AppleZippoandMetronome

One thing I think they should do when it comes to series is give the option for continuity with the first coin. I know they can never get it 100% right no matter what they do and even this as a solution would have its problems but at least it would allow collectors who show interest in a series early on a real chance of actually being able to collect all coins in the series. Whilst I'm not personally against flipping I do think its more than a little harsh for people who bought into a series early on to have to then fight the hoardes of flippers who join later once something proves successful. That being said I hope anyone after one of these coins this morning for their collection is able to get one. As much as I've enjoyed these coins I also hope its the end of the series. Though my own collection will be safely completed this experience with the Gothic has been unenjoyable and taken a lot of the fun out of collecting.

You should probably avoid looking into previous coins in the series if you think this one is overpriced!

Generally when parcels are left its at my request and they're left in a storage box I have out front. I live out in the sticks though so parcels being left out of sight aren't really at any risk. Even if it was left on the door step it would be at more risk from the rain than thieves. Now this is my choice and it isn't one I would have made at any of my previous addresses when I lived in either towns or cities with plenty of people wandering by. I absolutely understand the concerns and complaints regarding any parcels being left on door steps let along higher valued ones. Now regarding DHL specifically my only complaint would be how erratic their delivery service is in my area. Today for example I had a notification that my rather large order of seed trays is out for delivery for Tuesday Feb 1. Except of course its Wednesday Feb 2nd and given that its almost 5pm as I type this I don't think its showing up today. This is my experience with anything delivered via DHL including RM orders. They just kind of show up when they show up. Again I do live out in the sticks well off the beaten path but none of the other couriers or Royal Mail seem to have the same difficulties.

So far I'm feeling it most in my car's fuel tank and with my business's costs. I moved to a much more rural location nearly 2 years ago so expected to be paying more for transportation simply because I'm further away from everything but rising prices at the pumps have made those costs more noticeable. I am somewhat able to offset this though. Thankfully my business is based in the building on my property right beside my house so the commute is about 15 steps. I get all my outgoing orders collected these days so I don't have to drive around to post offices or UPS drop off locations. These services got a lot better at a good time for me. I feel its worth noting though as bad as I find this cost increase I'm still paying dramatically less in fuel now than I was spending on an annual train ticket to commute into London on packed trains 10 years ago. I'd take the fuel increase over that any day. As for the businesses costs it seems pretty much everything across the board has risen in price from packagaing to equipment to the goods I buy and sell themselves. A lot of it is manageable because the items I sell have also risen in value so my prices were able to creep up without a bad reaction but there are some one off costs that are hammering the bottom line - more or less anything I need to import. I am doing my best to avoid those scenarios but the reality is there are some things (a lot of things) which aren't available in the UK and have to be imported. My home energy prices have been fine. I have a pellet boiler and a couple of wood burners. Wood comes free via my mate who is a tree surgeon (very handy) and the pellets are cheaper this year than last. I expect electricity prices to be horrible come April but we're not there yet. Food costs have been fine. I'm sure some things have gone up but I've offset a lot by growing my own fruit and veg as much as possible and selling the excess locally to pay for the growing costs. Most things can be offset but its always a question of time/effort. I can heat my home for very little and grow my own food but it means spending a few hours a day extra working in the veg patch after spending the day working or giving up a weekend to chop and stack logs my mate drops off.

I've said all along that the coins aren't comparable to the Una (in value terms - beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that). Even the 3G's at this point is nowhere near comparable to the Una in terms of value. I do have a bias with regards to the quarter arms as I am quite invested in it at this point having bought several on the secondary market on top of what I was able to buy from the RM. That bias aside though (as much as I can) I do feel comfortable in the long term. The coins will disappear into collections and values should rise as they become harder to get. I think there is still a bit to go with this though as the graded examples will come back at some point and reflood the market. One thing that has me slightly less confident than I was even just a week ago is the idea that the portrait won't have a general release. There is so much confusion about it here and on Facebook - it would just be good to know for sure what they are doing to have an idea how things will go once that coin officially comes out.

That is stunning!

