Mint News Blog

News, Information, and Commentary on US Mint Products

Friday, January 29, 2010

2008 United States Mint Annual Uncirculated Dollar Set Sold Out


Yesterday the 2008 Annual Uncirculated Dollar Set sold out at the US Mint.

The set contains the 2008-W Uncirculated Silver Eagle, satin finish 2008-D Sacagawea Dollar, and the five satin finish 2008-P Presidential Dollars. The product was first available for sale on August 7, 2008 and has been priced at $37.95 for the duration.

I have written about this set on a number of occasions, in part because it has been available for so long, but also because it was a reasonably priced, well presented product. My most recent post about the Annual Uncirculated Dollar Set was written at the beginning of January, when I mentioned that a sell out might be a few weeks away.

The last available sales figures indicate that 98,896 of the sets had been sold as of January 25, 2010. This suggests that the total production run may have been 100,000 units.

The sell out of this set means that the 2008-W Silver Eagle is (finally) no longer available directly form the US Mint and a final mintage can be established. The individual product option sold out on January 23, 2009 with final adjusted sales of 436,702. With the estimated 100,000 coins included in the Annual Dollar Set, this makes the final estimated mintage 536,702 coins. This number falls in the middle of the three years that the collectible uncirculated silver eagles have been produced.

The mintages for each of the three years are shown below. In each case, the figure represents the combined sales total across all product options that included the coin. The 2008 figure is an estimate, the other years represent the final adjusted sales totals.

Collectible Uncircualted Silver Eagle Mintages
2006-W Uncirculated Silver Eagle 466,573
2007-W Uncircualted Silver Eagle 621,333
2008-W Uncirculated Silver Eagle 536,702

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30 Comments:

At January 29, 2010 at 8:46 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

This set works for me...

I purchased several to give as gift to my grandchildren.
Too bad they stopped making them.

Over...

Granny

 
At January 29, 2010 at 9:26 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

APMEX is showing this set available for $36.16 plus shipping for those that missed the mint sale. Price seems to be dropping with the silver price. I believe it was 36.21 plus shipping yesterday at APMEX.

 
At January 29, 2010 at 10:50 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think it would have been more appealing if they did a full set of P&D for the golden$

 
At January 29, 2010 at 11:01 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

My thoughts exactly. But, if the other Mints HAD been included in the set, the price would have probably been at least $10 higher, since the Mint doesn't give you additional face value in coins for no markup. In 2004, when the Uncirculated Mint Set contained an additional .10 in nickels over the 2003 set, the price of the set jumped by $2!

 
At January 29, 2010 at 2:12 PM , Blogger Unknown said...

I realize that this is probably not the right post to vent in, but I just read the new ebay pricing policy that will come into effect on march 30th of this year and as usual they announce..... great news folks we are removing the puny 15 cent insertion fees for any auction style listing, but then we are going to F*** Y*** as we always do when we announce a new pricing policy. you see we are going to have a nice simple flat rate of 9% up to a max of just 50 itsy bitsy dollars. So you remember that sliding rate scale we had that actually had decreasing percentages after 25.00 of just 3.5% AND THAN ONLY 1.5% AFTER 1000.OO. WELL YOU CAN JUST FORGET THAT NOW. Well I guess unless you have an ebay store than we will charge you a monthly fee and still raise those sliding scale percentages by .5% . So Basically what is the bottom line? From what I deciphered it is the following if you sell an item auction style for 27 dollars or less this won't effect you, but any thing over that will basically cost you 5.5% more to sell which in my eyes is a huge price increase. Now let's talk about the $50 cap well with the current auction style listing fee structure your product would have to sell for 1912.00 to have a final value fee of 50.00. So the good news is that any auction that you sell with a final auction price of over 1912 than you are getting a deal from us here at ebay, but since we are here to F**** Y*** once again we are betting that most of our stupid sellers are not selling items in that price range. You know %5.5 percent is a lot of money for sellers on ebay who have a small profit margin between shipping insurance ebay and paypal fees not to mention credit card interest. I personally will be liquidating all of my inventory before the deadline and will use ebay very little in the future. I purchased a good domain name and will sell on my own site in the future. Once people realize just how much more it will cost on that site to sell there products Ebays volume will be reduced substantially as many other disgruntled sellers leave.

