Hi, Sparky. Green has me right. To me personally, first and early release mean nothing. However, if i'm buying to flip, I get first release. I know all about what you have copied from the mint. But no matter how you try to pound it in, some people will always pay more for first or early release, and as long as they do, I'll take advantage of that.
I don't think there's anything wrong with labeling something First Releases. As far as I can tell the TPG's are only claiming that those coins were mailed from the Mint within the first 30 days. If some huckster on television is claiming otherwise, that does not mean that the label is fraudulent. And if someone likes the look of the PCGS First Strike flag label and wants all their coins in it, that's their business.
Ordered mine on the 2nd day and received them today. They will stay raw so the date I received them did not matter as long as I received them and they look as they should ~ which they do. The RP I see no issues with and the EU has two very-very small breaks in the eagle feathers and in the shield which I think would knock it down a grade. I could not see the breaks until I looked at them under magnification. Beyond that they look great and I think the EU is now my second favorite coin type for this series. The contrasts are really nice.
They should put the graders somewhere that people can watch them. Who's to say they don't just randomly assign grades to bullion and take a nap the rest of the day?
You have a 30-day period after a coin is released for it to be graded as "EARLY RELEASES" or "FIRST STRIKE" from NGC/PCGS, respectively. After that point, it is impossible to obtain any new ER or FS coins.
It's not impossible. If you keep them in the unopened shipping box and they were shipped within the 30day ER/FS window, they'll give them the ER/FS designation.
Odd. My shipping date is moving in the wrong direction. It went from 8/9 to 7/19. I'm probably just going to cancel at this point.
Got mine today. The reverse proof is stunning. I am a bit underwhelmed by the enhanced Silver Eagle. The unfrosted portions of the cameo are very mirrored like in a reverse proof and get lost in the mirrored flat field. I was expecting that area to be lightly frosted.
Mine still says 8/19. Isn't this is a first for the mint, bouncing shipping dates all over the place and not following through? Anyone think they're purposely messing with us, just because they think they can get away with it, because they're a government monopoly and they don't like all the collector criticism? I know, more likely it's just plain old incompetence. We need to write our representatives in congress. That may just cause the director's head to roll, causing the mint to cleanup its act. I mean c'mon, they're charging us top dollar, often for junk, the least they can do is provide decent customer service.
Yeah, SQG, they're purposely making us angry and probably laughing at all of the complaining. ::: rolling eyes ::: In my best guess, they likely filled the biggest orders first and then filled the rest (of what they did fill) by order time. If you look at it from a business perspective, it makes sense to make your largest volume customers happy first. That's not the government messing with people, that's good business sense. Am I unhappy that they have taken so long to deliver mine? YES! Do I think that there's some conspiracy to make me angry? Absolutely not. Nor do I believe that I will get mine from the returns from the large orders. I don't think that I'm going to get cheated, I just think that things have not gone the way that the Mint would have liked, and sometimes that's just the way things are. Sometimes things get screwed up and then people who bear the brunt of the mistake usually wind up upset. This time, that's us, that's all.