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The US Mint is releasing two more limited-edition coins on Tuesday, 8/10 at 12pm Eastern time. Once again, buyer’s clubs are offering a set premium for purchasing the coins with an agreement to resell them when the coins ship in October. As always, you’ll need to consider whether a buyer’s club is right for you (see: Is a buyer’s club a good idea for you?) and you should shop around and determine the best way to sell it, but we’ll include information here about options we know can be locked in today (risk factor to be determined by you – YMMV).
The Deal
- On Tuesday, 8/10/21, the US Mint will release the following new coins for pre-orders (coins are expected to be shipped in October 2021 and that is when your card will be charged):
- Morgan 2021 Silver Dollar PHILADELPHIA (P) for $85 (limit of 3 per household)
- Peace 2021 Silver Dollar PHILADELPHIA (P) for $85 (limit of 3 per household)
- As is often the case, buyer’s clubs are offering offering a commission for buying these coins and committing to sell to them. This provides an opportunity to lock in points and profit.
Buyer’s club offers
- PFS is once again offering a commission of $145.05 over the cost of for 6 coins. Note that you must order 3 of each coin for the PFS deal). This time they are also offering a one-time $100 bonus for each customer who completes all 3 Morgan coin deals (so this bonus will only apply to those who got in on those previous deals with PFS and will apply after completing all three — in other words, after you have shipped them the coins to complete those deals). Here is our referral link to PFS for more information.
- Our experience with PFS: I have used PFS many times dating back several years. My deals have always been honored and payments have been on time even in situations where market prices dropped. No surprises.
- DCB is once again offering $105 over the Mint price for each 3-coin set (which means $210 profit for 6 coin). For more information and to reserve your spot with DCB, email coins.fordcb@gmail.com.
- Our experience with DCB: I have opted in with DCB but have not yet completed a full order with them. So far everything is meeting my expectations, but the most important part for most readers is payment and I haven’t gotten to that point yet. Rapid Travel Chai has written quite a bit about DCB deals and shares some of his direct experience on his blog.
Quick Thoughts
I am sure that there must be other buyers clubs buying these coins as well, but above are the options that I know. Note of course that you can alternatively try selling these to your local coin dealer or on eBay, etc (I have had success with eBay at times and many readers have been successful with local dealers though my local dealers are never interested). Sometimes demand runs high and values go up considerably, other times not so much. There is certainly more potential reward in doing it on your own. On the other hand, if you don’t want to invest the time, effort, and risk of a market drop then there is something to be said for locking in a set profit now with very little work involved (you’ll essentially just need to receive the package, slap on a new label, and send it back out).
Speaking of the process, see PFS or inquire with DCB if you are unfamiliar with the process on buying and selling Mint coins. The basic gist of it is that demand is very high so you need to be at the computer ready to go at noon. You can’t show up an hour later and expect to get anything. Similarly, you have to be ready to try and try and try again as the Mint website crashes repeatedly during checkout (it has been better the past couple of times, but I had a long headache with it last week before getting my orders in). PFS provides written instructions for increasing your odds. Also be sure to clearly understand what you need to do when you receive the coins (i.e. most buyers require that you not open the package and ship the coin out to the buyer within a set number of days). Read instructions carefully as a seemingly small mistake could cost you.
Finally, be aware of the risks of buying clubs. As recommended at the top, see the post Is a buyers club a good idea for you? In this case, the risk is relatively low given that these coins are less expensive than some deals, but there is still the risk of losing $500+ if your buyer fails to pay out. Do your research: talk to friends who have experience with it and evaluate the right risk/reward balance for you.
When choosing which card to use keep in mind that these coins are not expected to ship until October. Make sure you use a card that you will still have down the road. PayPal Key could be a good choice since you can change the backing card later and in the one preorder I’ve done with the Mint, they reminded me a few days before charging the card (and gave the chance to change the payment card, though using PayPal Key means you don’t need to count on that).
Note that you do not want to use a US Bank / Elan Financial services card to pay as you will not earn rewards with those cards. Despite updates to the terms on both Amex and Chase cards that could be interpreted as threatening cash advance fees for bullion purchases, I am not aware of anyone who has incurred a cash advance fee or failed to earn rewards with Amex or Chase (I used Amex cards last week with no issue and have used Chase cards in the recent past without issue). I have also used Bank of America, Capital One, and Alliant cards in recent memory without issue.
H/T: Rapid Travel Chai
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“I used Amex cards last week with no issue”
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Does your statement show no cash advance fee and points are earned? Is it a preorder?
Correct – no cash advance fee, coded as a purchase, points are pending (statement period hasn’t closed yet). Not a preorder. I said last week but I guess I really meant the week before or so. Bought a couple of $5K coins (one of my own and one for a family member) with Amex cards. No issues so far.
