My LCS Guy is nervous

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ancona

Praying Mantis
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I called my friend and LCS owner yesterday to bullshit a little bit, and he said folks have been steady streaming in to buy silver. Most of them want the biggest bang for the buck and are buying Sunshine, Buffalo and other generics, but he said a lot of folks want quality and are asking for ASE's and junk. We talked about the pre-Christmas trend of folks coming in, selling and asking him to "hold on to it if you can, because as soon as I get my W2, I'm going to do my taxes and buy this stuff back".

Of course he's a pretty good guy, and did hold some stuff for a few good customers, and as far as he's concerned, he's making the vig on either end so it's all good. When I asked him what the percentage of sellers versus buy was he said that hands down, there are three buyers for every seller on average for the whole of last quarter.

He went on to tell me that there are four items he cannot keep in the shop, because they are gone as soon as he gets them [standing orders and stuff]

1. Kooks
2. Libertads, which command an eleven dollar premium!
3. Philharmonics, which carry a [I think] 6 dollar premium
and
4. Maples

I found it odd that his customers do not seem to look on-line for these products, but he said, "Lots of folks are paranoid as hell about doing these transactions on-line because of the permanent electronic paper trail, and they know they can get them on-line, but prefer the anonymity of the LCS, who keeps ZERO buyer records. As a matter of fact, he only knows most customers by their first name. He only knows my last name because our firm removed the asbestos containing pipe insulation from the chiller lines in his shop three years ago, and he met me at the pre-construction meeting.

All in all, a very interesting conversation as well as a statement about the undocumented movement of metals in the country. I wonder how much private gold and silver is un reported/under-reported and how much is really in the hands of folks like us?
 
I called my friend and LCS owner yesterday to bullshit a little bit, ...

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.

... I wonder how much private gold and silver is un reported/under-reported and how much is really in the hands of folks like us?

You mean how much is sunk at the bottom of America's lakes in tragic boating accidents? :rimshot:
 
I often wonder what it is about taking silver out in a boat that we all find so natural? Of course, I mourned the loss of my silver, but am slowly getting used to this cool paper stuff. It's so light and easy to carry. Those damn silver bars wouldn't fold up so I could carry them in my wallet. Good riddance I say.
 
I got a call from my LCS asking me to partuicipate in a charity golf event in two weeks, so I said yes. I asked him if he knew of anything behind the scenes worth talking about, and he said no, but htere is a hell of a lot of tension in the bullion world, and he feels like "something is up". It might be nothing, but he's not one who is prone to saying shit just to hear his own voice.

Anyway, something to add to the list.
 
Great, great thread ancona! Maybe the dominoes ARE starting to go... Naah, every time I think that, they just kick the can again.

If I run into any interesting talk (maybe at MY local coin shop), I'll pass it along. PMBug is pretty good at breaking news as well. ZH and the Widget...

Maybe "they" can drag this long enough so that after I die my daughter will sell all the gold, THEN it all comes down!

EDIT:

Your LCS saying so many want to buy anonymously for cash is SPOT-ON! Every time I have bought PMs has been from a coin shop (except for one purchase of Pt via MONEX). Our local coin shop will let my local friend (me next?) fill out the receipt in a phony name...
 
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It's probably quite wise to have good security about what PM's one owns. From nearly everyone. Of course, they could finger a coin shop dealer and get him talking, because he knows and they know it - you can only take that "I only saw any of these guys once" line so far.

Be sure and get plenty of boat time - or skydiving, oops dropped the bag, whatever. You know how things fall out of those private planes all the time.

Quite a lot of my stash is as an innocuous chemical that doesn't look like anything special, nice for making electroplating solutions and stuff. Almost anyone would walk right by it even if looking for it, and if they started digging into my chemistry set, well, a lot of the containers aren't all that safe to open at random...

Some plating compounds are themselves quite toxic if you don't know how to handle them safely.
 
Unless you want bars it's really hard to get filled on orders here in Fort Worth. Over the weekend I went to 3 different coin shops and you'd be lucky to find more than 10 oz of gold and 500 oz of silver at each one. Most of which are 10 oz bars. For a city this size, that's very little to have on hand at reputable dealers.

oh and $34 for a 1oz maple? Yeah, i'll get right on that honey.
 
Well as of 2:30 PM ET, I am seeing no stress in the paper PM markets (rising prices) nor in the premiums at the Widget (8% for Gold Eagles, 27% for Silver Eagles) showing no eBay retail nervousness. That 8% and 27% is much closer to normal premiums.

I'll be keeping a close eye on the Widget and report back!

Latest tracking on the Widget:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...G5GRXpkZ3RrZTdaeGdabElJYjVIVXc&hl=en_US#gid=0

Link just worked...
 
The first silver coin I ever bought was supposed to be an inside joke to my Australian wife, and a stocking stuffer for her: A 2011 Kookaburra. Man it was good laughs. Also a decent topic-starter to help her understand I'm changing things up a bit in how I preserve wealth, and intend to invest a higher percentage into PM's...

It went well, I think. Especially after I mimicked the sound of the Kookaburra (it takes practice!)

..old thread, but still worth a share.
 
The first silver coin I ever bought was supposed to be an inside joke to my Australian wife, and a stocking stuffer for her: A 2011 Kookaburra. Man it was good laughs. Also a decent topic-starter to help her understand I'm changing things up a bit in how I preserve wealth, and intend to invest a higher percentage into PM's...

It went well, I think. Especially after I mimicked the sound of the Kookaburra (it takes practice!)

..old thread, but still worth a share.
How about posting an audio clip of that? It would increase the entertainment value of this site. :)
 
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