Orodirect offers €650 for a coin it sells for €1,514

Gold at €1,514 and bought at €650: Orodirect's double margin

A forum user recounts asking Orodirect how much they would give for a 20-dollar coin weighing one ounce. €650. That same piece is offered on the store's website for €1,514. That's a difference of €864. It's not an isolated case: the thread accumulates examples of gold and silver purchase and sale prices far above the metal's value.

The margin: €650 for what is resold at €1,514

The examples are repeated. According to another forum user, the same 20-franc coin is offered for €291 on one digital storefront and €119 on another, using the same photograph. A one-ounce Krugerrand is found for €715 from a German distributor, while a one-ounce gold piece is advertised on Orodirect for €1,514.

Some attribute it simply to a lack of market: the metal is in short supply, and whoever has stock sets the price they want, a forum user maintains. For others, it's pure supply and demand: as long as someone pays €1,500 for an ounce, there's no reason to ask for less. And some point to the storefront effect: appearing on television drives visits, and businesses capitalize on the pull. According to a circulating calculation, a one-kilo bar is inflated by between €3,000 and €4,000.

Why the same coin costs less in Germany

The German distributor appears again and again as an uncomfortable reference. A pack of 100 one-ounce Philharmonic coins for €1,290 —€12.90 per piece— plus €23 for shipping puts any Spanish storefront to shame. Silver Philharmonic coins are seen for €18 in one place and €13 in Germany. In contrast, some defend the €22 price for Spanish silver as a difficult floor to beat.

Buying abroad requires incurring shipping costs and procedures, but the savings on large lots more than compensate. The complete calculation, lot by lot and including expenses, is where you truly see who pays too much.

A seller with no history is the first red flag

In the peer-to-peer market, distrust is the norm. Offering 100 coins at once with zero votes on the platform is not credible, and whoever does it is left without buyers, a forum user warns. The advice circulating is to start one by one, gain fruta, and demand payment via a verified gateway. If the seller has no history, walk away.

The other front is counterfeit pieces. Legal Chinese medals circulate in their country and are sold as if they were coins minted by the issuing mint, with "different characteristics," according to a forum user. The warning is repeated: they are not coins, they are tokens.

Banco de España coins worth less than their face value

There's a corner of the market where numismatic value isn't just zero: it's negative. Silver coins issued by the Banco de España (Bank of Spain) accumulate in drawers and are only redeemed at the counter. According to a forum user, the issuing bank had €17,000 in coins from the year 2002, while on platforms, pieces valued at €12 are offered above their worth.

Those who have been collecting them for years discover the problem too late: paying €10 for a €12 coin is expensive, and traveling to redeem it is a bad deal. The lesson from veterans is clear: for investment, use reference ounces; the rest are for souvenirs.

Silver at €20 per ounce and gold at €975: the market floor

Prices move within a narrow band. A lot of 45 silver ounces for €900 comes out to €20 per ounce and sells the same day. A seller on the forum lists the Somali Elephant at €915, the Maple and Eagle at €920, the Philharmonic at €922, and the Krugerrand at €935, with the metal at €975. Silver, meanwhile, hovers around €20 and €22.

And then there's the fine print regarding weights. A forum user recounts that an establishment weighed a coin at 8 grams when it should have weighed much more, and paid 20 cents per gram of silver. The scale, they said, came from afar. The buyer, almost always, doesn't bring their own.