I ordered some last night but could for the life of me not get Paypal to get my payment to go through. I tried various credit cards and they all got denied. So with a heavy heart I contacted perth mint this afternoon and asked them to cancel my order. Finally got it figured out with my credit card companies .. since my card was exposed in a breach somewhere, they automatically blocked international payments. (I am in the US). I ended up ordering these here in the US from Talisman coins instead - albeit for a higher price. Really too bad though. Hopefully the ones I canceled got released back into the availability pool and made someone else here happy.
Now available to US purchasers from http://www.bttf.net/ Use the "Commemorative Coins" link on the LHS. Awesome BTTF site. I wan't a Delorean Bottle Opener.
But is it a real thing or just a pre-packaged media/marketing thing that will fade away quickly once the marketing dollars dry-up? I have a fair number of friends who are pretty excited about the new Star Wars trailer release. They are showing off their Star Wars tattoos, posting links to breakdowns of the new trailer and posting Star Wars parody ads that are apparently made by fans. On the other hand, most of the stuff I've been seeing about Back to the Future day is in news stories being pushed by Facebook rather than by friends (e.g. "stories you may be interested in") and people sharing those stories on Facebook. I suspect that I'm in the prime demographic for Back to the Future day (e.g. saw the trilogy as a kid and am now an adult with a decent paying job and free cash available for spending), I enjoyed the trilogy, and am a decent Michael J. Fox fan (love his character on "The Good Wife"). On the other hand, I haven't had a compelling urge to rewatch the movie in 15 to 20 years. Except for the marketing blitz, I would have been unaware of the fact that the date that Fox's character jumped to was coming up and in the end I'm just sort of meh on the whole Back to the Future day thing. It just feels like a manufactured event rather than a fan fueled event if that makes any sense. That being said, the Delorean car/coin looks cool, but if I ever end up getting it, I'll probably wait a year or two (or more) and buy it after the hype has worn out and people lose interest. The concept of the hoverboard coin seems cool, but from the pictures it kind of looks cheap and cheesy.
I notice that a lot of stuff being sold on the front page <though no coins are shown on the front page> have had their prices reduced by ~25% including the Vitesse die-cast replicas of the car
They will sell quickly ... It's pretty much 1:1 with Aussie pricing minus the 10% GST which applies to US sales only. These guys just don't engage in price gouging ... that's why I'm recommending them.
I have watched these movies how many times they never get old [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxCf615vpFU[/youtube]
I feel like the validates my point... people know that Michael J. Fox (I suspect most people up until the last few weeks couldn't remember his character's name) travelled to the near future, but they don't really know when and so it's easy for people to be fooled as to when in the future they went to. There may be a few memes around, but they pale in comparison to the number of Star Wars, Star Trek, and Princess Bride memes. It seems far easier to find someone who can quote lines or scenes from those movies than anything from Back to the Future. I suspect that a lot of people missed the Back to the Future reference with "hoverboards" (e.g. the person on the news said hoverboard, but unless a movie clip was included or the reporter mentioned the movie's name a lot of people didn't make the connection). Why I predict that the price of the coins will lose their premiums is because I'm not particularly worried about getting the coins as the movie was enjoyable, but I don't have a particular need to own the movies or any memorabilia about it and I suspect most people probably have a similar view towards the series. People seem to care far more about Star Trek and it looks like some of the coins from earlier in the year have already lost their premiums. On the other hand, I love Star Wars, and still buy myself the occasional lego set, but couldn't be bothered to buy Star Wars themed coins. The good news is that we can see who's right in about a year.... we can also see how right various people were on their forecasts as to which of the coins is the best one to buy...
I'm not really sure... I think all of them will end up being negative over the next few years. Hoverboard - from the pictures/videos I've seen, the concept looks cool, but on the HSN video someone linked, the finished product looked cheap with the board getting jammed on the plastic. Also, how was the top of the hoverboard made? Is it a sticker or is it printed on the coin? If it's a sticker, it adds to the cheese factor. On the other hand, only 2,015 copies. DeLorean - I thought this one looked the neatest because of the car, but I'd want to know more about what the car is made out of. If it's plastic, why spend $135 for that when you can get the better looking diecast metal car for about half to a third of the cost now? Plus, a mintage of 7,500 seems a bit excessive. Gold coin - I'm not a big fan of the design on the coin. A maximum mintage of 1,000 seems worrisome. On the other hand, a plummeting Aussie dollar and rising gold prices could help. Near term, I'd guess the Hoverboard is the least bad option followed by the gold coin and then the DeLorean. I like the DeLorean best, but that 7,500 mintage makes me think it will be readily available for less than their issue price on Ebay in the near future. ETA: Ignoring shipping, the buy it now price for the gold coin from one seller is already below Perth Mint issue price on Ebay (http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Tuvalu-2...227853?hash=item2a5aa2894d:g:CHYAAOSwl9BWJ6MA)