Melon

Oh that is interesting, thanks! I bought it new this week so it must have sat in stock a long time, it was their last in stock and probably explains the bargain! I did a little digging when picking out my wedding ring in 2020 and was impressed by the material on paper. I think it's got a lot going for it as a ring material. But nevertheless I suspect most people (myself included) want a traditional material for a wedding ring (Gold/Platinum) which is probably why these haven't taken off more. Average buyer of course won't care less about spot price and probably won't know what Palladium is! Silver is definitely a good option too, although I imagine it would need a regular polish?

Hey - hoping someone can help me confirm the meaning of the markings on this ring, thanks. I believe the first mark (S&C) is a makers mark, which probably isn't overly important in this case. I believe the second mark shows the ring to be 95% Palladium. I believe the third mark shows the assay office was Birmingham. I have no idea what the fourth mark means. Out of interest, anyone got any pro's and con's to share with Palladium as a material for rings? Seems to me the pro's including permanent colour (no plating required like white gold), robustness (harder than gold/platinum) and price premium (generally low premium over spot price vs other metals, with platinum having significant mark-ups despite lower spot prices). The downsides appear to be tradition (gold + platinum have long standing tradition as jewellery material), availability as fewer places sell them and less jewellers can work with it for resizing etc. Any other big pro's / con's to be aware of? Ta 🙂

Thanks everyone for the good guidance. I think I know my path forward now, which is probably either keep them or sell them in batches on the forum. Mind letting me know which one worked out for you? (or I can message you direct if preferred - cheers)

Fractional gold usually does command a bit of a premium, but in my defence from the first post I've been talking about paying a premium to convert to Sovs, not trying to get a premium on the Maples!

Yes perhaps I was unclear, when I talk percentages I'm talking premium over/under spot oz-for-oz, but of course more gold = more money total. I certainly would expect to be putting more money into the equation, and I'd be expecting to pay a lot more than £800 to be honest! It seems the way dealers operate (understandably) is they'll buy your gold usually at a % under spot (I was offered 5% under spot) and they'll sell you gold at a premium (in this instance 5% over spot), which equates to a 10% cost to trade in oz-for-oz or a double bite-of-the-pie for the dealer effectively. Effectively it's no different than if two separate people made two separate transactions (one to sell and one to buy). My hope was there may be a dealer that would take a view on the transaction as a whole so-to-speak, but it doesn't sound like there is. Quite understandable given it must be a relatively rare scenario. To give a random example... if you have a games console to offload you can head to your local CEX and sell it or trade-it-in against something they have in stock. If you trade-it-in your item is worth more than if you just outright sell it. The shop effectively is willing to make less margin on the incoming new stock (less-not-none), in order to secure the margin on the outgoing stock. I've definitely overcomplicated this haven't I? Or have I spotted a gap in the market? Melon's Precious Metal Trading Exchange, coming to a high street near you 😄

Pretty much all of the above. I sold off everything but the Maples some time ago (not in a bad way and sold at a profit, as I wanted to get into a higher deposit bracket on my home for a cheap fix). Now contemplating building up again and think I might just stick to bog standard, CGT free sovs. Fair point. I was looking at a tube of mint-fresh 2021 sovs and premiums seem to be 5% on those, but perhaps I'd be better off piecing out the selling and the buying for optimum returns. I'm a lazy melon though! 😄 Not a recent one as I don't keep them nearby, but here's some eye-candy I shared previously on the forum. Looking at these, maybe I should just keep them 🤤😄

Yea, the lazy part of me doesn't want the hassle of splitting up etc... but if there's no better option then that's the fall back 👍 (or I just don't bother with this crazy scheme at all lol)

I'm thinking about converting 20 1/4oz Maples into 25 Sovereigns. Interested in whether anyone's ever done something similar and how you went about it? In an ideal world I'd swap in through a dealer, but from what I've seen I'd lose out on both ends of that deal (i.e. have to sell circa 5% under spot and pay a 5% premium on the buy). Effectively treated as two separate transactions so-to-speak, as opposed to a 'trade-in' type scenario. I'd be comfortable paying a premium on the new coins of course as I wouldn't expect this service for free, but couldn't justify losing cash on both ends of the transaction (effectively a 10% cost to convert). Does anyone know of anywhere well suited to a trade-in type scenario? The other option would be to sell the Maples privately and buy the Sovereigns afterwards. Probably the smart call financially as I imagine 1/4oz Maples would achieve a small premium over spot, but that option has it's own downsides too. Cheers all! 😄