US mint sets from the mint

rooksmith

I've been faithfully buying the Silver and Regular Proof Sets, Silver Eagle proofs, and Unc Sets from the Mint for the last 11 years. But I'm running out of storage, and wondering why I bothered to buy them in the first place. Then I started checking prices on various coin dealer sites, and realized they are selling ( or at least priced ) fairly high relative to the original US mint prices. (unlike the early years and mid-80's which seem undervalued) Any ideas why that is?

I question why coin sets which are not exactly scarce have gone up. Also with the bad economy I figured that the average Joe collector would be selling them at face value on Ebay by now.

pitboss

Price of silver is high

LindeDad

Why put them on eBay at face when you make money just spending them, eBay and PayPal fees are close to 15% now. And since the mint does not keep back date sets the dealers list them for what they can get because somebody allways forgot that one year.

FredF

I don't know the rationale behind the retail prices for some proof sets. I was buying a 2001 proof set as a gift and it retailed for close to $90, and the dealer and I were looking at the mintage figures of the years around it and the 2001 is much higher than the others. The 2001-S Sacagawea is expensive, the rest of the coins as singles are no different than the nearby years. The best that the dealer could come up with was that the 2000 proof sets had done poorly so dealers didn't buy too many 2001 sets. But that doesn't explain why it's just one coin in that set that is pricey.

I would imagine that mint sets have the same quirks.

-Fred

rooksmith

Thanks for the responses. Its kinda wierd that certain coins with mintages in the are "semi-semi key", forcing up the price of proof sets. So the question of "relative rarity", as an influencer on utimate price, vs the "speculation factor".

I didnt start out to hoard anything, but thought it might be nice to have a complete set of mint and proof sets of my entire lifetime (1956 to present). - which I have done, excluding all the commem's. I even have SMS's and the 82 and 83 visitor center mint sets from denver and philly.

After all this, whats the point ?! other than kicking the bucket and selling then for face value to a dealer... ? There's bound to be lots of MS69's in rare dates. I guess that going to be my retirement hobby - coin dealer.

LindeDad

<< <i>Thanks for the responses. Its kinda wierd that certain coins with mintages in the are "semi-semi key", forcing up the price of proof sets. So the question of "relative rarity", as an influencer on utimate price, vs the "speculation factor".

I didnt start out to hoard anything, but thought it might be nice to have a complete set of mint and proof sets of my entire lifetime (1956 to present). - which I have done, excluding all the commem's. I even have SMS's and the 82 and 83 visitor center mint sets from denver and philly.

After all this, whats the point ?! other than kicking the bucket and selling then for face value to a dealer... ? There's bound to be lots of MS69's in rare dates. I guess that going to be my retirement hobby - coin dealer. >>



Problem is when we are that old they all look better to us than to the graders. Been there done that lot of coins graded that ended up selling for less than grading fees. GOOD LUCK....

AMRC

Have you seen the Grey Sheet on the 2001 Proof Sets? They are down to $45! If I remember correctly a few years ago they were listed at $90. I buy them every year as well so no one can acccuse me of not being a collector ;-)