After this weekend's very exciting sell out of my spherical hand poured silver globes I have had about 6 separate enquiries from people who have missed out on the limited mintage of 25 and have requested a stand-alone silver globe.
Now before I go on with this post I just want to reassure anybody and everybody who might be reading this I categorically will NOT be producing any standalone globes.
The main reason for this is that part of the whole process of me creating a unique product that has a specific mintage is that they are exclusive. As a consumer of silver and gold products from various mints around the world it is always very frustrating when a new variation of an existing product comes out and dilutes a product and an investment which I have already made. Whether that be a privy Mark or a special edition with a different display box for example. Even up as high as the Royal Mint we see this - they have created a number of strike on the day sovereign or sovereigns with special presentation boxes which are ultimately exactly the same as others.
So as a small producer of products which are limited I am very firm in my belief that when I declare a mintage upfront that is what the mintage will be.
I know we have had discussions on privy marks before on this forum and the various iterations of Royal Mint Sovereign's have also been the hot Topic here before...
But let's jump into the hypothetical, I just want to stress again this is NOT happening - this is just me finding out general market opinion on something which I suspect I already know the answer to.
How would you feel if I produced stand-alone globes for special requests. Even if you have not bought one of the globes would it make you look at Backyard Bullion as a brand differently? If you are one of the lucky few who picked up a globe I'd love to know what you would have said (and shouted at me!) should I have released a number of other globes upon special request.
I should just say there is one other globe in existence which is my 5 oz prototype globe this one I will be keeping solely for myself but beyond that this mould will not see another iteration until at least 2019. But even then I might well make something different or bigger, so it might well be that this mould is completely retired - and if it is as a onlooker to the Backyard Bullion brand and business, would you think it's a good thing for me too publicly destroy this mould on camera so that you then have no further doubts that the 25 that were created plus the prototype are indeed unique and cannot be recreated?
Makes interesting food for thought as I said this is a completely hypothetical situation - remember I am categorically NOT producing any more globes, but I'd love to know everybody's opinions!