 
At January 29, 2010 at 2:35 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

John,

I understand your frustration with eBay. I guess I misunderstood the announcement, if it is as you say. I thought the new pricing policy was only for auctions starting at .99 cents or less that will be able to be listed for free starting March 30.

Around last June or so, eBay implemented a new policy to allow sellers to list 5 free auctions each month for any starting price level and pay an 8.75% final value fee up to a cap of $19.99 for those 5 auctions each month. Now, that policy will be going away and being replaced with the new policy of allowing unlimited free .99 cents or less starting price auctions, but which have the higher 9% final value fee up to a $50 cap. I assumed that the auctions starting at $1 or more will continue as they have been already, with the usual final value fee pricing tiers with no cap on the fee.

The new policy does affect me big time, as I always sold my big-ticket items for the free listing and $19.99 final value fee cap. It saved me big time money on some groups of First Spouse Gold Coins and 2006 American Buffalo proof coins I sold, as the normal final value fee for those coins would have been anywhere from $40.07 to $50.94. But, I was able to sell them and pay only $19.99 final value for each auction, and would have been out no listing fee for a failed sale. It was a sweet deal, so I fully expected eBay to eventually take it away.

I've been trying to get people on this blog to warm up to competing sites such as Webidz.com and Webstore.com, but every time I try to call attention to an auction I have there, I practically get stoned to death. "Get out of here!", "You don't belong here!" "This is not a place to try to drum up business!" etc. etc.

Unfortunately, eBay probably won't be changing their ways because they know they have a stranglehold on the online auction business. The other sites work just as well, and payments can be made via PayPal just the same as eBay, but no one knows they exist so it's VERY tough to make sales there.

Anyway, check it again and make sure it truly is going to work as you said. I thought it was only for .99 cent or less starting bids with no listing fee auctions that will be affected.

 
At January 29, 2010 at 3:14 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

You'r right! You haven't talked at all about coins just selling them. Get out of here this is a place to talk about coins not where you sell them or where you want people to go to buy them.

 
At January 29, 2010 at 4:10 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Like it or not, secondary market performance and places to buy coins is as frequent a topic in these posts as the informational comments. If this site was meant to have nothing to do with online auctions, it would not have a list of "notable auctions" on the side of the home page. If you don't like it, you don't have to come here and read these posts, you know.

 
At January 29, 2010 at 4:12 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah, and I much prefer posts like these instead of all of the inevitable political ranting that shows up!

 
At January 29, 2010 at 4:39 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well John, you were right. The new eBay final value fee structure applies to all listings. I'm glad you pointed that out to me now so I wouldn't get the rude awakening on March 30th. I'm really sunk now. It's going to cost a TON more than it used to.

 
At January 29, 2010 at 4:55 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I sell on ebay too and am not happy with the upcoming format for auctions...fixed price listing are not really changing.
But auctions....ALL are changing to the 9% final value fee up to $50 max. Listing fees are 0 for auctions starting undar a dollar and go up to $2 if you start an auction at $500(instead of a $4 listing fee..wow...save $2)...but the FVF..final value fee for all these fall under the new 9% crap.

Just a quick example of how bad this is...say you have an auction that sells for $100...you currently pay a FVF of $4.82...under the new system, it will be $9...an increase of 86.7%
Oh, but I saved 35 cents on my lising fees...thanks ebay!!

So John amd others, I agree... the changes are really gonna hamper my future sales.

 
At January 29, 2010 at 6:33 PM , Blogger Unknown said...

Yes the first 5 listings of the month on ebay are money savers if you list your high value items since the cap is only 20.00 or money losers if you list a cheap item as you pay a higher percentage. I never realized this was an ebay policy until last month. It is a good policy and allows smart sellers to get a price break if the are alert, but this new pricing structure really sucks. I know there are many other sites out there which have cheaper fees and I think many people would switch from ebay if they felt it would be more profitable. I think the big problem is that ebay has a monopoly on the auction business because it has so many buyers and sellers. I think this new policy is really going to reduce the number of sellers on ebay. I am a silver power seller on ebay and about once a year or so ebay will call me up to tell me about their new pricing structure and when they did it last summer I gave them an earful about how dissatisfied I was about how they make it sound like they are reducing fees when infact they are raising them. After my rant the ebay representative just continued on telling me about the new policy like a robot. Basically they did not care at all that I was unhappy all they wanted to do was to verbally tell me what I already new. And here they go again. If ebay is going to raise there fees than raise them, but don't put in your question and answer section HOW IS THIS GOING TO EFFECT MY COST UP OR DOWN? well for most sellers there will be a substantial decrease in cost. Come on now gimme a break. Don't treat your customers like they are idiot's. Sorry again for the ranting but it does make me feel better and perhaps a few people will be interested in this long winded blog.

