often can't turn the merchandise right away, and
must make allowance for a possible decrease in the value of the bullion.

Classic gold coins (made before 1933) are a different story. They often
have numismatic value far exceeding their bullion value.

James

AJPM at http://www.ajpm.com is currently selling at about $20 over
spot and buying at about $7 over spot.

"Leor Amikam" wrote in message
...
Hello. I have some 1998 1 oz. Eagle/Liberty coins that I want to sell for
my mother.
All the dealers I called are offering me less than the spot price of an
ounce of gold.
I was under the impression that the gold coins were worth more than just
the
daily gold price?
So, it gold closed as $440/oz. I would think the coin was worth $400 + X,
not less than $440.
Since I know absolutely nothing about the gold coin industry, can someone
please enlighten me
on my misconception?

Thanks.


Business strikes are only worth extra if they are graded very high by a
grading service. MS69's are fairly common and there's a big jump in values
at MS70. These have little numismatic value otherwise since there's around
another 1,469,000 of those. These will have numismatic value added
eventually. Not much in our lifetimes but they will. The thing to do with
business strikes is to buy a mess of 'em and hope that the price of gold
goes way up.
'98W proofs are much better. They only minted around 43,000 of those for
'98.
I'd be hanging on to one of those proofs if I had one ;-)

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 20:49:50 -0500, "Leor Amikam"
wrote:

Hello. I have some 1998 1 oz. Eagle/Liberty coins that I want to sell for
my mother.
All the dealers I called are offering me less than the spot price of an
ounce of gold.
I was under the impression that the gold coins were worth more than just the
daily gold price?
So, it gold closed as $440/oz. I would think the coin was worth $400 + X,
not less than $440.
Since I know absolutely nothing about the gold coin industry, can someone
please enlighten me
on my misconception?

Thanks.

The best place I can think of to sell gold right now is on the retail
market, where you can ask spot plus a little extra for coinage. Do you
have an account on eBay and a good feedback rating? eBay may be a good
way to sell the gold if you do.

It is normal for dealers to offer you spot for gold. They in turn sell
it for slightly more. The profit margin for common bullion is low. If
they were to pay too much -- especially right now when gold is high --
they would not be able to make a living. If you want to make higher,
you need to become the dealer yourself.

Good luck,
Anita

In article , "Leor Amikam"
wrote:

Hello. I have some 1998 1 oz. Eagle/Liberty coins that I want to sell
for my mother.
All the dealers I called are offering me less than the spot price of an
ounce of gold.
I was under the impression that the gold coins were worth more than
just the daily gold price?
So, it gold closed as $440/oz. I would think the coin was worth $400 +
X, not less than $440.
Since I know absolutely nothing about the gold coin industry, can
someone please enlighten me on my misconception?

With gold spot at $442.30, the Major Wholesalers spread was
American Gold Eagle 1 Oz. BUY: 448.30 SELL: 450.80

That's only a 1/2 percent spread between buy and sell,
and you would probably have to trade in 100 piece lots
to get those rates.

Once filtered down through the secondary wholesalers and
retailers, each additional level taking a couple of bucks
per unit for their markup, I'd expect to be quoted a buy
of $440 and a sell of $460 on a onesy-twosy quantity deal.

This will vary on a shop-by-shop basis, and on a daily
basis, however. If the shop just SOLD 10 ounces and
hasn't replaced them yet, they will undoubtedly offer
a higher price to the public that day ... less than they
would have to pay their wholesaler, but more than they
would normally buy them for.

On the other hand, if the shop just BOUGHT 10 ounces and
hasn't sold them yet, they may offer less than usual due to
cash flow reasons, or expectations that their wholesaler
may drop the buy price before they can sell them ...

--
Ken Barr Numismatics
P. O. Box 32541 website: http://www.kenbarr.com
San Jose, CA 95152 (souvenir cards, MPC, Hickey Bros tokens)
408-272-3247 Next show: Livermore Vly CC 03/13 (no table)
ADVANCED NOTICE: ANA World's Fair of Money, San Francisco, CA 7/27-31/2005

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 00:24:17 -0800, Ken Barr wrote:

This will vary on a shop-by-shop basis, and on a daily
basis, however. If the shop just SOLD 10 ounces and
hasn't replaced them yet, they will undoubtedly offer
a higher price to the public that day ... less than they
would have to pay their wholesaler, but more than they
would normally buy them for.

On the other hand, if the shop just BOUGHT 10 ounces and
hasn't sold them yet, they may offer less than usual due to
cash flow reasons, or expectations that their wholesaler
may drop the buy price before they can sell them ...

What you said is so true. Unless someone deals in a fairly large
volume of bullion, the buy-low, sell-high principle holds.This is
understandable. A dealer cannot afford to pay the high spot values for
a coin that will sit on the shelf until the price of gold drops.

But then, there's always a chance that gold will continue to rise.
It's hard to know. A month ago, investors were told to sell when the
price hit $430. Many are probably wishing that they had waited a bit
longer, since the price has been going even higher.

Anita

Has anyone had experience w/this place? Why would they pay me over spot,
when every local dealer
here in Atlanta that I called will by at less than spot. I am skeptical.


"Phil DeMayo" wrote in message
news:1110511568.be6d954b31f34a81474cc2cd8a4331b1@t eranews...
On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 19:59:33 -0600, "James Higby"
heezerbumfrool[at]hotmail[dot]com wrote:

Just as they will charge you somewhat more than the true bullion value
when
they sell it to you, they will give you somewhat less than true bullion
value when they buy it from you. Besides the ordinary markup/profit they
are entitled to make, they often can't turn the merchandise right away,
and
must make allowance for a possible decrease in the value of the bullion.

Classic gold coins (made before 1933) are a different story. They often
have numismatic value far exceeding their bullion value.

James

AJPM at http://www.ajpm.com is currently selling at about $20 over
spot and buying at about $7 over spot.

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 17:51:47 -0500, "Leor Amikam"
wrote:

Has anyone had experience w/this place? Why would they pay me over spot,
when every local dealer
here in Atlanta that I called will by at less than spot. I am skeptical.


You may find that if you walk in a place they may pay you closer to
spot. I always figured that people who called me to find out what I
was paying were generally just shopping all the different places and
wouldn't likely come in so I usually gave them a percentage behind
spot price just to cover myself. If they ended up coming in that day
I may pay more depending on what the market is doing at the time but
if they come in the next day all bets are off. The quote you get is
what I'll pay if you come in right now, not tomorrow or next week.

Or people call up and say "I have a bunch of gold coins, what'll you
pay above spot" and I just have to say, bring them in and I'll make
you an offer. Money and gold coins talk, the other stuff walks.
Cliff