2014 US Mint Subscriptions

I'll relate my tale of woe and stupidity so that hopefully it will help some of you out and learn from my mistake. Admittedly it is not a lot of money, but it is annoying to me nonetheless.

Around the beginning of the year I saw the 10% discount for subscriptions being offered on the Mint's website. I clicked the 10% savings banner and was brought to the subscriptions page. Well, I figured that the 10% won't completely offset the $4.95 shipping charges in all cases, but I will be saved the effort of making each order individually. So I went crazy with the subscriptions and subscribed for everything I normally buy (mint, silver and proof sets, eagles, State Quarter bags, Kennedy half bags, presidential boxes, etc). Well, mistake #1 is that there is a link in the middle of the subscriptions page stating that not all subscriptions qualify for the discount (like ATB quarters/halves/dollar bags/rolls/boxes). OK, stupid mistake. I should have seen that link and checked it first. My bad. Learn from my mistake if you plan to make subscriptions, or have already without seeing this fine print.

However, now I see that they've already filled my Smokey Mountain subscription order with separate order numbers for each subscription item, and each has a separate $4.95 shipping charge! Thank God I ordered the P&D bags together (mint code AQ1) so technically there are only two shipping charges. Maybe all of you knew about this, but I learned my lesson. I cancelled all the remaining subscriptions that don't qualify for the discount. I'll save myself the extra shipping charges and just order the bags or boxes together as one order for each coin as they come out.