Gold Embossed FDC Cachets...opinions

regardless of the FDC value, and/ or the
artistic value of theses pieces, is there a
very large collectible market for them?...Does anyone know how many of these sorts of cachets are printed and cancelled on an average?

A scan of the covers you are referring to would help better identify what you are specifically talking about. I suspect you may be referring to the "golden stamps" which were a promotional set of covers that were popular some years ago, in which case this link to a previous post may help:

https://goscf.com/t/10320&SearchTer...olden,Stamps

Most modern First Day Covers are prepared in massive quantities to the tune of 200,000, 300,000 or even 500,000 or more (depending on the issue). I don't believe there are specific counts as to the quantities of each cachet printed, as that would be at the discretion of the cachetmaker to print as few or as many as they choose. I do know that in recent years, with the advent of high resolution color printers, many people now create their own cachets which makes the varieties virtually limitless.

I was sent a few of these I believe, but gave most away. I think I can dig up one to show ya'. OK is this what you mean?

Just as I thought, these are the "Golden Replica" stamps that were popularized some years ago by TV and media advertising. Problem is they went for $8 to $10 apiece when new, but on the secondary market they go for perhaps $1 apiece, if that. Here's a link to a current ebay auction for 176 of these and the bids are only up to $31 thus far. It could go up a bit before the auction ends, but right now the buy value figures to be 18 cents apiece on their examples (with binders):

http://cgi.ebay.com/22K-GOLDEN-REPL...t_500wt_1156

The kids in our stamp club go crazy over these.

They really think they've hit the jackpot when someone gives them one.

Update: Bidding on the ebay link I previously posted is now up to $38.77, so right now the value figures to be a whopping 22 cents apiece.

LOL now I know where to file this.

update...some have value......?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1970s-SECRE...em27c0d0a286

Somebody probably thought the replica actually contained some gold. It contains NO gold at all; not even gold-plated. It's just gold "colored". Nothing more than a naming gimmick by the Postal Commemorative Society. PCS advertised it as "22kt gold stamp replica" which is just a "name", not "22k" which would mean it really has some gold. The seller made the mistake of describing it as "22k", which is incorrect (and technically, fraudulent, as it would suggest the replicas actually are 22k gold, which they are NOT). That is my guess, regarding why the bidding went to high.

While these are fun (I like them even though I don't collect them), they have a marginally higher actual selling price than normal unaddressed first day covers. The wholesale value of both normal unaddressed FDCs and the "22kt" unaddressed FDCs are the same (5c-10c each in bulk quantities). Typical retail is 25c to $1 each, but it has been my observation that they actually don't sell as well as normal FDCs!

If you want some additional background/info...

https://goscf.com/t/6122

I have a couple of these covers as well, nice to look at but not much else. Although I must admit I do take a fancy to the Glassware one that ILS has shared with us.

This is a more realistic ebay listing. With less than 4 hours to go, the auction is up to a price that is roughly 74 cents apiece for the 75 covers in the collection ... but then you also have to pay $14 to ship it:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/75-22kt-Gol...t_2204wt_883