I havent been on here in a while... But figured it was about time for some venting... I am so tired of ordering coins the second they are released, fighting the mint website, refreshing in 7 different tabs hoping to get my order in. Finally after sometimes hours of this process, completing an order. Then to be immediately notified that my item will ship in 3 MONTHS! Yet a day or two later shop at home TV has the very same coins for sale ALREADY GRADED!!!! Whats the deal???? Here it is July 25th and I finally got my 5 Baseball Unc Dollar Commems! After ordering them April 2nd! I dont usually buy coins for profit. But do sometimes buy multiple coins to attempt to offset the costs.. I did Great on the 5 piece Eagle set. But here it is now 3.5 months later, the hype is over and the market is flat!! Yet ANACS, NGC, and PCGS were selling on shop at home for crazy money 1-2 days after release!!!! HOW IS THIS ACHIEVED!!! SOMETHING IS FISHY!!! Why arent more people asking this question? Shouldnt or Cant we as collectors do something about this????
Just a thought, but "selling" and actually "shipping" are not necessarily the same thing... or in other words, you might want to consider that some of these offerings may very well be "pre-sales".
The Bicentennial Proof Set was the first thing I ever ordered from the mint. It was 8 months before I got it.
When you think of it,OP, the big dealers and shopping networks have a host of buyers doing the same thing you and I do on game day. The sheer number of orders placed by these buyers puts them in a much better position of obtaining product way before you and I.
I still think somebody is in "Somebodies" pocket!! To have them slabbed and for sale within 1-2 days? And..... Who gets the non MS70/69 coins.. WE do!! They give the rejects back to the MINT? Then we finally get the rejects 3 months later!!!
This thread expresses my feelings exactly, so I took the liberty of forwarding a link to this thread to the mint. It may not even be looked at, but I feel I've done my part.
At first I thought OP was sugesting the mint was coming out with a promotion where you can shop from your bed LOL I understand OP's frustration, but there is something you can do about it. That is... not buy from the US Mint or Shop at Home (SaH). That's the only thing you can do to get back at them for making you wait. Then after waiting, buy the coins from a private seller when the market becomes "flat". That seller will most likely be taking a loss (or not make as much profit as they would have liked had they received their coins fast). In turn the seller will be left with a sour taste in their mouth and most likely not buy from the mint again either. So you can stick it to the mint/SaH again. Double whammy!!
If you want to get better service from the Mint, you can always catch a flight to Philly on the release date, take a cab to the Mint, plunk down $5 million, take immediate delivery and have an armored express overnight the shipment to the grading service of your choice. Otherwise, you'll just have to wait like the rest of the peons. Chris
From the way the OP worded his gripe it seems he did not intend to keep any of them and only wanted to get the coins fast enough to be able to maximize his profits from the uniqueness of this issue. Since the Mint did not deliver as fast as he would have liked he was not able to sell his coins for the big profits he saw others make selling this issue to those who just could not wait and were willing to pay top dollar. Now that they have their coins the market for them has slowed down considerably.
I buy multiples in an attempt to offset the cost of my coins. Yes, I bought 5 and will keep 2, I will basically break even money wise. But still have 2 for my collection. I don't order multiples to profit. If it works out that way, then great! Overall, I just feel it's unfair how the coins are slabbed and marked up crazy high 1-2 days after they are available. Then us collectors wait months and get the scraps!
So do what they do. Get 75 guys together, all of them try to get their order in as close to the start as possible, order the maximum number allowed, or if there is no maximum just order a few tens of thousands of sets in multiple orders. Use PCGS or NGC as the ship to address ad let PCGS and NGC know you are doing it. Also circulate to all the dealers you can that you want to buy and you will pay X number of dollars over issue for immediate shipment. make X high enough to make it worth their while. This will pretty much assure that you will get a steady flow of graded coins coming in as close to the issue date as possible. It will also probably cost you several million dollars as well. But you will be in a position to do early flipping as well.
