TSP Talk Silver Coins / "Rounds"

[burrocrat]

tally:

30 burro
05 alevin
10 bmvenue
25 rlundy
70 tsptalk
30 uscfanhawaii
50 james48843
25 bronco07

= 245.

[burrocrat]

ok silver bugs, this deal is a go. the silver train will be leaving the station. all aboard!

tom has reviewed several designs and the final version has been selected. you can see it here when confirmation from the mint and a finish graphic is confirmed.

this is significant because tsptalk is going to pay the cost to manufacture the dies. that is not small potatoes, roughly 10% of the entire order on a batch of 500, 1 large, and an immediate discount of about $2.00 per coin to the retail purchaser if we had to bear that expense communally.

more details will be coming on pricing (it's more than fair and transparent), and shipping/handling/insurance (fair again).

for now it is important to note 2 things:

1) "tubes" or "sleeves" of custom mint silver come in units of 20 coins, so some folks might want to adjust their pledge quantity up to increments of 20 not 25 if full tubes and only full tubes is a concern. odd lot orders not in increments of 20 are also still available at the same price per coin, one size fits all.

2) tsptalk silver will never be cheaper than the original spot + strike + delivery costs. there is no incentive to wait. i'll explain that later too.

get 'em while it's hot. pledge up if you want some.

[Boghie]

Burro,

I do not see myself on the list. I committed for of 20

Do you have a price per coin or price per roll? I know it changes, but I am paying da'Boyz today and want to hide some from their grasping hands.

[Boghie]

Shoot Burro - NO, don't really shoot the Burro.

Should have read back in the thread to see the pricing... I will have the casholla on demand...

Anyway, even though I am not the TallyMan, with me here goes:

30 burro
05 alevin
10 bmvenue
25 rlundy
70 tsptalk
30 uscfanhawaii
50 james48843
25 bronco07
20 boghie

= 265.

If our total still ends in a 5 I can round it up to the 0. That way I can send myself one of them every year and pretend I win the AT Top 10

Finally, let's put some pressure on bmvenue. Dat Dude is doing reel good this year. He (I think) should 'spread the wealth around'. Kick it up man - yo rich!!!

[burrocrat]

pricing is spot + $4. spot is determined on the day tom buys the silver. it changes daily. tsptalk is buying the dies prior to silver transaction day to cut down on timeframes.

if you are on the pledge list before transaction day you get same spot price as tom, he is going to do the entire purchase of 500 coins and then part it out to individual buyers. if you are not on the pledge list prior to close day, you will pay the greater of original spot + 4, or current spot + 4 on the day you pay. it will never be cheaper.

think about it: if it was me and i laid out 10 grand to buy a box of silver at 16 spot + 4, i am never going to sell a coin for less than 20. if silver drops to 12 spot + 4, then i am never going to sell coins at 16 unless i really hungry and need groceries. i will sell them to you at my original purchase price (but not at a loss). if silver jumps to 20 spot after my initial purchase at 16 spot, then i will sell you a coin for current spot 20 + 4. i would not sell silver at 12 spot when i paid 16 spot and can walk around the corner and sell at 20 spot. the entity who lays out the initial purchase and absorbs all the risk is the same one who should profit from any appreciation. same as it ever was. silver would have to take a massive jump for tom to profit from it any ways as he is kicking down the 1k for the dies and the 10k for the transaction to begin with, that is all the risk.

it will never be cheaper. the +$4 is a fee above spot. it is constant. i will explain. there is nothing to argue about here with $4 over spot. it is transparent and fair. that is the price for tsptalk silver.

[burrocrat]

here is how we get to spot price of silver (non-negotiable on the global market) and +$4 for a tsptalk silver 1 oz. coin (also non-negotiable):

$4 over spot breaks down like this:

$2.00 mint strike fee. this is what it costs to put one ounce of silver in a machine and smack the hell out of it to put a pretty tsptalk face on it (tom will have already paid for the pretty face template).

$250 flat rate 'short order' fee. that is $0.50 per coin. you have to order 1,000 coins to avoid the $250 fee on an order of 500 coins. does anybody have an extra $20,000 laying around they want to buy one thousand ounces of tsptalk silver with so the rest of us can save $0.50? i didn't think so.

