Who buys from the mint?
BackroadJunkie
Posts: 3,745 ✭✭✭✭✭
Coinworld has an interesting article resulting from the October 13 forum at the mint. One of the items presented was a breakdown in demographics. (You know those surveys you get from Naxion? These are some of the results of those surveys.)
The results are world-wide demographics. The "U.S." column is from 2015. Also included in the original article is the ethnicity and income brackets for the same years as the age and gender stats. For the US (2015):
Among U.S. customers, 62 percent in 2015 were white, with the majority of the remaining 38 percent divided predominantly between Hispanic and African American customers.
[...]the Mint’s 2015 customer base included only 12 percent earning over $100,000; 26 percent earn $50,000 to $100,000; 18 percent, $30,000 to $50,000; and the largest block, 45 percent, earn under $30,000.
The original article is here. It's an interesting read.
I do wonder how much the robo-ordering machine of the TV hawksters and the Biggie Coin Marts affects the US surveys...
Comments
I have not ordered anything from the Mint in decades.
I would guess that a significant number of those female buyers at the US Mint are the wives, mothers and other relatives and friends of male collectors/dealers trying to get around the US Mint household limits
Michael Kittle Rare Coins --- 1908-S Indian Head Cent Grading Set --- No. 1 1909 Mint Set --- Kittlecoins on Facebook --- Long Beach Table 448
I still buy, I like to keep my Dansco Albums current.
I wonder how these statistics would change if you removed sales of annual mint and proof sets--in other words, the standard Christmas and birthday shoppers? I used to buy those religiously as a younger collector but no longer like to throw away my money like that.
I only buy the modern commemorative coins from the mint directly. I used to buy Proof sets when I was dealer, but the quality was so uneven I stopped. Today I go to my local brick and mortar guy to buy them. He lets me paw through a put together three cases that have the best coins. The number of not so nice coins, especially presidential dollars with spots, is amazing.
I buy from the mint, every once in the while they surprise us with something interesting and unique
I am would assume that the age percentages are affected for the same reason... children/nieces/nephews of collectors/dealers. It would be interesting to see how the percentages would change, if they removed all of the items with HH limits.
And I believe studies have shown that women are more likely than men to complete surveys.
I don't think any of these reasons explain the significant change in gender over the last year. Certainly there were wives, mothers, daughters, and nieces purchasing products for male collectors last year as well with some of the offerings. The magnitude of change for gender and age is so significant that it makes me believe the data is invalid. I'd like to know what the mint thought of these survey results and what forced their demographic to change so significantly over the last year.
You're looking at the data wrong.
The first three bars are for 2006, 2011 and 2015, representing buyers on the entire planet earth. The last bar is for the US only in 2015. You can't infer from the data what the demographics were for the US previous to 2015.
If you also read the part about the income, 45% of the US buyers in 2015 earned less than $30K. Do people earning under 30K have that much disposable income? I'm inclined to believe this is the robo-buying machine of those getting around the HHL's...
Edit to make things more coherent.
I used to buy the 2-5 mint and proof sets a year but stopped in 2009. I'm going the 'wait 10 years after they are released, they'll be cheaper' route.
I've never purchased from the US Mint as none of their material interests me.
ANA LM
USAF Retired — 34 years of active military service! 🇺🇸
I buy from the mint- was lucky to secure the first 4 reverse proof presidential dollars last year; not in any hurry for Reagan. I was also able to secure the Liberty Medals this year so quite pleased with that offering.
However, what concerns me with demographics, is the age of those 65 and over growing with mint purchases, and my age group diminishing...I'm 42.
I went to my first "coin club" meeting this month, and at least 80% of those in attendance were in their 60's and older...I was the second youngest in attendance, and there was close to 50 present.
This concerns me, and sends a signal that I should hold my money for those current unreachable coin rarities I desire; as they should be cheap in another 10 years...that is, if the demographics don't change.
Interesting data....however, without information regarding how it was collected, it lacks the status of usable information....Cheers, RickO
Sometimes mod commem dollars, burnished ASE. But not lately due to aftermarket usually a loss.