Prices can’t last for silver 5-ounce set

Why them and not me?

That’s a pretty standard question being directed my way by collectors who were not able to enjoy a windfall profit on the 5-ounce silver 2010 America the Beautiful set.

Mint rules restricting the price that nine Authorized Purchasers could charge for the 33,000 sets and limiting sales to one set per household, theoretically means that 33,000 individuals out of the millions of collectors and investors out there had a gift of about $1,800 if current prices hold.

What do I mean?

Well the AP’s can/could charge only around $975 for the set.

Buyers could turn those sets around online for approximately $2,800.

Graded sets have been reported to bring over $6,000.

As angry as those numbers make those who were shut out feel, they also provide evidence that might make them calm down simply because these prices can’t last.
If all 33,000 sets were sold for $975, that means it takes $32,175,000 to buy them all.

If they all sold for $2,800 online that would bring the total dollars required to buy them to $92,400,000.

If they all could sell for what some of the graded sets are bringing, let’s use the $6,000, figure, that means it would take $198,000,000 to buy them all.

Obviously, not all sets can sell for those figures. The simple fact of 33,000 sellers eventually trying to get those prices and a hoped-for profit in the secondary market will bring the prices down.

In comparison, the recent sales by the Mint of 856,356 proof 2010 silver American Eagles generated sales of just under $40 million.

That pretty well defines the long-term limit of this market and explains why as soon as the lucky 33,000 original buyers get their sets they will try to sell them as fast as they can.

There are no collectors out there for these sets, just speculators.