With gold and silver prices soaring lately with probably no stop is sight, I figured I'd share a possible way to get yourself some precious metals under cost and hopefully make you some money in the future. I debated even posting this 1) because I'm sure someone will criticize it and 2) cuz then my money making supply might dry up! 
Some of you might not know this, but a few of the big antique stores in your area are probably broken down into little booths throughout the store. These booths are then rented by smaller dealers that don't have the desire or cash to run an entire store by themselves, so they rent small spaces at one or maybe many different antique "malls". Many of these dealers might only make it to their booths once a week or maybe only once a month. This means that they cannot keep up with the every climbing "value" of any silver coins in their booth. Which means you can find these "under valued" coins and get them cheap.
Here's the plan. Figure out what the "value" of different coins are based on silver content. (I'll try to include a chart below to give you an example. Then, go to these big antique malls and scour the booths for old silver coins. Start out with any dollar, half-dollar, quarter or dime from 1964 or before to be safe. (Search some of the threads on TB2K for more detailed info.) If any coin is below the "value" in your chart - buy it. A precious metals dealer will probably charge you anywhere from 10-20% of a coin's "melt value" when they buy it, so you might have to hold on to some of these coins for a bit to actually make money. But I personally don't think silver is gonna quit climbing anytime soon.
Here's my example (all weights according to my coin Red Book) and keep in mind that this is based solely on the weight of silver in it - it doesn't take into account any rarity of the coin/condition of the coin/etc.:
A Silver Dollar has .77344 ounces of pure silver in it. If silver is at $10/oz that means you'd have to find a silver dollar at $7.73 to "break even". So, read my chart below as Coin type - weight of silver in oz. - silver at $10/oz - silver at $12/oz (prices rounded.)
Dollar -- .77344oz. -- $7.73 -- $9.28
Half Dollar -- .36169oz. -- $3.62 -- $4.34
Quarter -- .18084oz. -- $1.81 -- $2.17
Dime -- .07234oz. -- $0.72 -- $0.86
I hope that comes out OK...not having tabs available, sucks.
Anyways, I actually put this into practice the last few weeks. I've found quite a few silver dimes for sale for $0.60 - 0.80 a piece which at $12 silver means I "made" 6 cents a piece roughly -- and many silver quarters around $1.60-1.90 - and a handful of half dollars for #3.50-4.00. All well under my price target.
So don't think that you have to be a big time investor to get into the precious metals market. Hit some slow moving antique stores and start protecting your ass(ets).
-Sly
Some of you might not know this, but a few of the big antique stores in your area are probably broken down into little booths throughout the store. These booths are then rented by smaller dealers that don't have the desire or cash to run an entire store by themselves, so they rent small spaces at one or maybe many different antique "malls". Many of these dealers might only make it to their booths once a week or maybe only once a month. This means that they cannot keep up with the every climbing "value" of any silver coins in their booth. Which means you can find these "under valued" coins and get them cheap.
Here's the plan. Figure out what the "value" of different coins are based on silver content. (I'll try to include a chart below to give you an example. Then, go to these big antique malls and scour the booths for old silver coins. Start out with any dollar, half-dollar, quarter or dime from 1964 or before to be safe. (Search some of the threads on TB2K for more detailed info.) If any coin is below the "value" in your chart - buy it. A precious metals dealer will probably charge you anywhere from 10-20% of a coin's "melt value" when they buy it, so you might have to hold on to some of these coins for a bit to actually make money. But I personally don't think silver is gonna quit climbing anytime soon.
Here's my example (all weights according to my coin Red Book) and keep in mind that this is based solely on the weight of silver in it - it doesn't take into account any rarity of the coin/condition of the coin/etc.:
A Silver Dollar has .77344 ounces of pure silver in it. If silver is at $10/oz that means you'd have to find a silver dollar at $7.73 to "break even". So, read my chart below as Coin type - weight of silver in oz. - silver at $10/oz - silver at $12/oz (prices rounded.)
Dollar -- .77344oz. -- $7.73 -- $9.28
Half Dollar -- .36169oz. -- $3.62 -- $4.34
Quarter -- .18084oz. -- $1.81 -- $2.17
Dime -- .07234oz. -- $0.72 -- $0.86
I hope that comes out OK...not having tabs available, sucks.
Anyways, I actually put this into practice the last few weeks. I've found quite a few silver dimes for sale for $0.60 - 0.80 a piece which at $12 silver means I "made" 6 cents a piece roughly -- and many silver quarters around $1.60-1.90 - and a handful of half dollars for #3.50-4.00. All well under my price target.
So don't think that you have to be a big time investor to get into the precious metals market. Hit some slow moving antique stores and start protecting your ass(ets).
-Sly
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