I usually use JMBullion for my purchases, but I was noticing the spot prices are less than the spot prices on other websites. Why is this? Is it because it might not be as frequently updated?
A dealer's spot price is determined more by who they trade with than it is by the price being quoted on an exchange. For example, an American dealer buying Philharmonics from the Austrian Mint might be more affected by the USD/EUR exchange rate than the price of silver in USD. Where their European supplier is quoting them a price based on the London market, then the COMEX spot isn't relevant anyway. If the COMEX says US$16/oz and London says US$16.50, the U.S. dealer might want to quote their U.S. customer the London spot rather than the COMEX spot. As another example, Shanghai price often trades higher than the U.S. price. Chinese buyers are prepared to pay a bit extra because they frequently take delivery of their metal, rather than letting a futures contract roll over like American buyers usually do. A dealer sourcing Pandas directly from China would therefore be affected more by the price in China than the price on the COMEX. Calculating the base spot price can be very complicated and many dealers do it slightly differently to one another, depending on what affects their business the most.
