http://www.apmex.com/product/149988...-american-eagle-congratulations-set?toppicks2 I find this insulting. The Mint does 75,000 units but no limit to the orders. Now APMEX among other dealers have 300+ available for sale at a $75.04 markup. I tried to order one on release date. The website lagged, and next thing you know it's sold out in 2 mins.
They are one of the sellers that gets the quantity they want regardless of order limit. They just end up charging more when they have to buy them from a middle man in the process. As frustrating as the mints poor performing website is, sellers like that having a quantity of something is nothing unusual
APMEX, MCM, etc they can all choke on them. Hopefully other collectors start waking up to the fact that they seem to always 'miss out' on sales from the mint at issue because the big guys dominate the market one way or another. Hopefully people then stop buying from these outlets at inflated price encouraging them to repeat the cycle.
Sadly, FOMO (fear of missing out) motivates some folks to pay stupid money for something they don't ordinarily buy.
The only way for collectors to have a meaningful influence -- unless the Mint decides to change its practices -- is to let the "middle men" -- otherwise known as price gougers -- keep them.
I punted on the 3 gold centennial coins, the high relief liberty gold coin, the recent 225th US Mint gold coin, the silver medals, the gold Kennedy half, and the 4 recent presidential chronicle sets. But I really wanted this 2017 Congratulations ASE. Seeing how last year set was a typical West Point ASE.
It's not the mints fault for once. Even with a limit of one the big boys get all they want. The only thing they could ever do is to make it illegal to resell modern mint products in which case no one would want them. Anything else they do the big boys will get their share
Banning such resales would be a difficult undertaking at best. The solution is the market: if people are willing to pay a 100 percent markup or more for something minted yesterday, this foolishness will continue. If they say "no thanks" the big boys will choke on their wares and reverse course. Of course, if the Mint is found to be deliberately favoring the big buyers, that's another matter entirely.
reminds me of the 2016 Liberty Silver Medal. Those are down to about $78 each for S/W mint. I didn't get one of those either.
The Mint isn't going to surrender their only reliable customers. Mint issues are structured as middleman commerce, to them, and the end collector isn't their problem. This is clearly evidenced by their Forum last fall, where they filled the room with dealers and added five or six token collectors for appearances' sake.
They better be selling them at melt then or leave them on the webpage for 10 years. I would never spend money on something that had no assured appreciation that I wasn't allowed to resell for a decade no matter what happened in my life
To add a little to this it also relates to just who the mint's 'authorized' resellers are who are allowed to buy AGE/ASE/Buffalo bullion coins direct from the mint for resale. I'd be willing to bet those same authorized resellers ended up with most the mintage on this ASE thus far from orders they placed directly with the mint. And just because there is the appearance of fairness or the 'well everyone had a chance' excuse to fall back on for the mint. That doesn't always mean that wink and nod hand shake type deals don't happen behind the scenes.
I believe any big bullion business can become an AP the company meets their requirements. One of which is they must have working capitol of at least $500k I believe. So the AP's are by default big business PM guys who have the ability to buy a large bulk of any mint offering on speculation. There's no need for having an "in". Just to be on the ball like everyone else. Now, if they were allowed to buy say a single block of 1000 units of an issue with a HH limit of 5 that would be a problem.
An order limit of 1 wouldn't stop the large dealers from getting a quantity, but it would slow them down, so the little guy has more than 2 minutes to get an order in. Clearly the mint won't do anything about what's seen as a problem by many of the mint's customers, they are getting more abusive. So here's a link to an agency that may do something about it or not, either way it's worth a try. Here's a link to file an online complaint with the U.S. Treasury Department Inspector General. You can file anonymously and mint mismanagement is a legit complaint. If they get a bunch of these, they may do something about it. https://www.treasury.gov/about/organizational-structure/ig/Pages/OigOnlineHotlineForm.aspx Here's a sample complaint: This is the person to file the complaint on: David Motl, Acting Principal Deputy Director United States Mint This is the complaint you can copy & paste in most of the required fields or write your own: I am filing this complaint because of mismanagement (or worse) by David Motl, Acting Principal Deputy Director of the United States Mint. The U.S. Mint, under Mr. Motl’s direction, repeatedly offers limited edition coins in a manner that allows a few large business interests to monopolize the entire issue. The most recent abuse was an offering for the 2017 Congratulations Set on April 4, 2017 with no ordering limits. This issue sold out in less than two minutes and most collectors were shutout. It appears from aftermarkets sales, a few large dealers bought most of the sets. Please review Mr. Motl’s business practices in order to assure all U.S. Mint customers have a chance to purchase their offerings. Thank You.
If the mint was really concerned about equitable distribution of a limited mintage, they could have a pre-sale lottery. A month in advance of first date of sale, each household could apply for a number. A week before first sale day, the numbers would be randomly drawn for sales order rank. Those who won in the lottery would be given a week after the first sale date to make a purchase or lose their place. Wouldn't be difficult. Cal