Do you ever notice that as soon as the price for a barrel of oil goes up the gas stations increase the gas prices at their pumps?
Similarly, but with even more volatility, the precious metals’ prices change frequently – upward and downward. As interest in the metals increase or decrease, domestically and around the globe, the prices fluctuate due to the changes in buying and selling in the market.
For consumers, coin dealers provide one of the best avenues for buying and selling bullion gold and silver. With today’s technology, many people call dealers, sometimes multiple dealers, to find out the price of gold (or silver) – the buy price or the sales price or both.
Time passes, and the next day the customer visits the coin shop wanting either to buy or to sell their gold. If the sales price increased or the buy price decreased due to the changes in the gold market, dealers frequently hear a comment starting with, “But, yesterday you said…”
Within their realm of interests, dealers are a very observant group of people. They’ve quickly noticed that if a person wants to buy and the price goes down, they know exactly what the latest ticker price is for an ounce of gold. On the other hand, if the price goes up, they only know what the dealer told them yesterday (or the day before or last week or whenever they called the shop).
Conversely, if someone is selling and the price goes up, they know to the penny what the current market value is. But, if the market has fluctuated downward, they only know the higher number the dealer told them when they called.
Upon receiving calls from individuals querying the latest metals’ prices, many dealers now resort to including the caveat, “If you were standing in front of me at this very moment, the price would be…” in their responses.
Technology is wonderful and calling ahead to get an idea of the particular dealer’s prices for the metals is smart. With a quick telephone call, you can easily compare the dealer’s prices to the metals markets online. But, remember, dealers are in business to make a living and they’re not in their shops just out of the kindness of their hearts. Consequently, their sales prices will be higher and their buy prices lower in order to profit from the deal. But with a few telephone calls, you can determine which dealer operates with the best prices to the consumer market.
When using technology to help you shop the market, a wise person should also ask how long the quoted price will be honored. Some dealers may respond that their rate is good for that moment only. Others may honor the rate for a short period of time – but never for days.
If you are seriously shopping the market and looking for a particular rate – to buy or to sell – you should explain to the dealer your objectives and ask what online market number to look for in order to achieve your desired rate (or better) in his shop.
Sure, some dealers can be curmudgeonly after hearing “But, yesterday you said…” so many times, but in general, most coin dealers will work with you honestly and fairly when you want to buy or sell bullion precious metals.