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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;krispy, post: 1457226, member: 19065&quot;]The US Mint <u>have been</u>&nbsp; maximizing profit for a very long time already. They&#039;ve got that act in&nbsp; a can. It doesn&#039;t take much effort to bump up price points, especially&nbsp; on known and established popular coin series, to maintain their&nbsp; regular influx of profitability. Only this time they have done so, increased prices, for&nbsp; two coins coming out on the heels of similar quality annual coins priced&nbsp; and selling for less per coin while silver prices too have been in decline&nbsp; from recent past issues of these coins. Let&#039;s look at some&nbsp; prices and compare...</p><p><br /></p><p>The 2010 Proof ASE sold for $45.95, the 2011 Proof ASE&nbsp; sold for $59.95 and the 2011 UNC W, initially, sold for $60.45, all&nbsp; rising while silver prices were at high levels over the last couple&nbsp; years. We might say that was understandable even if it were approaching&nbsp; twice or greater the cost for a numismatic version than it&#039;s bullion&nbsp; cousins were then selling for. </p><p><br /></p><p>The A25 set held at $60 per coin&nbsp; for the $299.95 asking price, but silver prices had already begun to level off a bit by then too. This year, the 2012 proof ASE, that was recently released, sells&nbsp; for $59.95 (again) while it&#039;s 20<u>11</u> W UNC cousin remains on sale,&nbsp; as of this writing, at the reduced price of $45.95. That&#039;s a coin sold at a reduced price&nbsp; after its initial offering of $60.45 per coin last year when it became&nbsp; available. Why is the 2012 Proof not less and what will the 2012 W UNC list for remains to be seen, but market&nbsp; spot price for silver, in advance of this SF 75th anniversary ASE product&nbsp; release has decreased a fair amount, yet the price per coin in <u>this</u>&nbsp; set has increased, yet again this year, rather than remaining at $60 per&nbsp; coin like the 2012 Proof has done with the slow down in silver spot&nbsp; price. </p><p><br /></p><p>The SF 75th anniversary ASE coins are also using similar&nbsp; design and packaging that the A25 set used. Very little&nbsp; additional expenditure has gone into design (probably only in&nbsp; reconfiguration), assembly procedures, investigation and testing of&nbsp; materials required for the OGP and materials acquired for the two-coin set from what was used&nbsp; for the 5-coin set. Many have complained about the Mint&#039;s offerings&nbsp; being accessible after the last couple of years &#039;cancelled orders&#039; or&nbsp; being shut out by high household limits, poor ordering systems and such&nbsp; problems. Whether they have addressed these concerns effectively also remains to be seen for what the new products are listed for sale. Have improvements to customer service and satisfaction taken place and are they worth the new prices, we shall see...</p><p><br /></p><p>Now the US Mint offers access where some were shut our from the A25 for example (which may prove a very&nbsp; high mintage / sales record for the Mint) but at a significant premium&nbsp; for this very popular product beyond what the Mint has asked for similar&nbsp; products in the past let alone currently charges for similar products. Their profit potential on this&nbsp; latest &quot;special&quot; set is substantial! It&#039;s asking $15 more per coin than the current&nbsp; Proof at $60 when spot metal price is less than half $60, somewhere now in&nbsp; the low $28 range / ounce. </p><p><br /></p><p>These irrational price increases appear&nbsp; more as padding to maintain that progression of profit year after year&nbsp; on numismatic issues, which the Mint cannot maintain while the materials intrinsic costs, it&#039;s&nbsp; market value decreases faster than production and labor costs increase.&nbsp; Add to that the Mint&#039;s recent barrage of media informing us of robotic&nbsp; coin handling and packaging, quality checking scans instead of the human eye spotting spots, all this eliminating&nbsp; jobs that people were paid to do, and now at less costs than human labor. The prices though increase. The Mint has a long way to go to&nbsp; correct its systems and provide the quality they claim to offer&nbsp; customers if they insist on annual price increases and marketed coin&nbsp; gimmicks to keep collectors addicted to their product in this manner.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m not stating emphatically that I wouldn&#039;t buy&nbsp; this new product as it is something appealing to me a collector of this&nbsp; series since the first year the series was issued, but I am stating the rational in how prices are arrived at for this product has become&nbsp; absurd, more so in the&nbsp; last few years, and the mere idea that they thought $75 per coin was&nbsp; acceptable on a set of coins celebrating a cities 75th anniversary for&nbsp; bridges and institutions was within range of previous product increases,&nbsp; doesn&#039;t seem beyond the realm of improbable in this case. </p><p><br /></p><p>I am stating&nbsp; that we are aware as collectors when are being <i>played</i> and that we are aware that falling&nbsp; intrinsic value does not see products likewise fairly adjusted lower as have the other similar products been adjusted. Other products bearing precious metals&nbsp; are adjusted and why not this member of the greater Eagle series of coins. Why this is an exception given the lack of originality in the&nbsp; offering, a manufactured collectible, isn&#039;t something that will maintain&nbsp; the series&#039; collectors, inspire opportunist like flippers of A25 sets and maintain the merit of&nbsp; the Mint overall in this generation of it&#039;s existence.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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