I posted yesterday in the "silver coins" section of this forum of the actual numbers that Apmex had of 2011 American Eagles. That number was around 21000 and change. Do keep in mind that these are delayed till May 13 and these are coming straight from the mint! What that means is that their only other source of getting eagles is from people which means silver is going to get really scarce in this month. They are going to increase their buy back prices which in turns increases premiums...wow.
Anyhow, back to the inventory numbers. Around 5pm yesterday PST, Apmex had 24000 Eagles. By nightfall, it was 18000 and change.
So I wake up this morning and it looks so friggin dry. Ill post numbers soon of new inventory but if you thought the shortage of 08 was bad, wait till the 2011 shortage hits very soon.
And yes, Apmex is a good barometer of the retail silver inventory in the US.