I’m considering trying this for the first time. If I lock in a price with a buying group, I’m happy to sell it to them as agreed. However, can anyone speak to what happens if the site crashes or I straight up forget and the deal sells out right away? Will that result in an immediate ban/blacklist from buyers like PFS, or can I let them know somehow that I wasn’t able to place an order and try again next time?
I can’t speak to other buying groups, but there have been times I have tried and haven’t been able to get the coin and PFS has never given me a hard time over it. Some people point to something in the terms indicating that you are committing to provide the coin, but I’ve never worried much about it as I can’t sell them what I don’t have and don’t imagine it would be worth their time to gamble that a judge is going to side with them on that, so I haven’t worried about it. I don’t know for sure that you couldn’t be banned, particularly if you commit to sell a large number of orders and back out suspiciously late in the game, but generally speaking these buying groups make a profit by having as many people trying to get the item for them as possible, so I don’t think you’re likely to get banned for not getting an order through.
There is no blacklist if you couldn’t purchase or such because in case of high demand coins, no one can guarantee anything!
There is no blacklist even if you snag the coins and *forget* to report it to the buying club probably because you saw a better offer elsewhere. Not recommending it at all but just FYI. Only if you give them the order number because at this point they know you successfully placed an order.
Let’s normalize scalping! You flipping consoles too?
Nope, I don’t do toys. Totally fine if the deal isn’t for you, we all draw our lines in different places, but I have no qualms with gold and silver coins.
Lol this isn’t a “deal”. This is scalping plain and simple. It’s buying something an enthusiast wants and charging them a premium. Don’t get me wrong I’ll be participating, but call a spade a spade and stop pretending this is like taking money from some soul-less banks.
Huh? What are you talking about? Who said anything about banks? I’m confused.
I’m talking about the way you keep framing these coin drops. You’re blog’s schtick is being savvy folks who help people outsmart profit-seeking, faceless companies for fun and for profit. That’s not what’s happening here though. You’re telling all your readers “Hurry! Buy this fast because that dude wants it and you can get over $200 of his money if you beat him to it!
Not saying there’s anything wrong with that, and you yourself say you have no qualms. Stop sugar coating it as a “Deal” though. Call it what it is, a “Resale Opportunity”
Assuming this is your point, can you explain why you think scalping is immoral? And why is an enthusiast entitled to pay a low price for something they want?
I do love when I get things I want for cheap too. But I’m curious why I should feel entitled when I have to pay more though.
Nope, I’m a scalper myself. I scalp consoles, tickets and like many reading this _coins_. I never said an enthusiast is entitled to release price.
Some people pay with time, others pay with money. These folks are providing a service to those who don’t want to sit in line to buy the product at list price, or value their time such that paying the markup is worth it to them. This applies to coins, video games, tickets, or anything else. There is no such thing as price gouging!
Like I said above, I’m a scalper too. Don’t delude yourself that we’re providing a service though lol. Even if people have the time, the bots (which are shockingly good) and coordinated resellers turn every drop (consoles, coins, etc.) into a lottery ticket. We don’t add any value here lol. Squeezing buyers of every penny their willing to spend on something just lines our pockets
Let me preface this by saying I’m 100% doing this for the profit, so I’m not kidding myself in that regard.
But there is a benefit to reselling, in that higher prices keep casuals out of the market. In an ideal world, the enthusiasts who love these coins the most would be the ones who get them, but if prices are too low, you invite casuals into the market and turn them into collectors.
You can imagine that if reselling for profit were illegal, some people who resell would still be willing to pay $85 for one these coins, but keep them for themselves instead. And if the price were even lower, there would be even more collectors. These people are only reselling now because someone else is willing to pay over MSRP.
The obvious downside to scalping of course is that some enthusiasts cannot afford secondary market prices and get priced out.
But having a resale market where some people make a profit is not strictly a bad thing.
Haha looks like I’m getting both sides of the argument back at me. People don’t seem to like being called scalpers for scalping (lots of thumbs downs) and comment replies defending scalping. Like I said, I have no problems with scalping. Don’t pretend you’re doing the world a great service though. We’re opportunists making money of merchant’s not wanting to be bad guys in terms of pricing.
My main point in this thread is all of our friendly neighborhood bloggers (especially Nick lately) posting this as a “Deal” in the same vein as all their other “Deals”. They only ever post about how if us common folk pay attention we can take money companies are, for the most part freely, offering. This is clearly not profiting of companies though, it’s profiting off people. Apparently Nick is perfectly happy taking money from people who like coins, but still likes to hide behind the idea this is another “Deal” like the rest of them he posts. I’m just asking he acknowledge that he’s profiting off of other people’s hobbies. And these are hobbyists Nick, you’re not profiting off bullion dealers here.
I mean no one is forcing anyone to buy a coin…retail or secondary market. People pay what they are willing to pay.
I’d see your point if we were talking about essentials but we are talking about collectibles/luxury goods.
Free market forces bringing these scare commodities to a market equilibrium when supply is constrained.
I’d consider arbitrage opportunities deals.