I found (and bought) a bag of junk silver from Monex yesterday. They still have inventory on hand, if your interested...
and as of ~4:00PM CST yesterday they sold it to be for $12.50/oz. Keep in mind that this INCLUDES their commission. So it doesn't seem that they are making it much over spot if at all...
Back in the 70s I had an interest in silver before the Hunt Brothers drove the price up. My plan was to buy a couple bags of junk silver and ride it up. I was young and inexperienced when I found Monex in an advertisement. I called them to buy coins. Instead I let the broker talk me into buying futures. To make a long story short, when silver peaked at $50, I lost $15,000. This company had no scuples about driving the unsuspecting into trading on margin in the volatile commodities market. It doesn't surprise me they lost their license. The person who bought silver through Monex will be lucky if he receives delivery.
For those still looking to buy, I've had long experience with Investment Rarities. Yes they are the same people who sponsor Ted Butler. http://www.investmentrarities.com/ I would put aside any cynicism that they have a conflict of interest. Other knowledgeable writers all agree that silver is the buy of the century.
Here's the indisputable facts:
As of 2pm Thursday afternoon, Kitco.com silver price (reflective of COMEX 1000 oz. bar prices) is:
$10.87/oz.
As of 2pm Thursday afternoon, Amark.com 100 oz. silver bar price is:
$1571.
That's a $4.84 premium per ounce!
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Those numbers are obviously garbage...I was at a coin show the other day and you could not find silver for less than $18.50/oz. In my opinion, the numbers you can actually find are the real ones. Right now I think platinum is a really good buy if you can find it for not much over spot--the price of silver and platinum will be going up to where they should be soon.
Thanks for the heads up on the Atlas Monex account. Fortunately, I do not have one of those. I just call them up and buy the silver outright. I have done this before, and they act like any other commodity dealer. (I received the metal with no issues)
Good to know about the Atlas account though.
I called them up on 9/25 and ordered some gold in two different forms. They sent me to a trading desk and gave me vault ticket #s for the items I had bought.
I wired them the money and they went silent for a few days. Then, on 9/29 I got a notice that they shipped the first part (the smaller part). I got it 10/1. I called to ask where the second part (the larger part) of the order was. They said something about it being back-ordered, but I locked in the vault price. Funny, I had been under the impression that they had it in stock, that my "vault ticket #" was attached to that piece of inventory. Not so much.
Meanwhile, gold went down in price. (Lucky me, having my vaporware locked in.)
On 10/1 I got a notice that they had shipped the second part. As of 10/4 it had not yet come. I'm hoping for today. If so, that'll be 11 days from the time I wired them the money.
Oh, and they told me that they only had $1000 face values of junk silver coins. I didn't want to put a whole $12K into it - and didn't know if I trusted them - so I passed it up. I've been buying junk silver for a couple of years now in small quantities at a time on eBay, and picking it up here and there around town. I certainly pay a premium over spot doing it on eBay, but usually get it under spot around town so it evens out.
It's 10/7 and the gold I ordered on 9/25 isn't here yet. I got an email saying it shipped on 10/1 and every day I linger around the house waiting for the mailman. Today I called.
I got a person reading from a script telling me that there was a five to seven day delay in getting things out of the vault and another five to seven day delay in shipping. Okay... so how is it being shipped? "There's a five to seven day delay in shipping." Can you track it? "There's a five to seven day delay in shipping." Uh, you said it's shipped. Are you saying that you didn't ACTUALLY ship it, it's still on your premises, or are you saying there's a delay in the shipping company, and if so, who is the shipper? "It's taking two weeks from the time of an order to get it due to the five to seven day delay in getting things from the vault and five to seven day delay in shipping."
I'm picturing them rapidly packing up their boiler room, just trying to eek out a few last wire transfers. :-( I'll report back if I ever do get my physical delivery.
The good news is they have actually told you what's happening ... drop them. The bad news is that it's happening all over the web in a lot of areas.
A new one for me was a company who sends you an email with a tracking button that opens a java window, and tells you "Your item left our ---------- location on ------- date, please check back every evening when this is updated .. looks similar to a USPS site .. but alas, when the window closes, up comes their order page.
Monex is a National distributor. If it is tangible silver rounds you're after, try "The Moneychanger" (google good 'ole Franklin Sanders) If it is an International, offshore Silver Bullion Account you're after, I can help get you one with the 3rd largest, private bullion bank in the world for about 8% storage fee. Contact me privately for details. Email: khogg@savingsingold.com Best! K
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Silver bug Jason Hommel just published a newsletter in which he points out that 100 oz. silver bars are selling at a 45% premium at AMARK, the largest bullion distributor in the U.S..
Here's the indisputable facts:
As of 2pm Thursday afternoon, Kitco.com silver price (reflective of COMEX 1000 oz. bar prices) is:
$10.87/oz.
As of 2pm Thursday afternoon, Amark.com 100 oz. silver bar price is:
$1571.
That's a $4.84 premium per ounce!
What a premium! How much? Let's see: Go to:
http://www.smartmoney.com/compoundcalc/
That's a 44.53% premium! (In the last 2 days, it's been rising. And AMARK is reported to be out of silver!)
But AMARK is the largest bullion distributor in the U.S., or they were, before they ran out of silver, as they were Johnson Matthey's primary distributor.
According to Hommel:
This reveals the "two tier" structure of a US dollar exchange rate; the official dollar rate at COMEX silver, and the unofficial rate in the physical bullion market. This two tier structure is telegraphing and predicting and signaling that the dollar can lose about 40%-50% of its value fairly quickly; in perhaps about a year or so.
Yep, the market is definitely being manipulated. Quite heavily, at this point. Hommel believes the CFTC investigation is mostly hot air and will come to nothing (most other silver analysts agree). But how long can this manipulation continue?
Elsewhere, James Turk points out that the wealth destruction we are experiencing today is different than that of the 1930s in that it is inflationary, not deflationary. So how much longer can the price of precious metals remain artificially low?
http://goldmoney.com/en/commentary.php