American Silver Eagle Bulk Packs

I was looking at Mint product numbers (coming soon to a post near you), and came across this. (It will also be offered in 2018.) It's a dealer offering only, however the page is publicly available (just not from the public catalog).
American Eagle 2017 One Ounce Silver Proof Coin Bulk Pack
It's a box that contains 5 trays of proof ASE's (6 rows of 7) for a total of 210 proof ASE's. It even comes with 210 COA's. Probably meant for bulk grading. Interestingly, if you do the math, it comes out to $53.95 each, the same price as your everyday, individual proof. But as the copy says, "The price listed does not include any applicable bulk discounts." And you don't have to remove the capsule from the packaging. (The last part was mine.)
At a product limit of 800, it's almost a collectable, but I'm not sure dropping $11K on 210 ozt of silver is a real smart investment, proof ASE's or not...
Comments
That does not seem like a good investment to me..... such a quantity of proofs.... one would have to have a real good market (I know Christmas is coming, but....). Not an investment I would recommend... Cheers, RickO
Thats an interesting product. I did notice the same offering for 2018, and had not a clue what to think of it. Seems pretty late in the year to begin offering this product
Perhaps a B&M with lots of traffic could move these
Ummmm....another label to collect? "From the Silver Proof Coin Bulk Pack"...
These are sold to re-sellers who ship the boxes to get them 'graded' and then they sell the stuff at inflated prices to rubes on TV/Cable shows and advertising inserts. This is cheaper for the re-sellers since they no longer have to pay people to remove normal packaging, and dispose of unwanted boxes/certificates, etc. There also is less handling for those who 'grade' these things, and that means faster turn-around. The discount is small.
I have a mint account, but it will not allow me to purchase this product (not that I would, just testing the system). Says "bulk customers must be logged in to purchase, please sign in."
did a "chat" with the mint. here are the highlights of what I was told:
"Under the current terms and conditions of this program, a discount is applied to all purchases of $5,000 or more. Budget shipping is free on domestic orders. Shipping on international orders will be assessed on each order processed. Please CLICK HERE for more information on our Bulk Purchase Program.
Our Authorized Purchasers Network is for bullion dealers only. Unfortunately, we don't have a list of Authorized Purchasers. Authorized Purchasers consist of wholesalers, brokerage companies, precious metal firms, coin dealers, and participating banks.
Our Authorized Purchasers and the Bulk Purchase Program are completely different. The Bulk Purchase Program allows customers to purchase numismatic items in bulk, while Authorized Purchasers sell bullion products that are not sold directly to the general public."
No Way Out: Stimulus and Money Printing Are the Only Path Left
Any dealers here that could order me one of these bulk packs as a separate order? Just seeing if it’s An option.
Coin World noted that the bulk pack is on the 2018 public product schedule (Jan 4 release), possibly making this a public offering this year.
However, no details are available yet, and the PFSWeb may have just put up the entire product schedule. The 2017 offering has it's own web page, but isn't on the 2017 public product schedule, so this could just be an error. We should know in a couple of weeks. Jan 4, 2018 is only 6 weeks away...
It was actually first offered when the single coin was released back in March, so they've been on sale for 8 months now.
The latest sales show they've sold 240 of the 2017 bulk packs. I wonder how many more they'd actually sell if they opened it up to the public...
just think, the way the mint runs, you would have to return the entire bulk pack to get 1 coin replaced if damaged in shipping.
How much is the $5000 purchase bulk discount?
That's okay, they'll pay for the return!
Your tax dollars at work.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, evn when irrefutably accurate.
Any bulk purchasers out there (nurmaler?) who could comment? I've got to believe that the discount has to be LARGE if anyone's buying them. It is a much cheaper product for the mint to make, you would think they would pass some of that on to anyone willing to spend $10k+. While it might decrease sales of the regular product, the Mint shouldn't care as they are better off selling the cheaper version.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, evn when irrefutably accurate.
This is the monster box equivalent of proof ASE
No OGP to deal with for bulk grading
No OGP also means a slight discount should be offered, but they aren't doing that.
I believe it's something like 5%.
In case anyone wants to sign up, here's the agreement form (with qualifications.)
usmint:NUMISMATIC BULK PURCHASE AGREEMENT FORM
Here's what you need to be if you want to qualify, and not open the pdf...
