disconnect between paper gold prices and physical gold

some anecdotes......

...In the past week, I did a fair-sized Gold trade for a client who is a stockbroker....At the time, based on what I'd already been experiencing in terms of "product availabilty", I cautioned her that it MIGHT take a good 10 days to 2 weeks to round up her +/- 75-oz. of Gold....
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...Like a lot of buyers, she was amazed that the "stuff" wasn't 'like, immediately available'!?! "WHY not", she inquired? Well, 'surpluses' of physical Gold AND Silver have apparently been slowly disappearing over the past few years and, as well, based on recent U.S. Mint production figures, FEWER and fewer Gold Eagles and Silver Eagles and Platinum Eagles have been minted, especially over the past 4-5 years, despite a steady rise in the gold price.....
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...Has the RISE in price slowed investment demand THAT MUCH? I doubt it.....

In talking with a few of the older, established bullion wholesalers, a number of them have noted that, in years past, a fair amount of "recycled" bullion was coming back into this country from Europe and Asia....IT'S NOT HAPPENING any more, and hasn't happened to any degree for the past few years....Sources that they used to count on for Euro-gold [tens of thousands of primarily 20 Franc coins and British Sovereigns] have dwindled to a trickle....THE SUPPLY ISN'T THERE....it's been taken OFF the markets and will likely not return until considerably higher Gold prices are seen!

Silver is getting to be in equally t-i-g-h-t supply because we've stayed in a $4-5 trading range for nearly the past two years....and mostly above $11.00 much of that time with a ceiling around $15.00. Personally, I was surprised at how little silver was SOLD to us or others I talked with when it was trading between $14 and $15/oz. not that long ago.....VERY LITTLE came back to wholesalers or "into the pipeline"....and NOW, it, too, has dried up, virtually and hardly available even at strong premiums over the current Spot Price....

So, for those who've traded through or with ME over the years, or those who trade with their local coin shop or perhaps some larger internet bullion house, DON'T EXPECT TO GET FAST DELIVERIES ON PHYSICALS GOING FORWARD, and don't hope for some "cheap" prices being offered to you as there is a real "crunch" going on to FIND available supplies for resale.......

In other words, the days of "cheap" gold and silver may well be drawing to a close....You may see "spot month" prices for actual physical product start moving higher and higher as supplies dwindle further

# +27 on krand
+36 eagles
+32 Maples
I have never seen anything like this in the past twelve years.
It seems like many have run to physical to forget about the banking system's turmoil.
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[Edit]


Tulving is showing Krands at 14.00 over spot. 20 oz minimum. The only other bullion coin available is Philharmonics at +15.00. No stock on pre 2007 Eagles/Maples/Kangaroos.
No stock on slAg bags.
Real price is in big divergence from COMEX price.