Late last week I noticed on the Mint's website that the AE Proof Platinum coins were re-listed for sale. If I remember correctly, they had been removed from the website in late June as platinum prices were moving higher. They spent the 3+ weeks being "revalued" and then placed back on sale. But here is the rub. While they were revaluing the coins, platinum fell. A lot. In fact, if you look at the 60 day trend in platinum it is not obvious why they were removed from the website in the first place. But they did and then platinum fell by $300 an ounce to the point where today platinum is $1730/ounce range. But the Mint must not have been paying attention.
This incident brings up two questions: 1) How does the Mint price these? Do they remove them from their website with the new prices in mind? It seems like they had prices in mind for where they felt platinum was going to go and were waiting for it to get there. BUT...
2) If that is the case then why did they wait so long and then do nothing when platinum fell $300? If they were so concerned about losing money, wouldn't they want to give some illusion that they were pricing them fairly by readjusting the prices to the lower cost of platinum?
In any case, I'm going to wait before making any purchases as I strongly object to paying $279 for a coin containing $174 in platinum.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
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2 comments:
I am trying to get some concrete answers, but I believe there is a lag between the time the Mint sets the price and when the coins go back on sale at that price. There is some approval or publication process in the middle.
So, for example, any time a coin goes on sale at a new price, it's really the price from 30 days ago.
This would certainly explain a lot of the oddness re pricing.
Thanks Michael. Any concrete answers would certainly be appreciated!
Your theory would shed much light on this situation.
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