APMEX Explains Shortage/Outage

I’ve just learned that Apmex has offered up an explanation for the problems they continue to have in selling gold and silver.

Be sure to read section 3: “The shortage of metals on the market is like nothing I have seen before. …both mints being out of silver and large dealers literally across the world being out of physical metals is like nothing I have experienced.”

Here it is, in its entirety:

First. Our site remains down and will likely be down for the next two weeks. We were in the process of upgrading our servers, software and re-locating our hosting facilities for several weeks when this buying frenzy started. We had equipment on order and plans in place for this to happen mid-April but the site could not support the volume any longer and we had to bring it down early Thursday morning. We are looking to have our site up and running the week of April 7th – 11th.

Second. The reason we limited our orders to a minimum of $5,000 on Thursday was because we had no ability to predict what Thursday and Friday was going to be like. That was a way for us to limit the number of calls coming into our office so we could determine a plan of action. I can assure you, we were not looking to alienate anyone, just trying to provide some level of service. This was a tough decision any way you look at it.

Third. The shortage of metals on the market is like nothing I have seen before. In May of 2006, when we had a pull back, the only products we were able to find at that time were 100 oz and 1,000 oz bars of silver, 90% silver and a few other items. The smaller items dried up but eventually came back into the market place. This time, with both mints being out of silver and large dealers literally across the world being out of physical metals is like nothing I have experienced. I expect when the futures prices start to climb and they will, the smaller physical items such as 1 oz, 10 oz & 100 oz products will eventually surface again. Investors large and small simply do not want to sell when their investments are down.

Going forward….. Starting Monday morning March 24th., we will begin accepting telephone orders from existing customers and Gold Is Money members for a minimum of $1,000 to try to service as many customers as possible. Additionally, we will have some backdated Silver American Eagles available for purchase. Since we are only selling what we have live, when they are gone, they are gone.

They say, hind-sight is always 20/20. Many people could say we should have prepared our site for this. We in-fact did. It was just not soon enough. They will say we should not have imposed a $5,000 minimum order. The truth is, we didn’t want to but felt it was a place to start to allow us time to view the situation and buy us some time. Finally, people will say we are holding metals. We don’t make money by holding back inventory and not selling to our customers. We are working on loading more inventory onto our site so when it does come back online, there will be the great selection our customers are used to.

The employees of APMEX and I appreciate your continued support during this trying time.

__________________
Scott Thomas
President & CEO 

◊◊◊◊ Now: Gold @ $919.00, Silver @ $17.10, USDX @ 72.94 ◊◊◊◊