Auction: 125 silver 100 oz. bars — Engelhards

(Third auction!)

Silver Stock Report

by Jason Hommel, October 8 2008

As you may know, the 100 oz. bars are the most premium form of silver bullion available to investors.  They are most compact, easiest to handle, easiest to count, forms of silver available for investors.  The 1000 oz. bars are ugly, too heavy, odd weight, at about 70 pounds, and impractical to ship.  1 oz. rounds take up to three times more space.  It is no wonder that 100 oz. bars disappeared from sale before other forms of silver.  

I will auction my own nice, premium brand, 100 ounce bars.  They are in my safe, and available for shipment immediately after the auction closes, next week.

I hope to use the proceeds from the auction to either buy replacement 100 oz. bars from two people who have emailed me a desire to sell bars, or I might buy and take delivery of COMEX 1000 oz. bars.

I hope, one day in the future, to mint COMEX bars into new 100 oz. bars, or 10 oz. bars or 1 oz. rounds, when an acceptable and reliable mint can be found.

I’m listing this auction at seekbullion.com

Terms:  Shipping to within the USA only.

Auction ends middle of next week, October 15th, Noon, Pacific Time .

First, Register at seekbullion.com

Register now, it only takes 2-3 minutes to fill out the address form, and confirm the incoming email.

Next, bid the “per bar” price, not the “per ounce” price, and don’t enter a huge dollar amount for the whole lot.  And specify how many bars you want, at the auction site: seekbullion.com

So, you should bid around $1100 to $1800, and also, the number of bars you want.

Minimum bid: NO MINIMUM BID!

Minimum bid size: 1 BAR!   

Dutch Auction Rules.  High bidder wins and gets first allocation, but the final auction sales price will be the lowest price bid that is required to fill the whole 125 bar auction.

DO NOT EMAIL ANY BIDS!  ALL BIDS MUST BE PLACED AT seekbullion.com

Winning bidder (or bidders) will be notified after the auction on Wednesday October 15th, wire transfer instructions.

Wires must be sent by Thursday, within 24 hours of auction’s end.

Only bank wires will be accepted.  No checks, no Credit Cards, no cash.

Free, insured, shipping, to anywhere in the USA ONLY, included in the price.

Price indications:

Prices for 100 oz. silver bars at ebay.com range from $1300 to $1800.  One sold last week for $2100!

My first silver auction for 25 x 100 oz. bars, or 2500 ounces, was 9.5 times oversubscribed, and the silver bars sold for $4.01 over spot.
Auction Closed: 25 silver 100 oz. bars, JM or Engelhards August 29, 2008 

My second silver auction for 50,000 1 ounce Olympic Maples was 4 times oversubscribed, and the coins sold for $3.00 over spot.
Auction Closed; Final Bids for 50k oz. silver September 22, 2008 

What’s different this time?

Better for you:  Longer lead time, 1 week, may give you enough time to raise cash to bid.
Better for you:  Using seekbullion.com, may allow more competitive bidding in real time, and increased transparancy of the auction process.  The bid that shows up is not the highest bid, but the “dutch auction” bid, which is the lowest minimum price needed to fully allocate all bars to all bidders.
Better for you:  Some people may be discouraged by a more complex “sign up” process, and fewer people might bid.
Better for you:  No minimum bid!
Better for you:  I’m trying serve the market need, given that mints have dropped the ball, and cannot meet demand.

Kitco – Pool program liability, little product, indefinite wait times, as listed at their own website.
Perth Mint – $880 million certificate liability, as listed in their annual report.
Johnson Matthey – 2 month wait times, not taking orders???
AGR Matthey – shut down Australia offices???
Amark – JM’s primary dealer, mostly sold out, long wait times.
Northwest Territorial Mint  — 2-4 month delays
Monex  — $400 million US IRS lawsuit
Goldline  — Sells “quasi – non – numismatics” on leverage.



Sincerely, 

Jason Hommel