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 Replies: 9 / Views: 2,354 |
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
12812 Posts |
I've seen it in at least two places today that the U.S. Mint is discontinuing the 10% discount for subscriptions when they unleash their new catalog site upon the masses in October. http://mintnewsblog.com/2014/09/us-...n-discounts/This is disappointing to me, as it was (I thought) a bonus to loyal customers. When they announced the discount, I added more subscriptions (as long as they financially made sense). It was nice to get discounts on multiples of the annual sets, the 5-ounce ATBs and such. It probably ended up being a silver grab for dealers and I can't blame them really for retracting an unsuccessful (?) pilot program. It still affects my bottom line as an individual collector though. Now subscriptions don't make financial sense (not that they made sense before the 10% discount), so I'm going to cancel them all so I can group my purchases and combine the $5 shipping for as many purchases as possible. How do you feel about this? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1228 Posts |
Was $139.50 Now $155.00 a loss of $15.50 (10%) per 5oz if some opt out of sub now sales totals might be alot lower for 2015 and on ! I like those DMPL's |
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
12812 Posts |
As a collector I like that stopping subscription discounts might drive mintage totals / final sales down as well, Hollywood, because I'm still going to buy my one or two for each release. And it's nice to have something with a low mintage.
However, I don't plan to sell any of mine so it really only affects those that will inherit my collection and what I could have done with that 10%. And they'll never know.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
The 10% discount was added to encourage more people to add items to the subscription program. This gave the mint a lot of "guaranteed" orders. Now that they have a lot of them they drop the discount. They know they will lose some of their subscription orders, but a lot of them will stay and the mint will make that extra 10%.
It's just common business practice, and a lot more ethical than some businesses practice of raising an items price then putting it "on sale" with the final "sale" price being equal to the regular price.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1795 Posts |
I feel the same way. The U.S. gov't is getting Nickel and Dime like most state and local governments have been for years. Can't take care of the entire world's problems without money.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1817 Posts |
Well the discount WASN'T a guarantee that it would last throughout 2014. As it was everything that was eligible for discount happened except for the last 5oz ATB. It was offered on a "trial" basis to boot, so I felt that I came out ahead this year and the Mint benefited as I bought more than usual. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2168 Posts |
Yes, I thought it may last but I as well am glad it lasted while it did. I did see in the subscription area the Everglades as the discounted price for the future. It must have been an error. It was just a day or 2 ago. I wish that one had been during the yr. My least favorite is the Sand Dunes and too bad they weren't reversed! I buy for gifts and wanted the Everglades for that but not sure now especially since silver is so low by comparison to the regular price. Maybe a price decrease (fingers crossed but not at all hopeful)
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Valued Member
United States
317 Posts |
Good promotion, glad the mint did it across multiple products.
Just a guess but I think the mint will reduce silver product prices soon because of silver's sharp price decline anyway.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12812 Posts |
It was a great way to fire and forget while getting a discount, and certainly not guaranteed. I'm still disappointed about it, but life goes on! As I said, I will be canceling a few, possibly all subscriptions and now ordering manually to reduce the # of $4.95 shipping costs.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1037 Posts |
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Replies: 9 / Views: 2,354 |
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Posted 09/18/2014 03:55 am
