With all the recent talk of silver shortage, is it mainly benefiting the wholesalers? For example, since the US mint hasn't changed the premium they charge wholesalers, yet the wholesalers are raising premiums they charge to dealers which is not on immediate delivery but for forward deliveries. And volume is exploding so even with restricted allocations from the US mint they should still be selling more then they did before. Are the wholesalers charging more for taking on the risk of not being able to deliver the promised deliveries? Or are they just price gouging based on supply/demand ie. people are willing to pay more so let's charge more.
Supply & demand IMO, but yes, I'm seeing wholesale price increases on Perth Mint items at US wholesalers when the mint has not changed their margins. I don't believe US Mint margins on ASEs has been increased. Right now I can retail a kookaburra for less than I can buy an ASE wholesale.
