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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;rocket, post: 863735, member: 24349&quot;]I have attempted to search, haven&#039;t found much on this topic, but feel it is an important enough subject to bring up. </p><p><br /></p><p>To my knowledge, as far as having a coin slabbed with a first or early &quot;xxxxx&quot; (replace the x&#039;s with your favorite word i.e. strike, release, date of issue, etc.), a coin has to be submitted to a grading company within a certain amount of time, OR in some cases if the shipment still has the original US Mint packing box/tape/labels, the ship date by the Mint can be proven and slab marked accordingly.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ok, here is the risk issue: What happens when this Mint sealed box contains defective, wrong, or incorrect numbers of product? I have had two experiences where I have bought sealed boxes - one good and one not so good. I will concentrate on the not so good experience:</p><p><br /></p><p>About a couple of months after the 8-8-08 Double Prosperity gold sets were no longer sold, I saw their numbers decrease as far as online auctions, and wanted to buy another one or two before they were out of reach, price-wise. I found one and bought it for a couple hundred dollars over the last price the mint charged, and it was new in the Mint-sealed shipping box. Cool, or so I thought. The seller had 3 of them, the one I bought and two others. I paid and waited for mine to show up.</p><p><br /></p><p>When the box did show up, I decided that slabs weren&#039;t important to me, so I opened the original Mint shipping box. :hatch:</p><p><br /></p><p>Much to my disappointment, I found that there was a 8-8-08 Double Prosperity set, the coins were fine, but that nice red hardwood box that they are housed in had a significant problem. What I thought was red paint and a mint emblem actually turned out to be a plastic coating, and this plastic coating had de-laminated from the wood top of the box and cracked into pieces. The box top wood was warped. I will attempt to attach photos of it to this thread.</p><p><br /></p><p>I contacted the seller. He was in disbelief. I emailed photos, and because he had two additional sets he hadn&#039;t open nor sold yet, he decided to open one of the other sets he had and found the same problems. Clearly, the environment that these products were stored in can and did play a part in how the materials responded. In this case, it appeared as if the cardboard box was exposed to too much heat and probably humidity over time. What if what was inside the cardboard box was not the double prosperity set?</p><p><br /></p><p>That leaves me with the question to those who buy Mint sealed, shipped boxes containing coins and forward them to grading companies. What happens if the grading company opens the box and the product ordered and specified is not what is in the box? Who is liable for errors, and who is responsible for ensuring that something is kept in a cool and dry place?</p><p><br /></p><p>All I can answer with is to share what I decided do, and ask if anyone else has any similar ideas or experiences on how someone can prevent problems or losses such as this. </p><p><br /></p><p>My answer: I don&#039;t buy a Mint sealed box from a private party with the intention of sending it away for grading without looking at the contents when it first arrives. I recently bought 10 coins that were in a still-sealed US Mint cardboard box. They were not struck during the first month or two of production. I found the order number and checked it. They are expensive, so I wanted to protect myself. I set up a camcorder and pressed record. First I recorded all sides of the box to show that the registered mail paper tape was intact. I then recorded the steps of the opening the box, and show the removal of the product from the box. After I am sure that everything is as expected, I will erase the videotape, as it is no longer needed. If there would have been a problem, at least there is a record of what all took place from prior to the box being opened through the time I inspected it.</p><p><br /></p><p>I am wondering if anyone else has had issues, or knows ways to prevent problems...</p><p><font size="7">R </font></p><p>####]----&gt;</p><p><br /></p><p>Sidenotes: </p><p><br /></p><p>There were many people who did have their sets grated at the time, so finding a replacement wood box was reasonable as far as cost. The seller picked up most of the cost of the replacement box, and I was a happy camper.</p><p><br /></p><p>I saw one seller on a popular auction site that actually has a photo of his unopened box that has been through an x-ray machine to verify content. I think it does an adequate job of showing how many coins are in the box, but I don&#039;t think that an x-ray will show what the obverse and reverse of the contents inside look like.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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