Realcent.org

Maybe sales are slumping for a local coin shop? Summer slow down? Anyway, first time I noticed a certain LCS selling ASEs and generic ounces on craigslist. Oh, and they charge sales tax too. Uh, think I will just mail order stuff. Their special price offer stands only if mention you saw the ad on craiglist for the bullion. Gee, so prices are higher for walk-ins who do not know about the CL ad. OK. Another reason I will mail order. Save on taxes, driving and dealing with LCS owner indifferences.

Special price for mentioning the ad is just to measure the effectiveness of their advertising. It's no different than printing a coupon in the newspaper.

It could be worse. Here on the Eugene, Oregon Craigslist we have a guy who regularly lists his generic 1 oz silver rounds at $35 each. Today once again I came across his listing and I always wonder if he gets any takers.....especially since our two local coin shops sell them at $2.50 over spot.

Have you sent your LCS an email to ask why he's training his customers to look on CL before they head to his shop?

Thats true- I do not think any LCS wants the kind of client that has to find them thru Craigslist

But then again if your going to sell your goods your more likely to use CL then in turn see a LCS and sell your goods them. But clients that want to buy from them and advertising for that? seems odd

The shop in question has been brick and mortar for many years. They advertise on the radio too. Maybe their peer LCS competitors are ratcheting things up with advertising and maybe private party CL competition is getting to them too? I just don't think there is a silver shortage if an LCS does CL ads and offers special pricing per mentioning the ad. If they plan to sell on CL often, means they need to increase business? Anyway, maybe it is just a test run. My opinion is that many dealers scoff at Ebay and CL in general perhaps seeing them as scam-bait or don't like the competition. Mind you, they want customers coming to them and not going to other venues/dealers. Anyway, I can buy from Silvertowne, Westminster, etc. I am a casual buyer. Casual buyers do not get frequent buyer points from an LCS. I visited the shop in question once. Felt like the proverbial kid in the china shop that should not touch anything lest in breaks and you bought it.....

Engineer wrote:Have you sent your LCS an email to ask why he's training his customers to look on CL before they head to his shop?

No. The novelty of them advertising on CL is the message. I gather they would tell me to pound sand as dealers don't have to explain anything -ie- silver spot price drops a lot and they are out of silver henceforth or refuse to sell commensurate with spot price. That's their prerogative.

CL is wonderful. You have prices up around the moon for normal stuff and you also have people bullying others that ask a couple times under face value. And just about everything is subject to being flagged.

There's so little oversight, so go in with a lot of knowledge about what you're buying.

Aside from that good for the LCS's for getting in the CL game.

I advertise my business on Kijiji (similar to Craigslist, but much more popular in Canada).
I don't see what's wrong with that.

There is nothing wrong with advertising on CL but here are my thoughts:

Bullion has to be a razor thin margin business if I was to guess for LCS's.So razor thin it cant support any 'sales' or 'coupons'.It reminds me of Tulving's bonus of getting 1 SAE free when spending $50,000 (thats only $19 worth of silver for spending $50,000) so when I see an ad that that says '$1 off an ounce for silver' or '10% your bill' or anything like that for NEW customers has me worried in a since that if I return (as an OLD customer hence no deals) to buy more all their items might be priced higher than the competition if it can afford to do such sales

Engineer wrote:Have you sent your LCS an email to ask why he's training his customers to look on CL before they head to his shop?

?? CL would amount to free advertising? Why not take advantage of free advertising?

Catfish4u wrote:

Engineer wrote:Have you sent your LCS an email to ask why he's training his customers to look on CL before they head to his shop?

?? CL would amount to free advertising? Why not take advantage of free advertising?

Having your customers do their own due diligence. That sounds like a good thing to me.

~JobIII

pennypicker wrote:It could be worse. Here on the Eugene, Oregon Craigslist we have a guy who regularly lists his generic 1 oz silver rounds at $35 each. Today once again I came across his listing and I always wonder if he gets any takers.....especially since our two local coin shops sell them at $2.50 over spot.

I'm sure he does get some takers. It's kind of like when I go to a coin auction and people buy coins for several dollars over what they could just drive across town and buy them from our local coin dealer. The uniformed will always pay too much. Maybe that's a good thing if you are a seller?

My local pawnshop had dirty old eagles for 39.99, and really dirty common peace dollars for 32.99.

everything wrote:My local pawnshop had dirty old eagles for 39.99, and really dirty common peace dollars for 32.99.

Thing I observe too is that as spot has gone down, the older ASEs have a numi value now. When silver was in the 40's, I don't think price fluctuated much if a person bought a 2011 ASE or a 1986 or some date between.

I see silver as bullion value first and if a design catches my eye, I'll try to buy it at generic pricing at best. I still have some Morgans I bought below spot (~ $14 each) when silver was about this price about four years ago or so. Don't think Morgans would go for anything less than $25 for a common date now even though silver is same price it was then. Almost as if people are craving silver like zombies......