Facts About Buying & Selling

What is your spread between the buy and sell price of various products? In the precious metals business this answer will depend on market volatility, relative price and the nature of the product you choose.  

Bullion Coins or Bars: The difference between the buy and sell usually varies between 1% and 4% on gold and up to 5% on silver. This market is driven by speculators and folks who believe real money can’t be defined by paper currency. This market can be volatile and subject to dramatic moves depending on public confidence.

Semi-Numismatic Coins: An example of this area would be non-certified, circulated $20 gold pieces. The difference between our buy and sell is about 10%. So the spread is larger than regular bullion, but you get a rarity advantage which may lead to better price action and possible confiscation protection.

PCGS Certified Rare Coins: Of these three investment areas the difference between the buy and sell in this case can be the largest, coming in between 10% and 20%, but time has shown this area can be a superb long-term money producer given you make the right choices. This is true because relative rarity and the difficulty in locating an example are only two primary driving forces. There are three others which are important: First, a large collecting base has been established since the beginning of the 20^th Century. This tends to push prices higher and shrink available supply. Second, the readily available price history of rare coins dating from the early 1970’s provides investors important information. And, third, case studies which show carefully chosen rare coins can provide currency and inflation protection over the long term.     

So which area is the correct choice? Actually no person can tell you what the future may bring. Sometimes bullion leads the race and may out perform semi-numismatic or PCGS Certified Rare Coins. Sometimes the reverse is true and rare coins take the lead. Over the longer term carefully chosen rare coins have done better than both bullion or semi-numismatic choices, but the spreads tend to be larger and past performance is not a guarantee of what may happen in the future. Depending on random market forces you may find one area outperforms the other two and it is just as likely that the others may catch up or surpass your original choice. This is true because public demand creates an unpredictable market dynamic, which is why we suggest a diversified approach. Since the 1970’s a combination of precious metals and rare coins seems to be the right choice. Each has surged and retreated in value according to how much faith investors have in the dollar, the price of oil and other related factors.