Its really impossible to say. The reality is that most proof coins lose money over time. There's been a lot of exceptions lately but I think that rule still holds true. The one thing against the Tudor Beasts series is that it has had quite a poor start where as I think the Queens Beasts had a much better start with much better designed coins coming out first and poorer designs featuring towards the end of the series once people were invested. Mintages are also an issue as @dikefalos points out. My hope would be that they adjust the mintage down on subsequent releases and we begin to see some stronger more visually appealing designs. I think if those two happen the series will be a winner and well worth having.

I have nothing against flipping coins - I've done it myself in the past and will almost certainly do it again in the future. That being said I do think in light of the Great Engravers series the Royal Mint really should offer continuity at the beginning of every new series they launch. In the event a series becomes popular (like the Great Engravers) it will attract a larger amount of flippers meaning those wishing to collect the series lose out. People who buy into a series early on really shouldn't be punished or have to face the stress of regular overhyped releases just because the series takes off. I said in another thread that I liked the look of this series and felt it would potentially be the RM playing to its strengths. I ordered the 2oz silver but when I was sat there at the order page I nearly didn't bother because of how stressful its been trying to carry on collecting the Great Engravers series. Comes to a point its more stress than fun and thats no good.

People there run the gammit from those who aren't very interested to those who are keen collectors. I would class myself as a serious collector so took the chance to go whilst I was roughly in the area already. I did find it a bit on the disappointing side as the stuff I had a genuine interest in just wasn't covered in any way at all - it all focused on the commercial side minting base metal coins for the UK and other countries. The displays were ok but again they cram so many tours in per day so you don't get much time to hang around and look at things in any real detail. I don't think I'd travel to go again to the standard tour but from what I've heard of the VIP tours they'd be worth checking out since you're actually given a decent amount of time to check out some rare coins in their museum. If I lived close enough to the RM I would absolutely go regularly to flip the SYO coins. The ones we had stamped on the day wound up selling for close to £50/each which more than paid for the trip to the RM and our day in Cardiff. As for the SOTD sov - I wonder how much stock they'll actually have once the RM start selling them. Other dealers have already sold or are in the process of selling their allocations. I think its going to be a mess on the morning of release with far fewer available than folks expect.

Ah thanks for that info. I last went a few years ago and remember the group I was on being there so long that the next group bumped into us. They gave the option for people to buy more coins while those who had ordered at the front desk were stamping ours. They let you stamp each one you bought. It was a bit of a mess TBH so I'm not surprised they sorted out a better solution.

Whats even more surprising to me is the tours they are running that day. 8am to 8pm with a new group starting the tour every 20mins. They'll likely take even longer than normal given most who are going are probably there to get the max allocation of the SYO coins. Gonna be a busy day for them!

While I appreciate the upside to the RM doing this for those collecting the series who didn't opt for the continuity option - I think its just another slap in the face to the collectors who lost out on the day coin 1 was released. I'm angry for anyone who is in that position and will now absolutely have to pay the flippers to complete their set. The RM has to be aware that these are being bought up enmasse by flippers so they must be aware who benefits from this. Sure its easier for them but in the end by and large this will just screw the collectors.

I've seen a lot of reports of hazing on these coins between here and the Facebook groups. Its appeared on other metals so I don't think its a traditional milkspot problem but possibly something to do with the dies they used for these? I obviously don't know and haven't seen any explanation from others complaining about it. Sadly people complaining to the RM about this have been told they'll either get their coin back or a refund if they return these - they apparently aren't reminting any of them.

Yeah not to mention how difficult it will become if the first of these are a success. They really should offer a continuity option for those getting into sets from the beginning.

No one has a crystal ball here so you aren't ever going to get a definitive answer. Also the comparisons to the Una need to stop. The Una had a release that couldn't be much more different from the release of both the 3Gs and Gothic part 1. You'll never get the same result when flippers buy up all the stock and dump on the secondary market enmasse - something that didn't happen with the Una but will almost certainly happen with every other Great Engravers release because of the Una. You aren't alone though in what you paid for yours. I picked up a couple at around the £600 mark and have picked up a couple more around the £400 mark. It was predicted by many that prices would continue to fall when they were being sold for £600 and those predictions have played out. As to how they'll from here... again I can't offer a definitive answer but to me the value of these coins was only ever going to be as a two coin set and I still think the release of the second coin might boost the value of the first. I think you need to be in this one for the long term as you need to give a chance for the flippers to get rid of their stock and these to disappear into collections before you really see value tick back up. I suspect we could see prices go even lower as graded coins being dumped onto the market enmasse is something that is yet to come. Its possible those of us who bought at these prices will face a loss - always a risk - but I'm still fairly confident in them long term especially as a set.

