I am jealous of my North American brothers and sisters. I often see a post about one of our SGS members just casually browsing the local shops for silver and picking up some sweet discounts. Old mate @thedamus has been famous for it for years and I always wished I could do the same over here. Problem is there is no real LCS over here and I need to drive over 2 hours to get to Sydney if I want to visit a Bullion Dealer and typically the buys there are straight from the mint, so there's no bargains to be had...
Source
The other day I thought I'd have another shot so went to the nearest (and seemingly ONLY) pawnshop at Nowra, which is about 20 minutes away. These guys always struck me as real bottom feeders but they DO advertise that they buy and sell gold and silver, so what the hell - maybe there is something in there worth buying.
I figured anything of value was likely to be behind glass or even hidden from sight so I asked the guy there straight up. Do you have any gold and silver to sell? Yep, it's over there. Any coins or bullion? Nope, just jewelry. So I went to have a look. A lot of what I would consider to be junk. Pandora charms and cheap rings, bracelets, necklaces. Probably sterling silver at best. Unlikely to be worth even melting.
So I went back to ask. Do you buy silver and gold? Yep. What do you buy for? Pause...confused look. He tells me I'd have to bring it in. I explain it would be standard bullion 9999 purity 1 oz generic stuff. Still no answer. I could tell from the somewhat glazed look that he had no idea what I was talking about. Surely something like "Spot minus 5%" would be a reasonable response? Nope. "You'll have to bring it in" was the reply. Sounds like he has no idea and I'd have to expect a seriously low ball offer. Maybe I'll go in with a piece for shits and giggles to see what the offer is. Or maybe I'll just go back to being jealous of my North American stacker friends...
Some of My local pawn shops will rip you off here in Canada, some may be reasonable but not the best. (I would have my Pinger and Neo Slide with me.) Since I live not very far from our fore mentioned pirate I am familiar with some of the sources of the bullion goodie are and I have had some nice buys from some of those retailers. I still regularly buy from VBCE as my most trusted retailer.
And man, I came so close to buying a full tang Chinese Dao sword from a New Westminster Pawn shop.
I don't think they'd even be allowed to re-sell swords over here. So jealous of you guys!
It was a stage prop sword with a very blunt edge used in Chinese operas and Kung Fu demonstrations.
I've never thought to check a pawn shop for precious metals like that. We don't have many of them around where I live, but there are a couple.
I need to hit some of the local pawn shops and see what they have. We don't have any real LCS close by so my shopping is almost always online.
I stopped at a pawn shop in Arizona and I was so tempted to pick up a ten ounce bar they had in the glass. Yet I barely had enough money to get back to the East Coast. So I appeased myself with buying a silver bracelet that matched my necklace.
This is what I am jealous of, for sure.
I doubt you can find a real bargain in pawn shops. They know what bullion is worth - its their profession to know. What happened with this guy you met, IDK.
Better luck you may have at flea markets or garage sales. There people sometimes dont realise whats real jewellery and what isnt. Its up to you if you want to take advantage of that.
In Australia I am not so sure. There is a LOT of ignorance when it comes to precious metals here. It's not like the US, Canada or even the UK.
Among private people may be, but in shop I doubt it. They do this for a living - and that doesn't work if you are clueless.
With pribvate people its somewhat questionable, too. I you see someone offering a real gold bracelett for $5 in a garage sale and you know its worth hundreds, would you rip him off by saying nothing? Sure, its his own fault, but still...
Sounds shady to me. I’m sure people get fucked over there often.
I received the same response from my local pawn shop. They were not interested. So he looked up the price of silver and then offered me half.
Breaks my heart to read such nonsense…
Same. I need a good story of piracy and shenanigans to cheer me up ;)
There are currently plenty of financially desperate people, selling their Silver and Gold, here in the States... I can't say I blame them... If I had to sell, I'd sell my Gold first, my Silver second, and my Common U.S. Coinage last, since Common U.S. Coinage will get me in on the Ground Floor of U.S. Crypto Coinage...
We also don't have any pawnshop here, and mostly gold and silver are only in the form of jewelry, and not any bar or coin.
It is even hard to buy some kind of gold bar or coin that is reliable, sometimes it might just be a fake one.
!LOLZ
Lol... Here opened a loads of shops taking gold and silver during crysis of past year, most were incompetent like this one and now are closed
I wonder if the charity shops like the Salvos or Vinines ever get any
hahaha.. yup. that guy was a deer in headlights, when u started talking silver with him. I'm moving it philippines soon so i'm sure i'll have the same issue with finding a local shop to buy/sell.. oh well, it's still worth it to stack. 💪😎🤙
You failed to buy coins at the jewelry store, very sad. I hope you can buy coins with a sweet discount on your next try.
There is no such store in our city and these people are lucky to buy silver coins of their choice from here.
!BBH