Not sure if it's indicative of huge retail buying demand or some other issue, but FWIW, Apmex is showing a 77% reduction in inventory for 10 ozt gold bars and a 69% reduction in inventory for 1 ozt gold bars within the last 24 hours. I've been tracking inventory levels daily for almost a year now and this is the most significant change I've ever seen.
Seriously though, that's a h3ll of a drop in inventory for a 24 hours period. I wonder if they had one large buyer, a bunch of buyers, or if they got an audit and came up deficient (like Ft. Knox, ha)... Just what is the size of their inventory on an average day (not today)?
gunbunny - I keep track of inventory in an Excel spreadsheet. Since December of last year, inventory for gold bars has ranged: 10 ozt bars - from 38 (December 2011) to 284 (June 2012) with a median of 86 and an average level of 106 1 ozt bars - from 670 (December 2011) to 3,653 (September 2012) with a median of 2,425 and an average level of 2,355 . Yesterday, inventory totals were 15 (10 ozt bars) and 659 (1 ozt bars). The change from the day before was ~10x greater than the sales volume I see on a good day.
No, I'm only tracking a few items (takes enough time as it is). You can see a monthly report of Eagles sold by the mint from here though: http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/american_eagles/index.cfm?action=sales&year=2012
By the numbers- approx 3400oz Au at $1720.00/oz =$5.9 million in current US dollar value. Senerios: -One, really well off individual deciding to convert all of his savings or cashed out stocks to invest in gold. -A bunch of people decided surrepitiously to buy gold at the same time. Any others you can think of?
The change in the OP was 2,007 troy ounces or ~USD$3.5 million. I think it unlikely that a bunch of people suddenly bought all on the same day (without any real news or market action to spark it). More likely is either a wealthy individual bought it, or the gold was sold on the wholesale market to another dealer.
Apmex had managed to restock some of their inventory over the last week, but it was again decimated by heavy BTFD activity over the weekend. Their stock of 100 ozt silver bars is now the lowest I've seen since I started tracking it back in December 2011.
Apmex sold (or pulled?) more than half their inventory of 100 ozt silver bars in the last 24 hours. Their inventory now sits at 81 total bars - by far the lowest it's ever been since I've been watching.
Thanks for the updates, pmbug. It seems like someone out there was thinking ahead and bought themselves a bunch of gold.
Apmex looks like they are trying to restock their inventory, but sales volume remains strong. They have been sold out of Pamp Suisse 1 ozt gold bars (generally one of their best sellers) for 5 days now. They've been out of the Pamp Suisse 10 ozt gold bars for 2 days now.
Apmex was sold out of Pamp gold bars for roughly two weeks. They finally started restocking two days ago. They are still maintaining a very low inventory of silver bars (204 as of this morning).
Resurecting an old thread... I wonder how Apmex is doing at the moment. Any decrease in the amount being sold, inventory high? A local coin dealer (usually has a fine selection of PMs, not just numismatics) has some gold, but mostly in the 1/2 ounce and 1/4 ounce coins, and then not much of that. They still do have over a roll each of silver eagles in 2012 and 2013. I've seen it when they only had a handfull to sell.
I'm still tracking the inventory changes, but I started a new thread (@pmbug) for 2013. Sales volume has been strong over the last week or two (especially on Feb 11), but Apmex has been restocking to keep up with the sales volume. They have a large inventory of 10 ozt and 1 ozt gold bars. Their inventory of 100 ozt silver bars is below their average level (since I've been watching), but not alarming so. I only watch inventory for certain items, so I'm not sure what's happening with ASE/AGE sales/inventory. I do see that Tulving is sold out of all 90% silver.