I've heard the unopened version of the 1964 proof set can be a good investment, due to the potential of finding cameo coins and errors. Check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDUYe8Q-1Es&feature=related I found a lot of 20 recently on EBay for $18.00 ea. Do you think they are worth it?
Providentmetals.com sell them for $14.95 a piece. I ordered 1960 (which is $5 more) through '64 from them a month or so ago.
I think I paid $14 for my 64. You can get a way better price than $18 each. Heck there's no hurry, take your time if you want to get a better deal!
You'll overpay for a 64 PR set at $18. Prices around here, and yes I can give you contact info for some of the dealers I do business with, $9 - $10.
I just bought a 1964 proof set from Jake's Marketplace for $15.50 -- not a bad deal at all given prices elsewhere. http://www.jakesmp.com/GP_Proof_sets/GP_Proof_sets_001_M.html
Yeah, but all who have quoted lower prices, are they original sealed sets? I've seen some real garbage that's been opened.
They'd better be sealed, that's the purpose of buying them. It's kind of like a roll search. Just like Joel Rettew says in the video attached to the OP, 95% of them were opened. That's what makes the unopened ones valuable. There are unscrupulous sellers out there, who could have re-sealed them. It wouldn't be that hard to do. Of course its also probably not hard to detect those that have been tampered with.
FWIW, they were not sealed when they were originally sent out. A lot of them have sealed just from the humidity in the air, but mine have never been sealed.
Are we referring to the paper envelope or the pliofilm(sp?) that surrounds the coins? If you are talking about the envelope then rim's cents is correct--the mint never shipped any of those sealed. As stated, some became sealed because of moisture. As to the film, I guess nothing is beyond the capabilities of shrewd crooks, but for the most part they are and should be sealed. On occasion cracks or pin holes would develop and allow air to enter. Don't pay extra for "sealed" mint or proof sets. Just a waste of money IMO. New empty envelopes are available and besides, wouldn't you like to be able to actually see what you are buying?
Haven't looked for these, but shouldn't there be some around that were left in the sealed envelope the mint mailed them in? I know back then most were opened, as the whole sealed packaging thing wasn't an issue I heard about.
Mint Sets were subject to humidity sealing whereas I believe that the proof sets were all sealed prior to shipping. You can choose to believe whatever you want but I have opened original shipping containers of US Mint sets that were not sealed and some that were sealed. The proof sets have always been sealed. As for $14 per set for a 1964 Proof set, each set has about $11 worth of silver in it so $14 is not to bad of a price. $18 for an original sealed set is a bargain provided they are original mint sealed sets.
This is the problem with finding information on the internet. You can't be sure whether or not the person knows what they're talking about or not. (I will first state that unequivocally, rlms does know what he's talking about. I am referring to the guy in the video in this post.) This guy [in the video] claims to have received Proof Sets from the Mint in 1964 and that they were sealed. Unfortunately, as rlm pointed out, this was not the case. The sets came in open envelopes from the Mint and have sealed over time due to humidity. There is also the problem with re-manufactured envelopes that can make telling an authentic one from a repro very difficult if not impossible in some cases. When it comes down to it, there is no real way to tell whether or not a "sealed" Proof Set will have anything of value or not. It's a crap shoot. The funny thing about 1964 cameo coins is that they are far more common than one would think and I don't think it would be worthwhile speculating on buying these sets for the purposes of discovering such coins. I think that most of the sets extant have been searched already and someone less than honest can search through an entire box of original sets and seal the envelopes as he goes along, put them on eBay and sell them off for a premium. Not that I have, I'm just saying...
"Original" is a highly miss-used word in numismatics. In a chain of dealings, the next person usually has no idea as to the what, where or when a specific event took place and is almost pure speculation on the part of the buyer as to what is real and what is fallacy. I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the "Accented Hair" varieties in the 64 proof set.
All of the 60 sets that I bought had sealed envelopes. Of those, 4 were the Accented Hair variety. If the rest of my sets should ever be sold, there would be no question about whether or not they were searched. I used a letter opener to slice them open. Chris