Over the past year the price has tumbled on the clad proof sets as the value of the silver proof sets has doubled (no surprise on the silver sets since the price of silver has doubled). The prices of the 1999 clad proof sets has dropped to less than $20/each. They were selling for over $50 about 2 years ago. The prices of 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006 are getting close to $10/each. The 2001 is now selling at about $20/each. The only clad proof set holding any real value is the 2008. It is still fetching prices of over $50/each. What has happend to the prices of the 1999 and 2001 sets? Why are the clad proof sets losing value so quickly? Why is the 2008 keeping its value? Ok, its mintage is slightly less than the 2009 but only a little less. I'm baffled.
These sets have always had the tendency to just swamp the demand once they've been around a few years. I expected these to buck this trend but am hardly surprised. I remember the '99 used to be up over $100. They all have a very bright future in the long run but the question is what's the long run. It's probable that the proof sets won't really start doing well until after the old mint sets start climbing sharply. These mint sets are higher than in the past but certainly are no hot seller at this time. People still take all the moderns for granted and see where they made over two million of all these proof sets so they figure they'll be around forever. Of course it doesn't work that way and when the surviving supply can't keep up with ongoing demand pries will explode higher. I think when the economy makes some real improvement we'll start seeing some changes but this is probably a couple years away at least.
