Time runs out on Limited Edition set

You snooze, you lose.

That saying is often true.

In this case, it applies to the sellout of the Mint’s latest offer.

The United States Mint Limited Edition 2017 Silver Proof Set went on sale Oct. 5.

It is no longer available.

This particular sellout went in two stages.

An order limit of two sets was in place for the first 24 hours.

This was lifted on Friday.

The remaining supply was quickly snapped up.

As of the Mint’s Oct. 8 weekly sales report, buyers had taken 49,978.

Maximum mintage is 50,000.

Price of the set was $139.95.

Its centerpiece is a proof 2017-S silver American Eagle.

This is the second offering of this particular coin.

Back in April, there was a near instantaneous sellout of the 2017 Congratulations Set, which featured the coin.

Maximum mintage for it was 75,000.

The Congratulations Set soared in price on the secondary market.

Now, with another 50,000 proof 2017-S silver American Eagles added, the supply of these coins becomes 125,000.

Or, if you want to be absolutely precise, I can take the 74,898 Congratulations Sets sold and add the 49,978 Limited Edition set number to reach 124,876.

Will the secondary market reward buyers of the Limited Edition Set?

While the coins are identical, marketers can keep the two supplies separated by selling full sets.

It is cheaper for collectors to buy the other coins from the Limited Edition set independently, but it is the silver Eagle that is driving the overall price.

Besides, there is more excitement surrounding the complete set in the special packaging.

In any case, the other coins in the Limited Edition set are the five “S” mintmarked silver proof 2017 America the Beautiful quarters and “S” proofs of the Kennedy half and Roosevelt dime.

These lower-denomination coins are included in the 2017 silver proof set.

There are already more than a quarter of a million of these and another 73,909 in sets of just the silver proof quarters.

That means there are almost 325,000 of the 2017 proof silver quarters out there among the buyers of the various sales options.

Will this be the end of the story?

The Limited Edition set is not setting records on eBay.

The price is up to $187.95 on a Buy It Now basis.

That's a gain of $48.

Shipping from the new private owners won’t happen until Oct. 16 – five days away.

Sometimes sets are put back on sale by the Mint when orders are canceled. Check back and see if that happens with these.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog for the third time in 2017 . He is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."

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