what you have to consider is the amount of people that collect ASE + the amount of people that just generally collect and will probably want one of these sets just because of its nature > the mintage of the 2 rarities
I think your wrong on this one, if there is 100,000 collectors how do you account for the 10 million they are selling the last few years? and the quick sellout out the 250,000 Anniverary set....even if multiples are purchased there are more than 100,000.
They are selling these coins as bullion - that is why. Fully 99% of all the US bullion coins are bought by people all over the world for their bullion content and nothing else. It has only been in the past few years that more than a handful of people even tried to collect them by date. And before you go thinking that I am just an elitist collector who looks down on bullion coins - I was one of those few who did collect them by date. If you wish to see the truth of my comments, try taking an ordinary MS69 slabbed ASE into a coin dealer's shop and try to sell it. He will give you less than spot for it.
I still disagree with your numbers, but that fine. I also don't think you an an elitist collector, I don't know you. I myself don't even collect these like a lot of the hardcore Eagle collectors, I don't even have a complete set. But, My only and continuing point is that the Anniversary set I purchased because I knew it would be a winner because these SAE's are bigger than ever before, you have to admit that. The mintages which you state are true, they have been rising and I believe it is because of collectors. Why do you think the US Mint now has the burnished one now, because the SAE collectors buy anything SAE.
or could you take this a different way and say the set will cause more people to start collecting them thus raising the amount of people collecting ASEs + the original collectors + the people who want to own the reverse proof for the set but don't collect ASE's normally
You know that comment has me wondering how many people are into coins, and I'd say the state quarters brought a few in but still it is a small percentage of the American population. I wonder how many red books they sell a year. It may be more than 100K collectors though based on the demand/price of the 1995 W which is 25K mintage. By your number it should be about 4X's issue price not 400X