looking on e-bay I don't see any American Silver Eagles with that W mint mark under or near spot... the "cheapest I'm finding is 2007W's with buy it now at $45... if your collecting all the American Silver eagles like some ACTUALLY do... you'll eventually need the W mint marked ones... as for the mintage not being considered low cause they are all being collected and I've seen a great many of 2007W's and a few 2008W's that were basically trashed from what I think the past owner just didn't care about 'em thinking of them being just bullion... p.s. my 15 2007W's I paid about $27 average each when spot was $23+ and the the average price for ASE's was about $26 and the lowest price I see is $45 now... so going off these numbers unsure how I could have made a mistake buying them... also I got 3 2008W's for an average of $31 and the prices on those are about $60 or more Spot price is $34.18 so I think there's a disconnect with prices and spot
the latest number i can find (1/17/12) is 238k for the '11w. I think at that number I'm going to get another couple coins. it's about the same as 06w. might have some upside and I don't see any downside they usually bring some premium over the multi-million bullion coins.
I order subscription from the Mint, so I will get the three for $ 132.35. However, I just ordered three from Universal for $ 36.17 each. or $ 108.54 for three, a savings of 23.81.