 
At January 29, 2010 at 6:49 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Preach on, John! Man, I'm starting to hate eBay. That part you said about not treating your customers like idiots was right on the money. Do they think we don't know how to do math? They know darn well all of the changes they make are for their own benefit at the expense of their sellers.

I always took advantage of the 5 free listings each month for big ticket items, and made sure the smaller stuff was listed for a fee with the usual FVF figured for them. The 5 free listings with a $19.99 FVF cap was the only change eBay ever made that actually DID benefit sellers if they took advantage of it properly by only listing items that cost over $550 roughly (the level around which that the FVF cap was beneficial). I guess that's why they are ending that little treat for us. They only want to cheat us while saying it's for our benefit.

I've got to figure something else out.

 
At January 29, 2010 at 8:01 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Speaking of eBay. I've noticed that paradoxically the UHR sold for auction prices have been creeping up this past week while spot gold has been edging down.

 
At January 29, 2010 at 8:40 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm glad to see that the UHR is proving those who insisted that the coin has no real premium value wrong. Even Michael himself stated his opinion that the coin should support future premiums. Despite that, there were still those who said that the coin was a dog. NO, it's NOT!

 
At January 30, 2010 at 5:37 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, most of the regular's on this blog who might scan over my sometime posts and maybe read them, know as rule I don't sell coins, but am a buyer from the US Mint, some foreign mints, in person local coin shows, and on occasion eBay. Been doing it since the 1960's. The latest thread started by John who pointed out that eBay is 'squeezing' the sellers 'again' got me thinking. Obviously it costs money to operate a business / store / site. As a consequence, costs must be paid by the sellers wishing to use the venue. Ebay is no different, it's a business. You want to use them, you have to pay. The trade off is once they cross a threshold in your mind, you need to go elsewhere to sell.

But my comment is from the other side of the trade - as a potential buyer. Most sellers on eBay list their offerings requiring (or at least asking) for payment by "Paypal". EBay's form of credit card company that adds fees, etc, etc. I personally don't have a Paypal account and refuse to ever open one. Too many hackers on line and several people in my Coin club said immediately upon opening an account, they beagn receiving phoney repeat emails trying to lure you to access a website since your "Paypal account has been compromised". They also wound up with a PC cookie that was hard to remove. So I don't buy anything that requires Paypal.

In my lifetime, I bought 2 houses, 7 cars, a fishing boat, camping trailer, a cabin in the woods, and various other big items with a simple PERSONAL CHECK. Never a bounce, never a refusal. Why in the world would I send a fee costing money order, my credit card number, or Paypal to buy $6.00 worth of foam inserts for Plastic coin holders? I always ask a seller - "Is my personal check acceptable for payment, let it clear, I don't use Paypal". If the answer is yes, fine, if the seller says no, I find the next guy. It's amazing how many sellers respond they are "required" to request Paypay, but my check will be just fine with a 4-5 day clearance. Of course in 2010, there's no reason to hold ANY check beyond 2 days max as 98% of all checks are coverted into "elecrontic immedaite debits" the same day deposited. The seller gets immediate credit, so to hold a buyers check for "7 days", or "2 weeks" for clearance in 2010 is absurd.

Progress is not progress if you get sucked into baloney made-up situations, you have free choice, always spend your money where it's treated best! - Grandpa.

 
At January 30, 2010 at 6:57 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Grandpa,

It is true when eBay sellers tell you that they are REQUIRED to state in their auctions that PayPal is accepted. It is an eBay rule that all payment methods advertised in auctions MUST be some form of electronic payment, either online such as PayPal or through your own credit card merchant account. They state that sellers are NOT allowed to say they will accept mailed paper payments in an auction. BUT, they go further to say that if a buyer contacts you to request mailing in a payment that it is ok. So, you have to bring it up to the seller, not the other way around.