Whilst I like the sound of this and think it will potentially be the RM playing to its strengths... could they not give it a rest for a while?!? Just had an email this morning apologising that my silver proof annual set is delayed potentially until the end of February and know from seeing posts here and on FB that many others are awaiting open orders. They really should be sorting all these out before contemplating yet another release.

I make part of my living on ebay and would guestimate that about 15%ish of my sales are GSP sales. I'll try to address your questions in the order asked. The only real pitfall I could think of would be failing to put the number on the package that identifies what the item is and where it is going. If printing labels direct from ebay or via Royal Mail you don't have to worry so much about this as the address will include the number. If you're writing it out just ensure you write it down as it is given to you. Without the number they won't be able to ID the package and I suspect it would just get sent back to you or discarded. Only ever send something internationally through the GSP. Now I've personally used my discretion a few times and sent an inexpensive large letter sized item internationally to the odd buyer with good reputation who is just looking to save a few ££s (the GSP really is very uneconomical for smaller inexpensive items) but these days I wouldn't entertain the idea of sending larger or more expensive items any other way. The best thing about the GSP is that once the items reach the UK warehouse for forwarding your liability is done. No one can put in a false claim against you trying to say it didn't arrive or arrived damaged, etc. All that becomes ebays problem to sort out. You should of course ensure items are well packed and ensure items are insured between you and the forwarding warehouse but once there you are done. As above GSP sales make up 15ish % of my ebay sales so sales I presumably wouldn't have without it. I think its also very adventagous for items that are available here but not abroad. I'm not sure when it started but its been going for some years now and I've not had a single problem with international sales since I started using it. I've had the odd person try it on saying they didn't get the item or whatever and I just refer them to ebay customer service and generally never hear anything about it again. I think for sellers its a great system.

Thats a big relief. Thanks kindly for posting that!

Has anyone received their silver proof set yet? I'm really curious to see what the mintage of the £5 is. Mine is still in open orders

Also saw it available release day but I don't have anywhere near enough confidence in these to spend out on the more expensive gold or larger silver proofs. Too many variations and who knows what is still to come this year.

The queue system has definitely changed. In the past I'd get on earlly and wait and that generally always got me a decent enough spot to get what I was after. Since the Sov launch though its been pretty awful with queue spots generally well in the thousands. Don't know why its suddenly changed but it is what it is. Thankfully other dealers usually list big coin releases after the initial 9am RM release time so there are options apart from the RM. You can also ring the mint if you get in the queue and discover you have a terrible position. Those two options are the only way I managed to get the 2022 proof sovs I wanted and the Gothic Crown. I think this release was slightly off from the norm more generally because it was very well publicised with most media outlets doing a piece on these coins. I even had people who know I have an interest in coins asking about them because they'd seen it on the BBC or whatever. Would of meant there were more people trying than normal yesterday morning.

Yeah this was a mistake on the RM's part. It puzzled me why they'd of put it there and I know annoyed a few who were after it but couldn't find it where it should have been. They made several errors like this too with the annual sets released on Tuesday showing wrong photos which misled a number of people who have since cancelled their orders.

Really nice seeing these pop up for sale on Coin Connection earlier. I've had terrible luck with the queue system the last few releases so it was nice to be able to order a desired coin completely stress free. Look forward to seeing it some time in Feb!

I thiink if not for the design of these I'd of sat them out but I am an absolute sucker for a good shield/coat of arms type coin. The "smaller coin" design is stunning, IMO.

I was in very early and could have likely got most except perhaps that low mintage platinum one. What I got was 2 of the 2oz silver proof and one of the £5 silver proof. I got the £5 silver proof just to have it along side the one coming in the annal set I bought a couple days ago. The 2oz silver proofs I wasn't planning on buying but when I spotted the mintage I figured it was worth a punt. I really dislike the larger coin version so had no interest in those and I don't have enough confidence in these to shell out for the golds or the platinums. Given how things have gone I wish I'd of got both versions of the 50p sets which I saw and passed over when they were still available. Again its a coin I don't really like so it was an easy pass but seeing how quick they sold out and how many want them it seems at this point like a winner.