I draw the line at 2010, any medal or coin issued after 2010 I am no longer keeping as part of my personal collection. I still buy and sell some post 2011 medals if I trust the distributor will not dump into the market or rip people off before and during the show release. As a general rule I only handle medals that were issued by US distributors, any distributed by Asia or Europe based distributors I completely avoid.
As a collector/investor/dealer don't you find it disheartening that you don't consider post-2010 to be a good investment? In order for the market to keep growing, and thus raising the demand/value of our pre-2010 stuff, don't we need new collectors to keep joining the game, which means we need new products each year that are worth buying? 10-15 years from now who is going to be buying those pre-2010 coins?
In other words, it seems like a lot of this new stuff is really bad for the entire MCC market, right? I don't mean to bring negativity into the forum, but the way I see it, we might as well discuss it if we hope to see change. I doubt the China mint is going to change the way they're doing bullion these days, but hopefully at least some medal sponsors will take these opinions into consideration. (As an aside, since he's an active member here, I do think PA's valentine medals are done well and have bought a couple of each. And I suppose he would fit your criteria of a US distributor--although I do think the near-term profit is pretty well built into the price.)
But I find the barrage of "official" and non-official mint products to be confusing. The 2001 small-D controversy also left a really bad taste in my mouth. It feels like collectors have to have a huge body of knowledge (and what seems like insider info) in order to be successful in MCC. On the one hand, it's fun and natural for those on the inside to find the varieties and rarities, and cash in on their knowledge. To some extent, all coin collecting is like that even in the big genres like Lincoln pennies, and Morgan dollars. But there also seems to be an inherent simplicity in those markets compared to MCC. If I'm buying American Eagles, I'm not going to worry that a certain year and mint mark is going to suddenly be fake.
With MCC, I'm still buying, but not as much as I used to, because my trust level is fairly low. I have a big collection, so I'm still HOPING for the best. But what needs to happen to see this market rebound to new levels?
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