The Mint has priced itself out of the market in my opinion. At today's rate the 2021 Silver Proof set contains $22 worth of silver. the Silver Proof set price is $105. I don't see the numismatic value in that price/value difference.
Would have liked to purchase a couple ASE's this year, but just recently received an email saying they were already sold out due to the enrollments.
I'll confess that I went nearly all-in on the Apollo commemoratives. Since then, I've mostly bought only to flip.
I am done with mint purchases. Their system can not handle the volume they create for the items that sell out in minutes. I refuse to participate.
I also buy everything you do except the Commems. 20-30 years later and I couldn't sell them for what I paid for them.
The Ike that gets me is the 1973-S Proof silver coin. That piece was on the Grey Sheet for $250 almost 40 years ago. I sold the one I had for $175 after I twisted a dealers arm to pay me that. I gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse. I thought the bids were so high, that I couldn’t afford to keep it. Almost everything was overpriced in those days. Recently I bought one for $12 in an antiques store of all places!
If you bought the gold coins, you have a chance to be okay because of the increase in the price of bullion. For everything else, you are mostly underwater. I was surprised at the low bids when I decided to sell some of the pieces I have.
Only thing I've purchased is the 2022 American Women silver proof set for my daughter's coin collection.
Silver Eagles (proofs & burnished & "instant rarities" if possible and get them graded). I started Silver Eagles with just raw coins...then progressed to graded; so now I do both. I was gonna stop raw coins after 2021...didn't happen lol. I have subscriptions for the silver eagles (2 each). Given the current situation (sold out) I just may flip the 2nd coin. I buy the Innovation $ proof sets, and regular proof set. They are inexpensive; if they were more, I wouldn't buy them.
And if it could handle the volume how do you think people would react when things sold out in literal seconds?
For many years, I had to have one of everything that came out. About 2000, I quit. Never opened the last 30 boxes. No room to store any more or find anything when I want to look at it. If I sold it all the gold coins would cover my loss on the rest. I'm happy I pulled the plug when I did. Should have bought more gold but I was not thinking about the future value of the collections. It's a hobby.
The last thing I bought from the Mint was a 1985-S Proof Set. I could see the future at that point. "Buy Now! Sell for Less Later."