A Beginner's Guide to Buying Silver on eBay

eBay is simply NOT a good place to buy silver, of ANY kind.

The primary reason why is eBay's fees. eBay sellers have to pay eBay fees or roughly 9% on their sales, and then, since most eBay purchases are paid for with PayPal, they wind up paying another 3% or so for the payment service. They even have to pay the PayPal fees on the shipping costs. As a result, someone selling silver on eBay has to mark up their items by 12% just to make up for the eBay expenses. There's simply no reason to pay that kind of markup on Junk silver, which I agree, is the smartest way to buy silver.

The author also fails to mention that there is indeed a major difference between buying junk silver by weight and by face value. The difference is wear. Heavily worn coins have the same face value as those in better condition, but they always weigh less. The difference can be substantial. I've seen silver dollars that were heavily worn that weighed as much as 3 grams less than those in good condition. Wear can therefore easily account for a hidden premium of another 5% to 10% of the price you're actually paying for your silver.

The shipping & insurance charges can also add substantially to the premium you're paying, especially on smaller orders.

The only way to get a really fair deal on junk silver is to buy it by it's actual weight. I found a local pawn shop where the owner sells junk silver at spot. We put the purchase on the scale. Divide 90% of the weight in grams by 31.1 (1 troy oz = 31.1g) and then multiply that number by the current spot price.

There are plenty of honest dealers around. If you can't find one who's charging spot based on actual weight, then it's OK to pay a small premium of $1 to $2 over spot as long as you're paying it on the actual amount of silver that you're buying by weight.

Anyone who pays over $2 over spot for junk silver is being ripped off.

Caveat Emptor