A new special from the United States Mint offers free standard shipping on any order placed online at www.usmint.gov/catalog.
Standard shipping has been $4.95 for several years. That is the amount waved by ordering coins and products online instead of picking up the phone or using snail mail. Free standard shipping will also apply to subscription orders.
There are limits. The promotion is time-based, with a start date of today at 9 a.m. ET and an ending date of September 30, 2013 at 5 p.m. ET. And free shipping does not apply to international orders, including those that are placed from Canada.
"The Web-only promotion is designed to encourage our customers to purchase products online," the Mint described in a news release, adding it wants to "encourage more Web-based sales to enhance the overall customer experience."
Summer months tend to be slower for the Mint. This new promotion may prompt more buying as $4.95 adds up, especially when considered against smaller ticket items like products with America the Beautiful Quarters or Presidential $1 Coins. As an example, in mid-August the 2013 Presidential $1 Four-Coin Set will go on sale for $12.95. It would have been $17.90 when coupled with the $4.95 standard shipping fee. Striking the fee cuts the overall cost of the set by nearly 28%.
There is another stated motive with the promotion. The U.S. Mint hopes to encourage a few more orders in August specifically as that coincides with its rollout of a new online shopping cart.
"The free standard shipping promotional window will be the ideal opportunity for customers to try out this updated feature," the Mint stated.
If successful, the Mint notes that the promotion may recur. That seems likely based on similar returning promotions from other world mints. The Royal Canadian Mint actually has an all-year round free shipping policy, but that is limited to its Master’s Club Members. These are Royal Canadian Mint customers who spend at least $1,000 a year in coins and products.
I’ll bet $1 that they won’t ship my AE Two-Coin set until after Sept. 30th. Any takers??
P.S… Not to mention I’ve already received all of my subscriptions and other things I get each year… ;-(
RFK, it doesn’t matter when they ship your 2 coin set, free shipping is only for web orders placed during the dates they mentioned. It isn’t based on shipping date for things already ordered.
And if you bought everything on it’s date of issue only 7 different products are covered by this offer (not counting products offered on the same day.) Not a big financial risk this is to the US Mint so as a trial run hopefully they’ll expand to a larger population of products, like everything containing precious metals or orders over $100, for example.
I guess I got lucky from what I’m hearing. I received my AE 2 coin sets on July 24th. What I want to know is how did the TV hawkers get their sets over a month ago, graded, and selling them for $399.00?
Joe, It appears to be more proof that corporations are not people and because of that ,we are not on equal ground. To promote equality, I feel the U.S. Mint should limit the first day of sale to 2 per-household, than maybe 5 for the rest of the week and unlimited after.
John, I agree with your comment, but you and I know it isn’t going to happen.
I am glad they are finally trying this and hope they make it permanent across all ordering. There have been many times that I have waited to place an order until another coin is issued only to have the coin or set become no longer available. I know it is only $4.95 but this has cost the mint more than a few sales from me (and others) over the years. By the way… I order all of my products on-line.
Hey, the BEP doesn’t charge shipping. I think the mint should make the free shipping permanent.
Joe, that’s because they are selling paper at above premium prices. They save out certain numbers and then release them at triple the face value? Let alone being colored paper? Colored paper that will require 50 years to be worth much of anything?
Free shipping is the least they can do..
Sean7k, they can print stuff on worthless paper and sell it at a huge profit. I guess we’re all suckers, but I still like the stuff.
As long as I can go buy $100 worth of merchandise with a $100 bill I don’t care what they print it on or what they mint it out of.