$100 insured shipping to get bulk order from mint to tom. $0.20 per coin.

that is spot on day of transaction plus $2.70. why spot plus $4.00 then? where does the other $1.30 go?

well, i'm going to tell you.

[burrocrat]

spot + 4 is really spot + 2.70 delivered to tom from the mint in a monster box of 500 one ounce coins packaged in tubes in units of 20.

then somebody has to pay 5.95 flat rate if it fits is ships usps charges, buy a bunch of bubble wrap and packing tape, some mylar coin envelopes if you order in any other increment than 20 coins, lay them all out on the living room floor and sort into batches, print up some shipping labels, pack them with love and care and seal with a kiss, walk their happy rear end down to the post office, and insure each package so nobody loses a dime.

any volunteers? i didn't think so either.

some freaky bean counter could probably make a spreadsheet to account for number of mylar envelopes, square inches of bubble wrap, scaled insurance costs, and maybe even assign a quotient to the sealed with love and care and a kiss parts, but that rails against my common sense, no kidding i get mad just thinking about it.

so $1.30 per coin is a reasonable and fair price to pay to get a coin shipped to your hot little hands. now maybe some orders average $1.17 per coin and some other orders average $1.43 per coin. it is all nickles and dimes at that point for at least a couple reasons: even if shipping was 100% free and tom pocketed every $1.30 per coin in pure hard cash, it still wouldn't come close to what he already paid to buy the original dies. and even way further than compensating for the risk he takes paying the entire purchase in advance.

$2.70 mint to tom + $1.30 tsptalk to you = $4.00 per coin over spot. that is the going rate.

tsptalk silver costs spot +4. all aboard!

[burrocrat]

oh, and i almost forgot...

spot + $4 is cash on the barrelhead price. if you pay by credit card or paypal charges then you eat that fee.

all money goes through tsptalk and tom. so does all silver. i never touch any of it except for the 30 ounces i buy. that might help some folks sleep better at night.

i am just the idea man, tom is the bank.

[tsptalk]

Thanks, Burro, for getting this started and doing the dirty work.

As burro said, I decided to buy it all up front to make it easier to sell them to our members - one point of contact. You pay on TSP Talk, you get the silver within a few days. So once the order is shipped to me, we'll start taking the actual order. We won't have to worry about some folks backing out, not hitting the number we estimated, etc.

Getting the estimate helps me know how many to order initially. I'm thinking 500 is enough for now, and that will leave me some to give as AutoTracker prizes.

Also, since I own the die, we can reprint more if there is a demand but we'll keep it somewhat limited. Maybe 1000 total? We'll see.

Now, lets push silver back under $16 again so I can order it.

[alevin]

Thanks, Burro, for getting this started and doing the dirty work.

As burro said, I decided to buy it all up front to make it easier to sell them to our members - one point of contact. You pay on TSP Talk, you get the silver within a few days. So once the order is shipped to me, we'll start taking the actual order. We won't have to worry about some folks backing out, not hitting the number we estimated, etc.

Getting the estimate helps me know how many to order initially. I'm thinking 500 is enough for now, and that will leave me some to give as AutoTracker prizes.

Also, since I own the die, we can reprint more if there is a demand but we'll keep it somewhat limited. Maybe 1000 total? We'll see.

Now, lets push silver back under $16 again so I can order it.

Tom, if you can buy spot at <15, I'll go in for another 5. I had news this week that resulted in a small reduction in other anticipated nearterm necessary expenditures from cash savings.

[burrocrat]

Tom, if you can buy spot at <15, I'll go in for another 5. I had news this week that resulted in a small reduction in other anticipated nearterm necessary expenditures from cash savings.

spot is spot. what? less than 15? if silver goes below 15 then there ain't enough fake dollars in the world to buy u.n. rice and condoms for africa. silver at 16 is the hot ticket, hurry get on board before it skyrockets or tom decides he doesn't like silver.

[alevin]

What? I misread Tom's number. He said under 16. I was trying to say I'd buy a few more if he gets the spot price he wants, now that the upcoming strain on my ready cash has eased slightly. anyone else not already on board can buy as much as they want after Tom takes the plunge. I've been onboard since the beginning, my choice how much I add to the initial amount I've been committed to all along, regardless of spot. biting my tongue right now.