Reddit's silver "apes" now targeting silver, opportunity or fool's gold?

[QuarterMillionMan]

On eBay these clad Eisenhowers sell for $1.50 each. This past weekend while at Riverside casino in Laughlin at the casino cage I saw in the coin tray about 10 of these and I thought about asking the cashier to buy it at face value but didn't. Now I'm kicking myself for not buying it.

[disneysteve]

That listing says they’ve sold 1,073 of those lots. That’s 107,300 dollar coins. Where did they acquire that many? And they still have 800 available.

[QuarterMillionMan]

I often wonder where or how they acquire that many. I've bought Mexican peso coins on eBay valued at $150 and $90 in separate winning bids and made me think the seller maybe owned some vending machines in Mexico and bought it back to the states to sell it. But it would be easier to just exchange the coins in Mexico for paper currency. This seller must have a warehouse stocked with 55 gallon drums filled with these Ikes. And the seller has a 100% positive rating with 981 reviews but not sure how much of it came from selling vs buying reviews. It's easy to get positive buyer reviews, not so easy to get positive seller reviews because not all buyers leave reviews for sellers, as you already know.

[disneysteve]

I often wonder where or how they acquire that many.

It's also quite a bit of work for a small margin, though low profit high volume adds up after a while.

If they sell a lot for $154 with "free" shipping, ebay takes about 15% of that leaving them $131. Subtract out the $100 cost of those 100 coins (unless they somehow got them below face value) and that leaves $31. From that, they need to pay for shipping. It says Priority Mail Flat Rate box which is $9 leaving them $22. Assuming they are running a legal business, let's take 25% of that for taxes. So on their $154 sale, their profit is about $16.

Again, low profit high volume is a perfectly good business model. They've sold 1,073 of those lots so they've made over $17,000 profit from those coins so far. I suppose I'd take that deal. Easy to photograph. Easy to ship. Can't break. Not hard to store.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Interesting explanation of the breakdown. The profit margin is small but with the high volume of sales the seller is doing quite well. And I was thinking that seller could be a cashier at a casino where he/she buys $100 at the end of the day, everyday for years. Then sells it on eBay. Some casinos still use half dollar Kennedys and $1 Ikes in the machines or at the table games. El Cortez in Las Vegas is where I got these Kennedy half dollars.

[disneysteve]

Interesting explanation of the breakdown. The profit margin is small but with the high volume of sales the seller is doing quite well. And I was thinking that seller could be a cashier at a casino where he/she buys $100 at the end of the day, everyday for years. Then sells it on eBay. Some casinos still use half dollar Kennedys and $1 Ikes in the machines or at the table games. El Cortez in Las Vegas is where I got these Kennedy half dollars.

Wow. I haven't been in a casino that used coins for many years. They're all electronic around here.

[disneysteve]

QMM - Because I looked at that eBay listing for 100 dollar coins the seller sent me an offer for $146. If they’ve routinely done that then their overall profit may be several thousand less than my estimate.

[QuarterMillionMan]

I hate when sellers do that especially when I add an item to my watch list then they send me an offer. But sometimes I will add an item to my watch list with the intention of getting the seller to send me an offer in order to get the item at a cheaper price so I guess it works both ways.

[disneysteve]

I hate when sellers do that especially when I add an item to my watch list then they send me an offer. But sometimes I will add an item to my watch list with the intention of getting the seller to send me an offer in order to get the item at a cheaper price so I guess it works both ways.

Why do you hate getting offers? It’s an opportunity to buy it cheaper. Or do you mean for items you’re not actually looking to buy?

I get them a lot because I look at hundreds of listings in the course of researching comps for items I’m selling so that does get annoying.

[QuarterMillionMan]

To me it feels like pandering because if I want to buy something, I'll buy it.

[disneysteve]

To me it feels like pandering because if I want to buy something, I'll buy it.

You’d rather pay full price than a discounted price? That’s interesting. Some people in my reselling groups don’t believe in sending offers but most of us do. People like to think they’re getting a bargain. That’s why stores have constant sales.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Ha-ha, I've been learning to use those offers as a way to get the discounts from sellers now. At first, I thought getting those offers were a nuisance. I am like some of those in your sellers group and I don't send offers, but I may need to rethink that strategy and now send offers too.

[QuarterMillionMan]

This is why I'm getting out of treasuries and into precious metals (but I still have $10,000 in an I-series savings bond that I need to liquidate soon).

[disneysteve]

I believe Peter Schiff is one of those people who has been predicting the collapse of society forever. He is not an analyst of any sort. He’s just a doomsday proponent. He never “predicts” anything positive. Really not someone you want to be turning to for investment advice. You’ve referenced him before with other massively negative predictions. That’s his schtick. That all he does. Ignore him and others like him and you'll be far better off.

[QuarterMillionMan]

It's all the other indicators which sways me to think he may be on to something. BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) formation, US debt, China selling its US treasuries and buying gold, USA non-stop printing of money, etc. I'm not in full panic-mode but just in case something happens I'm sitting on some precious metals and cryptos. And I don't trust big government because I work for the man and know how he lies, lol.