Newbie question - what to look out for when buying Panda coins?

Hi guys,

Happy new year! I just joined the forum on recommendation from a friend.

I'm a newbie 'investor' and my very first investment is in 2011 Panda coins which I've ordered and picking up tomorrow. I'm looking for advice on what to inspect/look out for when I collect my coins? I'm going to a somewhat reputable dealer in Hong Kong (a few of my friends and family have bought from them before and they've been around since 1988) but was a little thrown off by the fact that they prefer cash i.e. they asked for a cash cheque rather than cheque made out to the company. I hope it's a cash flow thing for them as they stock up for next year's coins! The website for this dealer is http://www.goldcoins.hk. Unfortunately they only seem to have a Chinese website. Some questions I have:

1. Should I expect a certificate of some sort for the coins? This might be tedious if more than one coin?
2. Should the coins be completely sealed? And should the coins be err....flawless?
3. Should I be worried that they could be fakes in distribution?
4. I have seen a few pictures of the coins in EBay and various online seller sites and they seem to come in different packaging. What is the standard package?

If there has been a posting somewhere in the forum about how to inspect the coins, please point me to the link.

Thanks in advance for any help and happy new year again! I will post pictures of my coins (and price?) once the deal is done!

HKPanda

 

Welcome. !

For 2011 Pandas if you are buying the generic ones (around $350 HK) then they will come in capsule and may or may not come in a plastic sheet of 30.

These have no certificate as they are just bullion coins.

If you are buying less than 30 they may only come in capsule and no sheet, the sheet is very large and inconvenient anyway, makes no difference to resell value without sheet.

The coins should be flawless, no white spot no scratch on coin or capsule. The capsule should be closed shut and not opened even though it can be.

Fakes exist but if you buy from trusted dealers or sellers at the start it will be fine. After you learn more you can spot fakes easily.

Different Pandas have different packaging and there are a lot of them out there which makes it so interesting and challenging to collect all.

It's a legit website I have sent an query to them before about their coins. Relax

 

Welcome to the forum,my advice is buy from a reputable seller.

That way there is no problems.

 

Probably nothing sinister... you're just paranoid!

The lack of ciggies is going to your head.

 

Helloooo friend of GP. A pleasure to have you join us in the Panda forum!

Q1. Should I expect a certificate of some sort for the coins? This might be tedious if more than one coin?
A> Nope... these are like Silver maples or ASEs... bullion coins. So they are guaranteed by the PBOC.

Q2. Should the coins be completely sealed? And should the coins be err....flawless?
A> Nope... these coins come in capsules. Flawless just means no major dents or scratches. You should expect whitespots on some of them - just like with the whitespots with Maples. But if you can choose, obviously pick the ones without whitespots.

Q3. Should I be worried that they could be fakes in distribution?
A> If you are buying from a reputable dealer, then there should be no problems. If these are 2011s, then these should be fine also - no fakes that I'm aware of.
Fake Pandas in China are relatively few (I would assume the same in HK). From what I've noticed, the main source of fakes are from Ebay.

Q4. I have seen a few pictures of the coins in EBay and various online seller sites and they seem to come in different packaging. What is the standard package?
A> If the coin is before 2005, then you would prefer to buy them OMP (original mint package) like this.
[imgz=http://forums.silverstackers.com/uploads/675_img_3264.jpeg][/imgz][imgz=http://forums.silverstackers.com/uploads/675_untitled_image_8.jpeg][/imgz]

If the coin is after 2005, then they would come in trays like this, and just be in capsules.
[imgz=http://forums.silverstackers.com/uploads/675_img_0195s.jpg][/imgz][imgz=http://forums.silverstackers.com/uploads/675_img_0181s.jpg][/imgz]

Or if you get a whole lot them, they might come like this:
[imgz=http://forums.silverstackers.com/uploads/675_mbox_-_copy.jpeg][/imgz]


Welcome to the Panda Forum!

 

What to look out for when buying Panda coins?

The exit

 

Wow great response guys! Useful info and a little bit of paranoia for seasoning. And thanks GP for posting your message of support. I posted the link just in case someone can read Chinese - I'm Chinese but I can't read Chinese. I can do quite well with English!

Will post more tomorrow night.

HKPanda

 

Welcome. Here you find a lot of people with a lot of knowledge of pandas.
If i will make a inversor's buy i will buy a few 2011 but a lot of 2009 or less years because the population is less
If you will make a serious inversion buy the mr ge's book and peter's pricepedia

 

Yuppers... 600oz of Panda bear goodness

It feels significantly heavier than a box of Maples or ASEs... I suppose the extra 100oz makes a big difference when lugging it around.

It also takes significantly longer to open than a box of ASEs.

 

Welcome aboard HKPanda

You will find all the PANDA peeps on here very helpful and informative, as I have found them to be.

Any questions, do not be afraid to ask. They wont bite your head off...............much

I only started collecting 1 month ago & have found all the people on her to be passionate about the little furry buggers.

 

Nothing on their website suggests why they take cash over cheque, I think it's a safety thing because cheques can be faked and still cleared before taking a few days to bounce.

 

Here we go - I've got my monster box of 2011 Pandas along with longer arms from carrying the box!

[imgz=http://forums.silverstackers.com/uploads/4080_thebox.jpg][/imgz][imgz=http://forums.silverstackers.com/uploads/4080_pandaside.jpg][/imgz][imgz=http://forums.silverstackers.com/uploads/4080_templeside.jpg][/imgz]

The box contained 20 trays of 30 coins which I inspected individually (just a quick-ish glance for obvious flaws and stuff). They all looked very nice and I didn't see any white spots. The tray packaging was annoying because it wasn't tight so the coins, which were in their own capsule containers, kept falling out of the tray mould and slipping around every time I took it out of the box. The lady at the shop did say not to cut the trays and take the coins out because some buyers prefer them sold in the tray?

I am not sure if it's proper etiquette to post the buy price on the forums but I've come to a conclusion based on my limited knowledge, discussions with a friend and some of the forum postings, that it's a good price.

The shop only had about three 30-coin trays left when I was done - they had to collect from a few other places (I'm not sure where) to put together the monster box. I just hope the quality of the coins are the same throughout.

So, should my next investment be Pricepedia? Or will it just be a depressing read?

BTW, should I buy some anti-moisture packets and put it in the box? Will moisture be bad for the coins?

Thanks again for the warm welcome guys and I will try and be a forum contributor from Hong Kong once I gather a bit more knowledge on Panda coins!

HKPanda

 

Nice! I know how you feel last time I bought only 200 Pandas and my arms felt numb after carrying.

Yeah some buyers are picky and want their coins in original sheets of 30, I used to be like that but I realized how pointless and inconvenient the sheet was and did away with it. As you may have noticed it is very easy to buy 30 random Pandas and just stuff them into the plastic sheet, thus the sheets are hardly something important I reckon.

I think GP already posted your buy price, it was very good, congrats.

If you want to invest in more/other Pandas then Pricepedia/Mr Ge's Book/Panda Book are all good potential buys. Pricepedia is a pricelist which is good if you're looking at diversifying so you don't overpay.

Having spoken to other HK members they use anti moisture packets for their coin storage and air-conditioning for the really wet days and having lived in HK myself I would have to agree.

Even with the anti moisture packets it isn't enough, I would get a dedicated dehumidifying machine (I think I have 3 in HK...) just for the room with coins storage.

 

Wow HKPanda. Congratulations on the monster box.