Apollo 11 anniversary half dollar set

I ordered five gold Kennedy proofs. Every one of them had significant haze or marks in the fields, so I returned them all. The Mint reimbursed me for the return shipping (insured Registered Mail). I had to write a letter requesting reimbursement.

I also ordered two four-coin silver Kennedy half sets. For each of the four types in the sets, I got one with problems, and one without. So, I returned the set with problems, and kept the one without. That time, I don't believe I hit up the Mint for shipping -- it was cheap enough not to bother.

Since then, though, the Mint has announced that they'll cut off customers who do too many returns. We've speculated here on CT that that's aimed mainly at dealers and other high-volume customers, but there's no telling.

 

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I have never had a curved coin before, at least not any that were made that way. The only reason I went with this one is because it comes with a holder. I am not as hard core as the rest of you.

 

I'm actually quite intrigued to see if it is a special holder or not and how curved the coins actually are. Hopefully someone who grabbed the 5oz will show off the amount.

 

The half is listed as having a height .123 inches. The dollar is listed as having a height of .243 inches. The 5 ounce is listed as having a height of .441 inches, so I would say the curve is not really that pronounced.

 

I had to return several of my baseball orders as the quality was just horrendous and honestly I am convinced I was getting other peoples returns. Long story short they were supposed to reimburse me for the shipping charges, still waiting on that check.

 

Some certainly did believe that, I believe it is the exact opposite. They aren't going to cut off dealers/customers that do 6/7 figures of business a year or more with them. They will however cut off the person that makes 3 orders and has returns on two.

The biggest customers in basically every business always have their own rules

 

Thanks for the info.

Wow. I'm so unimpressed with the US Mint in general and to hear that you got so much shoddy product doesn't help my opinion. It's almost more worthwhile to buy from a trusted dealer with whom you have a good relationship because the dealers are customer-oriented and would likely not have sold you such poor products. They would also probably pay for full return shipping no questions asked if they had sent you damaged goods.

Well, like I said, I'm a new customer. Hopefully I wont get damaged product, and they can't refuse my first return.

 

Makes a lot of sense. If it's profit-driven they lose more from all those small returns. They have to pay for manpower to process those small returns when they didn't make much on the sale to begin with. It takes a lot of time to process - someone has to open the package, make sure the person returned everything they claim they did, check the condition, issue a credit back to your credit card, sort the returns, and then restock the shelves with those items that are not damaged. Each return likely costs them at least a half hour of salaried manpower, if not more. If a customer is costing them $50 a year in returns while they are only profiting net $10 a year from that customer, it creates a loss. Enough of those and they start feeling it.

Unlike the dealers who they net thousands of dollars of profit from, they can afford to lose a few dollars on processing a small percentage of the dealers' returns.

The US Mint should not be more profit driven in their return policy though, than, say, Nordstrom, or other for-profit retailers. The US Mint's retail division "should" mirror gov't in the sense that it's for the people - not out to make money per se but simply to cover retail operation costs. And some would argue it shouldn't even be doing that.

If you go to the bank you can "buy" rolls of $1 gold-colored coins for $1 each coin. They're not new but why should new ones cost more?

Nobody charges more for a brand new stack of $5 bills - why should they charge more for a roll of brand new coins?

 

The idea of them not covering cost is just absurd and whoever argues that needs a reality check.

The mint absolutely should be making a profit, collector coins are for collectors the circulating coins are "for the people".

That said overcharging for substandard products leads to sales like these have seen already. There's a reason why the US mint is a joke on the world scale

Because new ones are for collectors only now. You get what you get from banks, you don't get to pick and choose

 

No, it's for the large dealers that return huge amounts after cherry picking the best.

Little guy buys 3 coins and returns 2? Mint doesn't care. Big dealer buys 1000 and returns 975? Huge problem for the Mint. This is what was happening that led to the policy.

You are the only one who (repeatedly) has said that the policy is for the little guy.
This goes against all logic, experience and common sense. But hey, keep repeating it over and over!

 

Sure thing believe what you want to, than let me know how reality is

Do you not understand logistics and man hours, or business at all?

 

Maybe the Mint policy was responding to BOTH the big guys that abuse the system if they in fact repeatedly buy 1000 and return 975, and also little guys who repeatedly buy 3 and return 2.

 

Anything that only applied to massive bulk buyers would have been told to them directly in private, the fact that it was made public says enough

 

I hear you. Conceded.

That's the crux of it. It's one thing to charge a premium in order to make a profit, it's another to price gouge and overcharge.

I have a feeling there will be lots of other moon-landing coins and rounds being issued this year around the world. But I was hoping this US Mint Apollo 11 issue would be a big hit because it was issued by the country and gov't which actually was the first in the world to land 2 men on the moon and bring them home safely.

But charging ridiculous prices goes beyond making a profit, and there is no reason for them to have to charge ridiculous prices (or for them to make shoddy products for that matter).

Maybe the US Mint themselves is extremely wasteful in how they spend money in every part of their operation, or they are being mismanaged in the extreme, or they themselves are paying far too much to their suppliers, or all of the above.

 

The design selection process is the biggest issue where a bunch of people consistently don't pick the best designs. Then they're recycled over and over like with these where every design is the same.

Australia just to name one has already done multiple moon products with a 5c and $1 just as starters at this point and of course other countries will as well and probably execute them better as well.

Trying to suck every last bit of meat off the bone just leads to lower sales, especially since they don't offer the bulk discounts the other world mints do.

They seem fine with the status quo as it works for them, Congress does hamstring them with to high of mintages and absurd surcharges, but they don't seem to care enough to actually advocate for something more reasonable. In the end they just keep fading into the background and a Super Powers Mint probably barely cracks the top 10 if that in terms of world relevancy

 

I bought an Apollo coin simply because the moon landing is one of the most pleasant historic events of my life.

Otherwise, I don’t buy any of the “new design” commemoratives. They are largely a collection of cartoonish drawings chosen by people who know nothing of coin design and micromanaged by egotists in Congress who know even less.

 

Sad.

 

We had to return two of our Reverse Silver Proof sets (out of an order of 10). Instead of using the return form and label that was on the packing slip, we called them, and asked them to cover the return shipping. They said OK, and emailed us a prepaid label.

The thing to remember is that they will NOT volunteer that information -- but, if you ask for it, it's there for you.

Also, FWIW, we called after the deadline for returns (7 days after receipt, IIRC), and nothing was said about it.

(Why did we wait so long? We never expected any problems, but then started reading about people with tons of damaged coins, and so, I took loupe to both sides of each coin in each set, and found a damaged dime in one set, and a damaged dollar in the other.)

 

Good to know! Thank you for the info!

 

After seeing what the Apollo half set is going for on HSN, ($249.00) I wish I would have gotten more than just the one.

That Enhanced Reverse Proof Kennedy is turning out to be quite the item.