ebay silver supply- ramblings
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 12:50 am
Hi all-
I go on ebay a few times a week, though I'm not a hardcore sniper, I've got some observations that I wonder hold any bit of truth-
I wonder how much silver is left out there- Since post #1, I've been a fan of 90% silver, so that's what I usually search for and what this is based off of, but:
Say you go on ebay. Type in the most generous catch all query, 'silver coins' - you'll likely come across over 100,000 listings... so you think, "whew, no shortage here!" but, look closer-
I guesstimate roughly half of those listings are for overpriced, professionally graded single coins or collections, numi stuff, and not really for bullion investing.
Probably 10% is for coin related supplies that were caught in the seach words, like 'silver coin tubes' or 'silver coins book', etc-
Probably 20% are for very smallish listings, like two or three coins, or a small handful of dimes or quarters- definitely what you want, but isnt there anything bigger?
Probably 5-8% are for non-Us silver coins, which are nice but also in short supply, and can be tricky to sell.
Ebay recently forbid copy coins from being listed on its site, but lo and behold they still pop up, so put that down for another 3%-
There's also silver jewelry, which can pop up under those search terms, which is also nice, but can be tricky to price and sell, and not really for investment- figure 5% on that.
So, what does that leave....about 5-10% of that 100,000 listings are for fairly priced, good size (5-200FV) lots of silver bullion. (assuming youre looking for 90% silver) ....to say nothing of the freaks who ask 35Xface on circulated roosevelt dimes...
Ah, you say, but doesnt that refresh every week? Yes, I answer, but now we have to include the relistings of people that didnt sell last week, and most of what doesnt sell are the numi coins and supplies, so that further bloats the search results and means less bullion..
At least that's what I guesstimate- bottom line- just good old silver is not as common as you may think on the surface!!
JMO wags
I go on ebay a few times a week, though I'm not a hardcore sniper, I've got some observations that I wonder hold any bit of truth-
I wonder how much silver is left out there- Since post #1, I've been a fan of 90% silver, so that's what I usually search for and what this is based off of, but:
Say you go on ebay. Type in the most generous catch all query, 'silver coins' - you'll likely come across over 100,000 listings... so you think, "whew, no shortage here!" but, look closer-
I guesstimate roughly half of those listings are for overpriced, professionally graded single coins or collections, numi stuff, and not really for bullion investing.
Probably 10% is for coin related supplies that were caught in the seach words, like 'silver coin tubes' or 'silver coins book', etc-
Probably 20% are for very smallish listings, like two or three coins, or a small handful of dimes or quarters- definitely what you want, but isnt there anything bigger?
Probably 5-8% are for non-Us silver coins, which are nice but also in short supply, and can be tricky to sell.
Ebay recently forbid copy coins from being listed on its site, but lo and behold they still pop up, so put that down for another 3%-
There's also silver jewelry, which can pop up under those search terms, which is also nice, but can be tricky to price and sell, and not really for investment- figure 5% on that.
So, what does that leave....about 5-10% of that 100,000 listings are for fairly priced, good size (5-200FV) lots of silver bullion. (assuming youre looking for 90% silver) ....to say nothing of the freaks who ask 35Xface on circulated roosevelt dimes...
Ah, you say, but doesnt that refresh every week? Yes, I answer, but now we have to include the relistings of people that didnt sell last week, and most of what doesnt sell are the numi coins and supplies, so that further bloats the search results and means less bullion..
At least that's what I guesstimate- bottom line- just good old silver is not as common as you may think on the surface!!
JMO wags