The Lyndon Baines Johnson Coin and Chronicles Set sold out Oct 27.
The sellout occurred 3 hours and 57 minutes after the set went on sale at noon Eastern Daylight Time on the Mint’s website, according to an official statement.
Apparently the Mint found a sweet spot by setting the Johnson set’s maximum mintage at 25,000.
This figure was enough higher than the 17,000 for the Truman and Eisenhower sets that there was no repeat of the 15-minute sellouts or the anger expressed by collectors who were shut out of the sales process in those first two offers.
The Johnson mintage figure was also enough lower than the Kennedy 50,000 total to prevent sales from dragging on for weeks on end.
Incidentally, the Kennedy set went back on sale for a time Oct 27. Apparently there were enough orders with invalid credit cards, or returns, that the Mint had a small supply to re-offer.
Buyers of the $57.95 Johnson set will be wondering what kind of price will be established for it on the secondary market.
Price testing began almost immediately online.
Raw sets could be ordered Oct. 28 through Buy It Now offers on eBay for $99.99.
One enthusiastic seller was offering raw sets for $279.99 or best offer.
These sets will soon be joined by offers of top-grade early release issues as attested by the major third-party grading services.
This article was originally printed in Numismatic News.
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