When is the best time to buy from the Mint?

In terms of getting the best quality of product. Common sense would say day 1. I have realized that buying on day one with the HOF coins (first hour) didn't get my coins out quick and the dealers that bought in huge quanities had theirs delivered and graded and for sale first. This got me thinking that the mint has to sell to the dealers well in advance. I am new so this might already be common knowledge. On another thread I asked if a coin should be returned. I bought an AGE 1oz. Some posters said if I wanted perfection then buy a MS70 aftermarket from the dealers. Do the dealers order thousands of the proofs before the "common" man....inspect them...cherry pick....then send back in mass. For example if the item goes on sale on Day 1 do the dealers get to buy on lets say a week before and the mint sends out say 1,000. Then the dealers keep lets say 100 and send 900 back. Do essentially those 900 become what the "common" man gets ordering on day 1.
If this is the case then it would seem better to order a few months in to allow the 900 in our example to get sent out and new coins to be produced and having a better shot at a perfect coin.

D0 I even have a clue on this?

Is getting a MS70 from the mint even possible or is it the luck of the draw? Is it worth even sending in a coin for a replacement unless there is something significantly wrong with it?

I am new to this so please share your experience and knowledge.

 

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I bought my 2014 proof set the day it went on sale. Though fine, it doesn't look as high-grade as the 2013 set I bought late in the year (November). It's probably luck of the draw. I'm hoping to buy a set early and a set late, in hopes of catching something like the Type I and Type II mintmark varieties from 1979 and 1981. I bought 5 proof sets in 1981 and they were shipped about one month before the type II's started appearing. That month was the difference between sets valued at $6 today and ones worth $200 or so today. GRRR!

 

I order HOF early on the first day. The gold and silver proofs all came back PF70. One Half dollar came back MS69, all of the others came back PF70 and MS 70.

 

Yeah, some claim the big dealers can’t get away with large volumes of returns. But, they definitely return some (many) and often my order appears to have been returned problem coins.

 

Never. Never is the best time to buy from the mint.

 

The best time to buy from the mint is on the secondary market, when slabbed coins end up being cheaper than the mint issues, because dealers want to get rid of them. The mint better change its ways, if it wants to continue selling coins successfully.

 

About sums it up pretty well!

 

Maybe take a look at my thread "Should I Return this coin" and give your opinon on the picture and if you would call it poor, fine or high grade. How it compares to what you received. If you have a picture it would be nice to see a close up of what you receive that you call fine but not high grade.

 

That's a rare case these days. You may get a guaranteed 69 or 70 on the secondary market, but you're going to most likely pay more than mint issue price, at least with the coins I buy.

 

I assumed any proof would at least be a 69 with quality control standards and that a 70 was the quest. Is 69/70 the quest and lower quality proofs come on. Look at my thread "Should I return this coin" and tell me your grade on what you see. After a lot of great feed back I think the poster that said I will always see it convinced me to return it but its going to stink if I get something worse back.

 

Perhaps you should post a link. This is a coin collector's forum, not a big game hunter's forum.

 

Well, you are right about one thing, Tex. You're totally wrong!

Dealers do not receive any special privileges when it comes to ordering from the Mint. For special issues like commems, they are subjected to the same order limits like every other customer. Unfortunately, what some of them do is have their employees place separate max-limit orders on their personal accounts only to turn them over to the employer.

For standard Mint issues like Mint Sets, Proof Sets, rolls and bags where there is no limit, dealers will usually have standing subscription orders, but this option is available to ALL customers, not just dealers. When ordering these sets, who in their right mind wants to sit at the computer or on the phone for any length of time when all they have to do is complete a subscription request and forget about it. I had the same subscription orders on file with the Mint for about 10 years and never had to change them. All I ever had to do was update my credit card expiration date.

Where PF70's are concerned, you must realize that the proof process has been perfected to such an extent that 70's occur quite regularly. Dealers operate on the assumption that a reasonable proportion of their bulk submissions to the grading services will come back PF70UCAM. The rest will usually be PF69UCAM, but any that won't meet this minimum will usually come back ungraded.

The only time I ever submitted proofs for grading was in 2005, and this was only because one of these silver proofs was a Mint Error. Anyway, of the 5 coins, two were PF70UCAM and three were PF69UCAM.

The only bit of advice I can offer you, is that if you can't tell the difference between a 69 & a 70 (PF or UNC) then get the 69. You'll save a lot of money!

Chris

 

Anyone on these forums, or any other forums for that matter, who can tell the difference between a 69 & 70 from only a photo is blowing smoke.

Additionally, the Mint doesn't inspect proofs to ensure a minimum grade. They just want to make sure the coins are not substandard.......meaning damaged.

Chris

 

When is the best time to buy from the Mint?

easy...

Pre-1900.

 

Placing subscription orders is like placing a snipe bid for an auction.

You'll have to forgive Frank. He's still using a crank phone and connects to an operator to place calls.

Chris

 

Does he have to crank up the operator to connect to the internet, too?

 

No! He goes next door to his neighbor's house.

Chris

 

I'm gonna get 'cha!

Actually, those gave the best returns!

 

And that's exactly what Frank would do in dem dar days........

 

Most are 69/70, but there are those problem coins that will grade less than 69. So, that's the point to buying certified in the secondary market, to avoid those in ogp that didn't make at least a 69 grade.