On the morning of October 12th I ordered a couple of proof 1-Oz gold American Eagles. The website said they were backordered (not a wait list, but backordered), and would ship in about 10 days. This didn't bother me because I had been watching these items for over a month, and they had always shown as being backordered. Two days later (October 14th), the Mint reported that these were sold out (but my status still said backordered). A week or so after that, my ship date got pushed out a week. A week later my ship date got pushed out a second time. Finally, on November 2, my order was canceled. I'm relatively new at ordering from the Mint. I realize the Mint has no way of knowing how many people will return coins they have ordered, and they want to make sure they sell the coins that are returned to someone else. But I would have thought that once someone ordered the last coin currently in stock, they would either: 1) change the status to "Sold Out" and then re-open sales after 3 weeks or so (long enough to be sure that they had received and accounted for all of the coins that would be returned in the 1-week return period) or, 2) change the status to "Wait List", continue to fill orders as coins are returned, and then (once they were sure no more returns were coming), cancel the remaining wait list orders. They could even pick some number of coins that they are sure they won't exceed in returns, and cap the wait list orders at that number. Once wait list orders hit the cap, the status for new orders would change to "Sold Out", but the people already on the wait list would stay until the order was filled or until there was no longer a chance of a returned coin. Had I known they were sold out / wait-listed, knowing the prices were about to jump, I would have ordered two proof Buffaloes instead of taking the risk of getting nothing. I could have gotten them for $100 less per coin compared to the price today. The thing that confuses me is that the US Mint's website does talk about a "wait list" category, and says they are not obligated to honor orders placed under a wait list. Do they consider "backordered" to be the same as "Wait List"? Maybe I just don't understand their terminology. Thanks.
I'd say call and ask specifically. 1-800-USA-MINT (872-6468) I couldn't find anything specific to all the different statuses they may use but I did find that the U.S. Mint claims they can cancel any order at their own discretion.