I fall under 4, "None of the Above". Not that I'd ever buy $5K from the mint all at once...
Prettier box.
There's a trade off. If you're biggie coin mart and are just going to send it into the graders, you don't have to pay someone (even if it's you) to remove the coins from the OGP, and you can feel better about yourself for not trashing all the packaging.
On the other side, the mint had to create the packaging. 210 ozt is about 14.5 avp pounds (so probably over 15 pounds with the capsules, trays, and CoA's), so it has to be a sturdy box, plus have the 42 hole platters that go inside it manufactured. Of course, if any of those components are used internally at the mint (like the trays), then the cost would go significantly down.
And if you do the math, if the bulk discount is really 5%, there's a $566.47 discount, which brings the actual price down to $10,763.
All true except "disappointing grades" often result in coins that retail for less than OGP coins. In that case, some dealers crack them out and put them back in OGP. That's hard to do if you don' t have any OGP. Just seems like 5% isn't enough of a discount to make this worthwhile for most bulk dealers on a routine unlimited Mint product.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, evn when irrefutably accurate.
Welp, when I see stuff like this, this late in the year, my mind immediately thinks......."There goes the Price of 2017 Proof SAE's"
In short, the market will get FLOODED with PR70DCAM's which may or may not be PR70DCAM's.
Of course, for the OP, unless you have a "Bulk Agreement" with the US Mint you can just forget about ordering these as these programs are for the "Big Boys"! You know, the one's that buy everything up and then sell it all for outrageous profits? Yeah, those guys.
Certainly not you and me regardless of what are Card Limits might be.
The name is LEE!
Only if the have a Bulk Purchase Agreement with the US Mint.
The name is LEE!
I could almost guarantee that this will NOT be a public offering.
The name is LEE!
Correction.
On January 4th the Public offering for the Silver Eagle Proof will be for individual coins. Evidently the Bulk Offering is on the same day but again, you have to be an authorized Bulk Purchaser to order these.
Traditionally, Bullion Silver Eagles are always available for sale on January 1st of the New Year.
Typically, the Proof Collectors versions aren't available until March-May. In 2009, March-May, passed, then June-November passed and then that rapscallion Edmund Moy announced that the Proofs would not be made available due to public demand (which is deciphered as their authorized purchasers ordered more than they expected.)
Moy was oblivious to the Collector offerings and neglected to setup proof runs for collectors. I'm guessing that he was looking to break some type of record which he did.
The name is LEE!
This program is desirable to big dealers because it allows for the coins to be shipped directly to the TPG from the mint for grading on behalf of the buyer. Look for more products to be added to the program. It could even increase sales figures for normally low mintage precious metal collector products.
No Way Out: Stimulus and Money Printing Are the Only Path Left
the discount rate for a purchase currently is 4% with a $5000.00 min.
starting in 2018 the rate will drop and the min order will rise to $10,000.00 min.
I for one will not be interested in their new program.
The Mint only wants to deal with super large dealers.
Buyers of bulk packs must have completed the agreement and qualified.
The purpose is to avoid extraneous packaging (as in single coin orders) and thereby reduce the buyers' costs in sending the things in for "grading" and flipping to suckers on TV shows and other scams. It also reduces handling by "grading" companies and improves turnaround time. (All this from 2017 bulk pack experiences.) The companies involved requested this at the 2016 Mint Conference as well as private meetings.
I'd like to amend that: the Mint only wants to deal with super large dealers OR waste there time on onesies in the retail market. The Mint used to do almost all of their distribution through dealers with some mail order. My local dealers used to sell hundreds of annual sets per year. Then e-commerce made it easier for them to retail themselves and it all but killed the dealer distribution of annual coin sets because they would not give a bulk discount to anyone but the super-sized distributors.
This makes sense if single coin set sales were profitable, but the annual report of the Mint shows a net loss on annual coin sales. They might well be better served distributing a different way.
And, if Mint distribution is the most efficient means of distribution, why don't they distribute bullion themselves? Perhaps not coincidentally, bullion shows a profit in the Mint's annual report.
They also don't appear to love their super-sized dealers. A 4% discount to spend $10,000!!! Ridiculous, especially when the cost of the unpackaged coins must be significantly cheaper for them to make.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, evn when irrefutably accurate.