Did you look at www.apmex.com for pricing ?
Yes, I should look at
thanks! I actually did not hear about them until after I posted my original inquiry. I hear that one can pay over the phone with a card and then receive a signed shipment in a couple of days, or something like that. It sounds like a reasonable alternative.
At the moment I have located a local coin dealer that says it has enough inventory to handle my current purchase objectives. So I might look at that first.
After the first round is squirreled away, then i figure that i will have some baseline experience from which i can more easily handle an occasional online transaction to increase the stash sizes.
Thanks for the pointer!