2008-W Platinum Eagles Gone, Order Cancellations Mount

Today, the last of the 2008-W Uncirculated Platinum Eagle offerings available from the US Mint went dark. The last to go was the one ounce coin priced at $1,069.95. Yesterday, I mentioned that this coin was listed as back ordered and might soon officially sell out.

However, even if you did place an order before your the coins went off sale, you still might be out of luck. There have been widespread reports of cancellations for orders placed on sold out products. In some cases the orders were placed weeks before the sell out dates. The most extreme case comes from a reader who reports that his order for a 1/10 oz. Unc Platinum Eagle placed on October 20 was just canceled after 7 weeks of waiting.

The US Mint reserves extremely broad abilities to cancel or reject orders as part of their order acceptance policy. Here are a few bullet points from the policy which is displayed after any order is placed:

- The United States Mint reserves the right to limit quantities and may discontinue accepting orders at any time.

- The United States Mint reserves the right to accept or reject coin orders in any combination or option(s) it determines to be in its best interest.

- In the event a particular coin option is sold out, the United States Mint reserves the right to either process partial orders and make refunds, or return orders in their entirety.

While it is clearly stated within the US Mint's policy that orders may be canceled at their discretion, it's a disservice to customers who believed they had secured coins for their collections. In the past, cancellations seemed to happen primarily for orders placed a few days before sell outs. The current cancellations seem to be much more delayed and extensive.

As many readers have pointed out, these cancellations will likely serve to continue diminishing the reported sales figures for the series. I'll continue to track the updated sales numbers to see if they fall below any important levels.