I wonder if anybody knows why empty mint set envelopes (especially older one) are auctioned and sold for seemingly big bucks? I almost bought what I thought was a 57 and 58 mint set. Turns out it was only the shipping envelopes and were 60 plus bucks! Why is that? Thanks!
Well, if I owned a Proof or Mint Set that was worth money but was missing the box, I would spend the $0.99 on the box to complete it. That does seem high for just envelopes, maybe the listing was miss-labeled?
People often remove coins from proof and uncirculated mint sets for submitting to TPGs for grading and slabbing. The empty envelopes and lenses do have some value to those who may want them to refill with coins. However, the older envelopes sell for a bit higher than modern boxes and lenses, but they are not worth a ton of money. Anything higher than maybe $3-$5 with shipping is someone with unrealistic expectations.
There are also people on ebay selling fake mint set envelopes and people buy them to put searched mint sets in, seal them, and then sell the sets on ebay as "unopened". As for the high price, that was probably because people didn't realize they were just selling envelopes and thought they were bidding on mint sets as you did.
Vernon coin used to do this - real small print that said "no coins included". This was before all the buyers protection.
Good comments all. Thank you. I actually emailed the seller and he confirmed it's just for the envelopes. I think it's still up for bid. 1957 mint set is what I was looking for and the 57 and 58 together came up for sixty some bucks (which caught my eye). When I looked through the description, I couldn't find any photos or references of actual coins. That's when I emailed him. If you search 1957 mint set it ought to come up like it did for me. I couldn't understand why anyone would pay for envelopes. I thought maybe there was something special about them I didn't know about. Crazy what people will try. Thanks all. Great first post answers!
