2008 Platinum Eagle are back and much cheaper

I feel for the guys who have been paying up for these. They are back. All of them!

 

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I noticed that too.... did they also lower the prices of the unc gold? The proof prices look the same for the gold.

 

Still way too up there Joe...

 

Crazy that you can now get the 1/10oz platinum for the same price as the gold...

 

cheaper but overcharge

the platinum series is cheaper but again it was overcharged by 10%. they based on $1,100.00 per ounce. the spot price is below $1,000.00.

 

If this is true that would mean that they are buying at current levels and not just using preexisting stock as I doubt they are sitting on Platinum from 2 years ago.

 

The mark up is much more than 10%, but the mint is not a refinery and to cover their cost all their products will always have mark ups. Even with economies of scale labor to design, engrave, power the mint, promote, package and even pay people $10 an hour to take orders cost money. The mint is in business to produce coins and not run into a loss doing so.

 

If the mint owns any metal at 30%-40% higher than market prices then they would have to dollar cost down in order to sell above a cost basis. But if you look at their annual reports they have lost money in the past from declining metals....just as they have made lots with the run up from early '06.

 

In light on the recent sell out it is apparent that the mint is selling old stock and not buying new stock to dollar cost down. Therefore the mint will sell coins at prices lower than their cost basis!

 

Your original post stated "By law, they have to base the price they bought the metal at - not its current price.."

What happens when the current price of metals go down? The mint has to lower their price to sell it. I think what you are trying to refer to are the dealer network bullion coins that are produced based on ordered demand. The mint isn't producing these in the sense of speculation. What I was referring to are the proof and burnished coins that the mint produces in anticipation of collectors demand and when the underlying price of these "stocked" coins goes down and there are no buyers they will reprice the coins to move them.

 

platinum crashed

both platinum and gold produced by the mint were expensive. talking about bullion now worth $700.00 - $800.00.

 

That's interesting. I never knew that. :thumb:

 

I can't see any way the mint has prevented losing money on selling the burnished platinum coins and even the proofs this year as platinum has done nothing except drop in price all year and they must have purchased most of the platinum at peak prices. I have read that the blanks come from Australia for these coins so they probably can't just get a few blanks as they need them, they must order in quantity. Also it is very costly to make the platinum coins due to all the strikes and the problems with the hardness of the metal. Many returns on the coins cuts into profits.

Also I have read they do the coins in runs so if demand is higher they go back and make more but initially they made a run and sit on those until they sell enough to need more. At least that is how i think they do this. The current coins may have all been from the initial run of coins as the mint may have gambled that platinum prices would keep rising.

I think they have not dropped the spouse coins any amount since production even though gold has also dropped, that leads me to believe they also did a large initial run or perhaps even a total run on the spouse coins. I would wonder if they have a 2008 spouse coin which sells into 2009 and they are allowed to go back in 2009 and mint coins that say 2008. If they do that doesn't seem right, minting 2008 coins in 2009. But I am pretty sure they can't as they can't with the platinum coins. The platinum are minted the year they are stamped and sell into the next year until supply runs out.

 

I think you need to read my last post with a little more attention. The mint does as infact "just buy metals, strike the coins and then wait for somebody to ask for them." They strike up coins in anticipated demand with their collector coins gold, silver, platinum. These coins are struck in proof and the burnished Uncs beginning 2006. I just answered a survey 2 days ago regarding the price I would consider paying for the Ultra High Relief Gold Double Eagle for Jan 2009. The mint conducts surveys before producing and pricing coins and their study of the market determines the amount and mintage of coins that they initially make. Do you really think that the mint gets an order mints the collector based proof or burnished Unc. coin, ships it to Memphis for FedEx to have at my doorstep 2 days later as you implied by stating "They buy and strike enough to meet orders they have and that's it."?

As I stated earlier the mint produces and sells the bullion-dealer network coins based on your "within the law" concept. These coins carry much lower premiums and the program is in place for the distribution of bullion to bullion dealers, not collector produced bullion such as proofs and burnished Unc. coins that carry much higher premiums. These collector, and not the bullion dealer demand based coins, with higher profit margins at the mints discretion can be dollar cost averaged down or even sold at a loss.

The mint can and does suspend sales " in times of volatility" because with falling prices there is less demand and the production cost of the smaller scale production is greater than the very low premiums on the dealer network bullion coins.

 

Yes they do an initial run. I purchased an 2008 W Platinum Eagle 1/10 and 1/4 oz earlier this year when they first went on sale. After the re-release a week ago I made 3 different orders of (5) 1/10's and 1 order of (10) of the 1/4 ozs. 8 of 10 1/4oz's have identical marks on the coins reverse and even members on the collector forum have commented and posted pictures on the identical marks. These marks are identical to the one I purchased in the Spring, so yes there is an initial production run and the mint is selling coins from that run from earlier in the year when Pt was higher.