Personally, I wish more people still operated like you and mailed in their payments. It would save me a ton of fees.

Despite eBay needing money to run the venue, I honestly don't believe that they needed to implement this upcoming fee change. They are raking in OBSCENE amounts of cash through both eBay and PayPal, and I don't believe they are in any danger of going "belly up" under their current fee structure. I'm thinking more along the lines that they are operating under Gordon Gekko's philosophy of "Greed is good."

 
At January 30, 2010 at 11:02 AM , Blogger Unknown said...

Grandpa,

I like your philosophy and wish more people operated like you do. I also run a business other than selling coins and I do understand that businesses need to operate on a profit and that in the end that is the purpose of a business to make money. What my REAL problem with ebay is that they are deceiving all of the sellers on ebay by trying to make it sound like they are annoucing great news when infact it is by far the worst news they have ever announced and in effect they are raising their fees by an enormous percentage. They are treating their sellers like we are a bunch of idiots. They should change the name of their site to gordon-gekko-bay

 
At January 30, 2010 at 11:55 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I quit selling on eBay. I can get just about as much selling locally. Right now, a bullion $50 gold eagle goes for about $1200. $20 final value fee, $36 PayPal and $17 to ship/insure. A coin store will pay me $25 over spot on all my eagles, so at $1080, I get $1205. On eBay, I net $1127. So for $22, I get to buy packaging/tape and drive to the post office (have to buy insurance at the p.o.). Then you always run the risk that the buyer says - no coin in the package. Then you lose your gold and your money.

I think this is a way of eBay to make the sellers pay for their eBay Bucks program.

S

 
At January 30, 2010 at 12:41 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think no one needs to bash eBay for their pricing policies, afterall they provide an "on-line store" for people to buy and sell their goods. There are obviously costs involved. The fine line is at what point either a buyer or a seller stops and judges it's too much or too little, and both or either chooses not to cross that line. The same holds true for enties such as the US Mint. They hold out a carrot and we rabbits approach to nibble. If you can't stomach the product, it's cost, it's valuation, or the way it looks....you pass. I was personally outraged that the Mint asked people last year to buy a .50 roll of pennies for $7.95, plus $4.75 for postage & (mis)handling. A colorful wrapper that will tarnish the coins over time is no inducement to get ripped off. In order to push out a tasteless carrot, they made it difficult for the average citizen to obtain these cents in everyday channels. I chose to refuse to be taken for a ride and bought none. I feel better and know I don't have any but one day a bank will push out a load and I'll get a few at face value.

There are a lot of good people selling on eBay. There are a lot crooks as well. No one holds a gun to your head to sell or buy. It's quite amazing to see a fair price, track down a phone number when available, and politely ask sellers if a better & fast sale pricing is available. 75% of the time, a middle ground is possible if a seller doesn't make his auction target price or has no bids. A seller can move his item when it's fairly priced and avoid heavy fees by lowering it slightly for the cash buyer, and still make a fair profit.

The art of fair pricing and polite dealings with others is not lost, it just seems not important to many these days. Bring back the old days, they were simple and everyone became satisfied. ~ Grandpa

 
At January 30, 2010 at 5:02 PM , Blogger Lasloo said...

Isn't it 12% on Buy-It-Nows? And then of course, another 3% from Paypal?
I agree... if there was another alternative with the same number of hits/views, I think we'd all be there.

 
At January 30, 2010 at 5:47 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Buy it now" fees are 12% on the first $50, then 6% on the next $950, then 2% on amounts over $1000.

 
At January 30, 2010 at 8:43 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I would recommend the Buy, Sell, Trade section on the PCGS forum (I'm sure NGC has something similar). The coins don't have to be slabbed and there are no fees. Just create an account, get to know the folks there, and post what you have on the BST forum. You'll do ok if you are fair. Plus there are many knowledgeable folks that will give advice if asked. Scammers (both buyers and sellers)are not tolerated and will be called out. Definitely not a good place to sell if one is trying to
gouge a novice collector or seek outrageous profit.

