Reader P sent me this email:
Robert,
I stopped by my usual dealer today in the Dallas Fort Worth area. He was out of everything. I've been a big buyer in the past so he's willing to spend quite a bit of time to describe market conditions. First, he can secure gold eagles, but it would take a few weeks to deliver more than ten. Platinum has been gone for a long time and he'll lock in the price, but needs 90 days to deliver. Silver was nearly the same story. I asked if he's seen bars and he told me, "not in a few weeks". Now this is a guy who could routinely fill $100K orders in 24 hours. I asked about the clients - many more 'big-fish' - people coming in to buy 10, 20 or a hundred Gold Eagles in one purchase. Any newbies? He said yes, and added that most of the people who buy now are new to Gold and Silver and really use up his retail time to explain how things work. His margins are higher than in the past - $1.50 oz for 90% bullion and up to $2.50/oz for silver bars (depends on the type). Gold Eagles are sold at $95 over spot. Since the latest price declines he has had any sellers. He offered that the price of silver shouldn't have declined by $12 in the past few weeks - it should have gone up by that much. He's optimistic that prices will start moving up again soon, but supply will continue to be a problem.
Best regards,
P
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Thanks P!
You wonder how many of these guys actually have gold, but unfortunately paid well over *current* spot for it when it looked like going to the moon right away. In such a case, it's a lot nicer customer relations to say they don't have any, rather than say they do, but have to charge way-way over current spot for it or lose money. I know some who do that (in other fields). They might be smart enough to realize it'll go back up, and it makes sense to just wait in that case, then declare they have it again.
ReplyDeleteJust a theory. A real widespread shortage would have a different "look" in the paper prices, I think.