Interesting. So, would it be fair to say that a typical gold investment would need to gain 10% in value before it begins generating a positive return for the owner?
Physical silver has been getting 15% or more over spot pricing on ebay.
Sold some silver for cash to some local buyers in the last year. Cash in hand was about 10% over spot.
Probably a good rule of thumb.
There are three main classes of pricing below large scale wholesale (and futures / derivitives etc) that individual small time investors will encounter / deal with in the physical market. Melt, spot, and retail. These three are somewhat general and variations of all three exist.
Melt is what what a refiner / smelter (or his agent) will pay for PM bearing materials ranging from jewelry shop scrap to worn out jewelry and damaged bullion coins, etc. It's generally around 90% of spot +/-.
“Spot” is the market basis price based on the large global markets, and generally what the scrap (“melt”) and retail markets bracket.
The physical retail market is where PMs are sold in bullion form by dealers at “spot” price plus a markup known as “premium”. In the retail market, PM bullion can be sold back to the dealers, generally for “spot”. The premium you pay to buy but lose when you sell is what dealers make their living from. Premiums vary dealer to dealer, and day to day. Prices are available online at the many dealer's websites. Kitco, JM, Apmex, Moneymetals, etc are all mainstream and trustworthy.
The variation you need to keep your eye out for is this; there is a population of savvy folks out there who accumulated bullion (called “stacking”) during their working life and are slowly selling their stash to fund their retirement. These folks will sell for spot plus a reduced premium (compared to a dealer). They are mostly selling bits at a time, and if you are buying bits at a time, they are the best source for your stack.