Baseball Hall Of Fame Opening Day Releases And First Pitch

Its no different than paying extra for a coin that was an Eliasberg or part of a special collection. Its part of its history and where its been and in this case it truly is an early release since nothing shipped from the mint during that time.

Its part of the story behind the coin and theres plenty of people that will pay it. ANA buffalos are still going strong and more expensive than non-ana ones.

I dont see how it could be anything but a positive for collecting. Anything that generates buzz and extra interest getting people excited is a positive. Price movements and value also get people excited which are two of the main things that have prevented modern collecting from really exploding. Theres plenty of grade rarities in the modern clad series but the perception of value just isn't there. Most people will pick the older rarer coin over the modern grade rarity if you gave them 300 bucks to spend on a coin. Anything that adds to the rarity and increases the perception of value of moderns is a positive that will help keep collecting going.

Its too rich for my blood but if I had money like that id jump on those in a heart beat. The first pitch designation has great appeal to the baseball fan in me. People buying coins at that price level have money to spare, a grand or two probably doesn't make much difference to them in order to get something they really want.

It's going to he interesting to see what the First Strike coins do (not the First Pitch-Baltimore coins which were only available at the show). I assume PCGS is going to do First Strike as normal, although perhaps I am mistaken given the First Pitch coins. Has anyone heard for sure?

A lot of collectors do like the First Strike designation ...

Best Regards,

George

Any buzz is good buzz. Its more than a piece of paper which some people pigeon hole it as. Anything on it represents the story behind it as far as the designations like the baltimore label. The label didnt release the coin in the very limited amount at the baltimore show, it merely reflects that it was. The rookie card analogy was actually as good one. The hof coins and more specifically the baltimore ones have already made a name for themselves. Whens the last time a commemorative generated this much buzz and excitement? Whens the last time any modern coin did?

Theres really no reason this should sour anyone. Really the only way it can sour someone would be that people arent collecting how theyre supposed too. If you arent in the market for one it shouldnt matter what they do.

There seems to be a misconception the label makes the coin. Its the otherway around. The label is a reflection of the coin and its story. Its without a doubt good for collecting to have this kind of excitement surrounding a modern coin. I dont think even the uhr eagles or rp buffalo got 5k with any label. You probably have to go back to the top end IKEs to find the last modern that did. That generates buzz and excitement and gets people to take notice. That attention leads people to consider a series or area of collecting thats largely ignored. Theres literally hundreds if not thousands of watchers for these listings on ebay and certainly thousands of views. Very few moderns can get that many eyes on them all at once. Some may be soured by it, far more people are fascinated by this unprecedented price action and unique situation. Saying the buzz is being generated by the label is a misrepresentation of what it really is, the coin created the label by being released early at baltimore.

@george PCGS is doing the first strike as usual with the exception that theyre allowing collectors club members to get the special design as well instead of just bulk submissions. For this one its really just the baseball theme label that will be the attraction for it.

The Baltimore labels are for this series only because a very limited number of coins were sold by the mint at the Baltimore coin show. The first pitch is what they called them from the Baltimore show. Both of those are unique labels that don't usually happen. The Baltimore term could return in the future, the first pitch won't be back unless another baseball coin come back.

The first strike are usually for coins mailed to pcgs in the first 30 days after release for people who selected that option on grading. It usually comes with a special label for bulk submitters and sometimes regular submitters can get it too with a special. Ngc calls them early release. Normally it just means they were graded first, but in this case we know the first pitch were some of the first off the line from how they were sold and the significant delay in getting other orders shipped.

It's a marketing ploy and nothing else. It's a purposeful rarity made up by market makers and nothing else. The coins aren't from special batches they are just what the mint could bring with them to the show.

this is just the industry being the industry.

baseball... it is a marketing ploy. Granted a good one - because TPG have gotten people convinced they HAVE to send their coins in as soon as they get them to get some value added label. Think about it, as a PG wouldn't you like to contrive some reason for people to want to get their coins graded? This artificial 30 day window for this label that says... well it really says nothing other than you got your coins and sent them in for grading within 30 days of the product being on the market. The graders have convinced people that means...something. In reality it means absolutely zilch.

The coins sold in Baltimore on the first day - could have been from the lot of 12,000 coins produced and sitting ready for shipment. Who knows *but* lets create a myth of them being super special because they were available for sales and in peoples hands on day 1. While they might be in demand to a select group of people willing to pay $5,000 - and there actually might be another group of people still willing to buy them for $5,000 - I can wait for my own coin to be shipped having ordered it on the 1st day and know I didn't pay $4,600 more than it is worth. I don't need a marketing label to tell me I got a relatively rare coin.

The coins weren't released in any special way by the Mint. They took a booth at the Baltimore show, something they have done in the past, and had available for sale coins that were coincidentally released on the first day of the show.

The Mint was not part of the special labeling - they did not sell any coins with any type of special designation label. The grading services took advantage of coins being available at the show and came up with a marketing angle to hype the first coins available.

If folks want to collect the coins by label type, it's their money and whatever makes them happy is great. But these grading service labels shouldn't be compared to the GSA dollars - those were released/marketed in a very different way by the US Treasury Department. They did not feature a private, 3rd party label.

basebal - you keep referencing the GSA Morgans... and like commens pointed out - that was a mint/treasury release of the coins. They marketed their coins - that had been held in MS in the vault for years. The idea the treasury released coins to the public that had been in the vaults for close to a century - certainly seems to be a historic event to most observers.

In fact TPG got taken to task for destroying many GSA releases - by insisting they had to remove the Morgans from the GSA enclosures and put them in TPG enclosures. They destroyed what many considered providence of origin in doing so.

That is actually quite different than being on the scene of a release and adding a label to the release and proclaiming it special because of your label. That is all TPG did - and charged quite a bit to be present and accounted for as well.