To curb excessive returns of collector products, the United States Mint this week announced an update to its return policy.
"Effective immediately, the Mint reserves the right to limit or refuse returns from purchasers who demonstrate return rates that exceed two percent," the agency said in a notice.
Customers with too many returns will first receive a notice to review their account so they can consider "making changes to their purchase practices." Those who then continue to return products above the two percent rate will receive a second notice advising them that the Mint will no longer accept their returns. As a final option for abusers, the Mint can suspend customer accounts.
The Mint is keeping in reserve the right to charge a fee for excessive returns.
The U.S. Mint notes that its updated policy will only affect a small number of customers, and that it does not apply to valid product quality issues.
I woke up early today & read this great news on Coin World’s website & it is definitely a long-overdue, necessary change in the returns policy. Too many dealers & flippers & a few collectors I suppose have abused the Mint’s original 30-day return policy it had for decades. Then, due to abuses mainly in coin dealers playing the precious metals market with Mint purchases & returning coins if the precious metal price went down during the 30 days, the return policy was reduced to 7 days about 10 years ago. This new policy is fair to all & way… Read more »
Seth – I fully agree. Some people have abused the return policy for a long time, send coins out for immediate grading – crack open slabs that are not ps70`s and return the product. I have seen this on youtube. These (some not all) flippers as they call themselves, devalue the practice of numismatics. Good for the US mint to address this issue and say enough is enough.
Mouse
Oh, boy. What will this do to the TV coin shows?
I agree, Seth.
Well written!!!
Seth Riesling, Mouse, Joe C. & Christopher Williams, I think that possibly even those new rules issued by the Mint are still too permissive. Perhaps there should instead be a 1% maximum return threshold with no subsequent probationary “good behavior period”. All of this finally cracking down naturally serves the dealers right for so many years of wantonly manipulating the system out of pure greed. And as far as those lowlifes the flippers and their habitual costly (to everyone else but them) underhanded hijinks are concerned, let’s just say that we would all be better off without them and that… Read more »
Thank you US mint… This is the correct thing to do… Should have been done a long time ago… Greed from large volume coin flippers caused this ! Do they think every coin from the mint is perfect ! This is a huge win for real collectors… Again , Thank You
DM, Strong, true words and sentiments extremely well spoken and so very perfectly on point. You really do “tell it like it is”…and it’s about time somebody did! I know I didn’t exactly dance lightly around this very subject myself, but I’m still really glad you too had no compunction regarding the grabbing of this particular bull by the horns and giving it a good reality shake to remember. And now, thanks to the Mint, we finally have a score of “Collectors 1 – Flippers 0”; that’s the kind of result we’ve been anticipating for a long time and it’s… Read more »
IMO this is still a wimpy return policy … charge restocking fees (up to 50%) too for returns that have no flaws or have had intentional damage inflicted on the coin outside the Mint ..
Tinto,
You’ve got my vote, especially regarding high fees for returning flawless product.
Old Collector (& Fraud Rejector)
How about “NO RETURNS” to the big boys?
I agree with Joe C.
No returns for the big boy or some type of heavily re-stocking fee!!!
Great input here.
It is interesting to note that the U.S. Mint does not allow its 12 silver, gold, platinum & palladium bullion coin Authorized Purchasers (9 in the USA, 2 in Germany & 1 in Japan) to return any bullion coins for any reason.
-NumisdudeTX
Joe C., Christopher Williams & Seth Riesling,
A big AMEN to ALL of that!
Old Collector
Well! it’s a start, long over due, better late than never, thanks *u*s*mint! Now, it’s the *label company’s turn, to something *good! Baby*steps, but start somewhere please! If you need any*ideas where all here to give you all* some, & it’s free! You won’t have to pay your *think*tank, people a plum*nickel, that could be a good start.
Joe Brown,
I suppose the most single impressive thing all of the various and sundry grading companies could do right off the bat would be to drastically dial back on all of that extraneous flapdoodle garbage-type wordage they’re putting all over their poor crowded slabs these days.
Old Collector
at least don’t charge a cent more to start, *mint*state & proof*grade are just fine, if they won’t a nice picture fine, but don’t make people heads spin with pictures & price$ for the same grade coin, it’s a turn off for a new collector that dose not have deep*pockets, *i for 1* more than likely would not be saying this right now, if it were like this b*s when *i was a kid, i*d just figure it was for the pompuss rich, & collect rocks in a wet paper back.
Joe Brown,
I’m sure you meant “sack”. If so, Buy the rocks and not the sack. Like buy the coin, not the label. (I have some nice rocks I’ve collected over the years).
Remember what Charlie Brown said on Halloween night with his friends describing all the great candy they got – “I got a rock.” I wonder if his trick or treat sack was wet too! LMAO
When I was a kid, some people gave out 1-cent coins for Halloween, & we didn’t want money – we wanted candy dammit!
-NumisdudeTX
Joe C* – yup! meant sack, my usually missed spelled word!*thanks, iv*e been known to collect a sack of *rocks early on, being the only kid on the beach, just after sunup* during mud*tide just to kill time with some no name black*dog that would always show up out of nowhere & comb the *beach with me* for some *nice*smooth*sea*rocks that the tide would wash in, of all shape & colors*, funny dog* would just *vanish! When the tide came in along with the crowd of kids with there *moms, he loved my *moms could meatball* sanky*s on fresh *sunbeam*bread,… Read more »
Joe Brown,
Good memories. Keep it live.
Seth,
One of those pennies could have been a 1909-S VDB.