Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that in our area, we have gold. There was quite a bit of gold at the show, more than I expected. The bad news is as noted elsewhere: high premiums. There wasn’t much bullion gold, such as Eagles and Maples, and bullion coins were carrying premiums of about $100/oz. There was plenty of numismatic gold: St Gaudens, Libertys etc. but they have always had higher premiums, particularly in grades of MS62 or higher. Premiums on those were $50 - $100 a year to a year and a half ago, but now premiums are $300 - 400. AND THEY ARE SELLING. Dealers said they couldn’t get new supplies, so I’m sure all the gold we were seeing was purchased from customers bringing coins into the dealer’s shops.
As for silver, we saw Eagles at $16 -20, rounds at $15 - 16 and ten ounce bars at $15.00 (and the dealer with the bars said he sold twelve ten ounce bars earlier in the day.)
At every local show, we manage to find a “sleeper” deal or two. Today we picked up three British Sovereigns at $180.00 each, which is $10.00 over spot each. Not bad. Another dealer had them at $215, which was more in line with the premiums we were seeing throughout the show. We’ll go back tomorrow when we have more time to shop and talk to dealers. We had a lot going on today and only stayed about 40 minutes.
Oahuhold: I don’t think there is anything stupid about buying gold at today’s prices, even with current premiums. I would advise, however, that if you are tight financially, you place top priority on clearing up any bills and salting away an emergency reserve fund in ready cash. After that, by all means buy gold and silver at today’s reasonable prices.