Places like this are a good alternative to eBay, especially for the little guy. Plus you can make some good contacts and maybe learn a thing or two to boot.

 
At January 31, 2010 at 6:13 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Speaking of EBay and COINS: Has anyone noticed the sudden deluge of '09 P Lincoln "Presidency" rolls showing up (and corresponding paid prices dropping about a third from late Dec. - early January)? With this development and the spot early appearances of the '10 Lincoln "Shield" penny maybe the Mint wants to get out from under their "strategic reserve". The Fed must be pushing this which means the banks are pushing it. We should see '09 D & P Nickels and Dimes soon! Improving economy?

Jim L.

 
At January 31, 2010 at 6:51 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have a silly question for you who buy and sell coins. I went to an coin auction a few weeks ago and noticed the dealers were dying in their seats because people were bidding up the price of coins. Young buyers wanted to add to their collection and older dealers wanted the deal. I noticed though, say a late 1800's silver dollar, that when you buy it you only know how many were made, not how many exist today. A coin 120 years old may have been melted down in half when they took gold because back then rumors would have panicked the population into it. Add the generations passing away and coins being tossed out into the dump, it would have to add up. So why isn't it required that a coin, say over 60 years, be registered before it can be bought or sold. This would give the traders or dealers a better idea of the current value of the coin. Everything else is bought or sold based on current conditions but coins all traded based on how many were made 120 years ago, plus grading, while there may really only be less than 1/3 the coins left as an example. It seems disorganized.

 
At January 31, 2010 at 9:34 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

That was not a silly question, in fact it was right on target. After final mintage numbers are recorded, there is absolutely no way to know how many will exist days, weeks, months or years later.

Proof? In recent years, when the price of silver and gold rose, average people were enticed to trade in their piggy banks and cigar boxes of silver coins for melt. No effort was made by the dealers to inventory or record what dates were thrown into the melter. Certainly these same coins were bagged and sold to others desiring to "hold silver" in some quantity as a hedge for inflation, etc.

On the other hand, thinking along these same lines, you can go to your local coin show, or view items advertised for sale and still look to the original recorded mintages. Simply apply the thought that many of the type and items you are looking to buy probably fell into the lost - melt category over the many years. Here's where you need to apply your personal thinking and reasoning process. The only time IMO that you might come closer to existing quantities most likely applies to coins that were minted only in "proof" or really limited quantity. The liklihood of these items being handled and subject to mass melt or improper handling is far less than common production coins.

I go to my local coin show and bourse almost every month, sometimes to buy, sometimes to briefly chat with long time vendors I see regularly. Every so often I sell or trade a few extras for something new. I recall almost two years ago that a new fellow took a table space and propped up a big sign offering to buy 2006 Anniversary 3 coin Silver Eagle sets. Most show dealers were paying about $300+ at the time. I walked up, said I could let go 5 extra sets, and he promptly offered $180 ea. I asked why so much under everyone else. His response was they aren't too rare (250K sets made) and he was already loaded. I responded if he was so loaded, he should remove his sign. ( No sense stating the Reverse Proof coin was a once in the entire series item, never to be repeated or minted as again. LOL, talk about the rarity of this coin in future years.) I politely smiled, thanked him for the offer and walked to the next table. Don't get caught up in mintages totals, they usually never hold up forever.
~ Grandpa

 
At January 31, 2010 at 7:14 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's too early to say the UHR will maintain a premium but we will know in a couple more years.

 
At March 1, 2010 at 1:21 PM , Blogger Unknown said...

Nobody seems to mention the fact that if you take the mintage of the 2008-W Reverse of 2007 (approximately 47,000) then the actual mintage of the 2008-W would be around 490,000 which is much closer to the 2006-W mintage of 466,000. So when will this be realized and the prices start climbing for the '08-W? I think the 2008-W silver eagles are a bargain right now.

 
At April 18, 2010 at 1:22 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

2006w unc silver eagle 2011 redbook mintage 198000 total whats going on

 
At April 19, 2010 at 12:07 PM , Blogger Mint News Blog said...

Looks like they only counted individual coin sales. There were also 248,875 sold in the 20th anniversary silver eagle set and 19,145 sold in the 20th anniversary gold and silver eagle set.

 

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