"Pre-Order" On Coins Dated 2014? Is This Normal?

Hello all

just wondering if some of you more experienced collectors might be able to offer some insight, as I do not want to go off half-cocked or say anything that might not be fair. As such, I don't want to identify the seller or mint as yet until some more time passes by.

I ordered and paid for two 2014 coins that were to come from an overseas mint on 10.17/2016. There was nothing in the ad about "pre-order" or anything like that. Since the date of the coins was 2014, I assumed that they would be in stock, even from the overseas manufacturer. There was nothing said or listed about any delays, etc. This is from a non-eBay ad for the coins by a coin company.

I expected at least a several week to a month delay in receiving my coins. ok, a month has now gone by and since I have not received the coins, or updates, or anything at all since I placed the order, I thought it reasonable to call the distributor/coin company.

So I called and talked to who I assume was the owner of the coin shop. He said that these coins were of a "pre-order" type, and that it would be at least until the middle to the end of next month (December 2016) until I got the coins, possibly even longer. I had always been under the impression that "pre-order" coins were for coins not yet made, for instance, a 2017 coin.

ok. when I gave him my order number and told him that the date on the coins were 2014, he said that due to the rarity and expense of the coins, that the mint will still not actually make the coins until an actual order comes into the mint, regardless of the date on the coin. There was a mintage of 200 advertised of these coins with a value of about $5-600.00, altho I have seen it advertised for much much more by what appears to be an ebay speculator. I am not against the "make offer" provision, so please do not get me wrong here, but my experience has been that the "make offer" listings are usually overpriced.

Does this sound normal to any of you? I am not out, nor anxious or worried, just wondering if any of you have had any experience with coins dated several years earlier and being told that the mint will not make them until an actual paid order comes in. In other words, the mint does not want to have an " Overstock" on coins it cannot sell quickly due to the expense.

What did not make me feel better was that there was a "ripoff" report from someone who delt with this same coin company regarding "pre-ordered" coins and boy, did it seem like he had been through the wringer. On the other hand, there was just this one report, of which the coinshop did not respond to, but an alleged prior customer of the coinshop wrote in saying he never had a problem with the shop.

I do feel that the coinshop should have said on his advertisement that this was either a pre-order coin or that there would be a considerable delay or the coins were not in stock yet at the overseas mint or his USA shop. As I said, I was expecting a month delay, altho I have ordered from other overseas companies who had their coin in stock and I received them within 2 weeks. In the "availability" part of the order, it says "order today ship in 7-10 days", but I suspect (or hope) that this may be an ad generic statement for coins that the coinshop has in stock in the USA, and that the "availability" part of the ad for my coins was not modified for my particular order. I am really trying to be fair, folks.

now, I am aware that sometimes false "plants" by the seller going under a different name can happen, saying they had nothing but good experiences with them, but until I have the facts I will not go there yet, as the customer could be genuine. What puzzles me however is that the coinshop itself did not place a rebuttal on the ripoff report website. Of course, I do not know for sure that the shop is even aware of the complaint and therefore unable to respond.

In any case, this is just a question for now. However, in a month or so, if I have not received the coins, I will up the ante a bit. I want to give the seller the benefit of the doubt until I know for sure what is going on or we go into the beginning of January 2017 and still no coins.

thanks for any replies or thoughts... mike

p.s. I know some of you may be itching for the coinshop's name or the mint and such, but I really would rather not say for now to be fair to the shop in case this is the way this "pre-order" business is sometimes done with coins, even with coins that are dated years earlier, unless somebody out there really twists my arms to know. I can put the coinshop's website info for the coins up here.