gary, good point.but if someone buys 10,000 sets and they sell each set for $50 bucks above cost, what does that come to? magnificent mike mezhak and other big dealers are the reason for the price increase.this might justify price increases across the board.this is my opinion.

K ROB:

That would justify an issue price of say, $499 for the 2019-S reverse proof ASE’s, not for the vanilla products like proof sets and silver presidential medals that are unlikely to command a premium any time soon.

Who can we sell to? Coin dealers, Ebay or someone… None of the coins issued last year by mint can make profit!

Seth Riesling:
Yes, they could/should have allowed collectors to buy bullion coins directly from the mint on day one at similar prices. Of course, the dealers would not make the big $ $ like on the first ATB 5 oz in 2010 or the first palladium coin issued and it might have made collectors happy which they apparently do/did not want.

NumisdudeTX

that’s a good point.here might be another reason for raising the prices.since i retired i have a hobby other than coin collecting and it makes me a few bucks.it being bronze castings,and if i made a casting and sold the piece for $300 bucks and it sold within one hour after i put it on sale. then the buyer flips that piece for $500 bucks and makes a good profit,and this guy continuously does this.well pretty soon i.m gonna start thinking if he can get this price why can’t i? then this makes me want to raise my prices because he has proven to me people will pay more. the mint has lost sales the past few years and when they see collectors paying sometimes ten times what they sold their product for,maybe they’ve figured this out that they can raise prices.this is just a thought.