Buying from the Royal Canadian Mint

I've recently taken an interest in Canadian silver coins. I bought several on eBay, but I started to wonder if I might get a better deal buying from the source. I was looking at their site and I see a few coins that I bought on eBay selling for much more than I paid for them. So I'm wondering, do they raise their prices over time, or how do these eBay sellers get them cheaper? Because I know they're not taking a loss on all these. What is your experience of buying from the mint? Would you recommend it or not?

 

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About 90% of the crap that the RCM puts out loses value. Don't buy any of that stuff from the mint .. buy it on the secondary market, in 2-5 years. Be VERY sure who you are buying from on EBay because almost all US and Canadian mint stuff (mostly NCLT) is being faked by Chinese .. be very sure what you buy.

The RCM gives large dealers a big price break, so dealers actually can sell to you for cheaper than issue price and still make a profit.

 

Thanks for your opinion. I'm not looking at colored coins or Superman commemoratives. I'm looking at uncolored silver wildlife coins, which seem to hold their value pretty well. And I know some of the stuff has very low mintage so it's hard to find after it sells out. Those were my considerations.

 

From my experience a GREAT SELLER on ebay that has a lot of the Canadian Coins is the Paradise mint. I have purchased a lot from them and they have about 1000 listings. Two of the coins that I purchased are the Bass and the Trout and in proof 70 and they are worth about $140. I got them through paradise for about $45. each in PF-70 UC.

 

I'm glad I only collect mostly older Canadian coins. I cannot fathom how Canadian collectors keep up with the plethora of items released each year, which reminds me of our own USPS. I gave up on stamps in the late 80's when they tried keeping up with the trading card industry and we all know how that turned out. I'll admit I do get a Maple leaf bullion coin each year and have picked up some of the birds issues in 1 oz. bullion form. Where my older Canada albums ended in the 90's is where I put a stop to the nonsense. ( My nonsense )

 

Thanks for the advice. I think I might have bought from them before.

I was all set to buy this bear reflection coin from the mint because it had free shipping, and then I get all through filling in my address and it says it's going to charge me $12 for shipping. Free shipping must just be in Canada. With that it's just as cheap to buy on eBay.

 

Yeah, it's really excessive. I was looking at Krause and there's pages and pages of coins in recent years. You could never keep up. But I have a soft spot for wildlife coins, especially bears, and those are the ones I want to get.

 

They've been putting out some garbage lately. Like for a long time. But this recent stuff is really bad...

 

Yeah, that sort of thing has no interest for me. Colored coins just don't excite me. I saw a walrus coin from 2005 or 2006 that I really liked though. I got outbid but they have several like that that I really want.

 

I had purchased directly from RCM and I got free shipping. The coins I ordered were shipped out from the US. somewhere. I have also ordered a few times from the Perth mint. I like them a lot better. But the prices at the mints are a lot higher than you can buy on ebay . I have gotten a lot of proof 70's cheaper than the actual raw coin. How do they do it? Tremendous volume I believe. I have also purchased original set coins in the box with the COA from the mints, and see them cheaper on Ebay! And I am talking extremely low mintage coins. Where is the value?? Is everybody panicking with the market and dumping them!

 

What is your definition of "low mintage". To give you one example, my favorite is the 1911-2011 dual dated centennial anniversary set for the 1911 SP dollar. The mintage is 6000 and the market price for the five coins seems to be somewhat over $200 USD now.

To my knowledge, it sold out when issued but I have no idea if the real collector base (as opposed to flippers) is really 6000 or anywhere near it. Adjusting for my guess of the size of the Canada collector base, I'd say its probably the equivalent of a US set with 60,000 to 120.000. So no, not really that low.

For most of the recent RCM NCLT I have seen, considering the huge volume of this stuff coming out each and every year with most of it having potentially little to zero numismatic appeal to most collectors, I'd say that even if the mintage is quite a bit less than 6000, it isn't really low either. Years from now, I expect the overwhelming percentage of this stuff to be mostly forgotten.

 

They usually have free shipping but you have to spend over a certain $ amount (ie $100 or $150).
Agree with Bill in Burl comment though, buying on the secondary market would save you $ on the vast majority of RCM issues.

 

I guess if the eBay prices are just as cheap then I might as well get them there. When I thought it was free shipping it made sense but without that it doesn't. Unfortunately the coins I'm interested in still seem pretty popular. I've bought coins from 2011 or so and they're still way over the silver value.

 

A good number of the NCLT stuff up here in Canada is sold at the Post Offices. So, when aging Sam and Ethyl are standing in line waiting to mail a box, one says to the other .. "Wouldn't little Timmy love that colorful xxxx coin for Xmas or Birthday. The coin ends up in Timmy's drawer and 5-6 years later he sells it for scrap to put gas in the car in high school. Many folks up here also get automatic, monthly purchases from the RCM. Then one dies and the spouse has no idea what they are or their worth. Then one of the traveling "fake Antiques-Roadshow" scams comes to town and they sell them at 1/4 of scrap or 10 cents on the dollar. That's why the secondary market is overloaded with that crap.

 

Wouldn't the exchange rate between the U.S., dollar and Canadian dollar affect whether you may get a better deal buying from the RCM?

 

Not really because most of the eBay sellers are also in Canada so it's the same exchange. It's a great time to buy coins from Canada because of the exchange rate.

 

Let's hope that the U.S. Mint doesn't go this idiotic route with enameled or colored coins. Unfortunately, we are halfway there already, as a 'pink gold' half-eagle for breast cancer awareness (barf!) is already in the works. SMH

 

And lets not forget the ones with "Precious" jewels imbedded in them.

 

But the firefighter coin does lend me to send prayers to all those in Canada right now going through their sad times, losing everything in that terrible fire.

 

When you buy them be sure they are graded and slabbed on Ebay IMO. Otherwise you just don't know what you are getting. Most of the sellers don't even attempt to put a grade on the coins they sell. You must guess from the pic. I just got fooled buying a Russian coin thinking it was much larger than it was and finding out it was tiny. My own fault but the presentation was misleading to say the least.