To alleviate high site traffic on product launch days, the United States Mint has announced a new virtual waiting room, Waitroom, for upcoming product launches. The Waitroom will premier on March 2, 2023, with the release of the 2023-W American Eagle silver proof.
Last year, the Mint publicly admitted to site slowdowns and failed transactions, largely to automated bots on the site.
The concept is simple: If you are on the Mint’s site prior to a product launch, which is always at Noon Eastern, you will be placed into the Waitroom, and you will be given a random position in line. Once sales start, those in the Waitroom will be allowed to go to the Product Catalog page on the Mint’s site and place their order. Those who arrive after the 12:00 PM sales start will be put at the back of the virtual queue in the order they arrived.
Here is the full release and details from the Mint:
We are excited to announce the addition of a new virtual waiting room (Waitroom) to our catalog website. The Waitroom will ensure the best possible user experience when we release our most popular products. We will deploy the Waitroom whenever we expect site traffic to exceed its capacity so that the site can effectively take and process orders. If you have ever purchased high-demand concert tickets or a highly anticipated video game console, then you have probably experienced a virtual waiting room.
The Waitroom will premiere on March 2nd with the release of the 2023 American Eagle One Ounce Silver Proof Coin (W) and the 2023 Congratulations Set.
Here is what to Expect:
1. These products will release at 12:00 PM ET.
2. Just before the release, all customers on the site will be moved into the Waitroom and assigned a random position in line. Each visitor on the site at that time will have an equal chance of being either first or last in line.
3. At 12:00 PM ET, the Waitroom will begin letting site visitors onto the catalog website as quickly as possible while simultaneously ensuring the site’s traffic does not exceed capacity.
4. Customers who arrive on the site after the 12:00 PM ET release time will be added to the end of the line in the order in which they arrived.
5. The Waitroom will remain active until site traffic returns to normal levels.
Important Tips:
It does not benefit you to “camp out” on the site by arriving hours early on a release day.
Regardless of the time your session started, everyone on the site just prior to the 12:00 PM ET release will be given equal treatment by receiving a randomly generated position in line.
Once you are in the Waitroom, you will be given an estimated wait time based on your position in line.
Do not refresh the Waitroom page or close your browser. If you do, your session will refresh, causing you to re-enter the Waitroom at the back of the line.
Complete your transaction as quickly as possible.
To prevent inactive sessions from taking up places in line, we will limit customers’ time on the catalog site after exiting the waiting room. If you have not placed your items in your cart and started checking out within 10 minutes, you will be moved back to the Waitroom at the back of the line. Nearly all transactions on popular release days take less than five minutes.
Product availability is not guaranteed to customers who enter the waiting room.
To avoid the Waitroom entirely and ensure the continuity of your collection, we strongly suggest you subscribe to your favorite products in advance. Subscriptions for the 2023 American Eagle One Ounce Silver Proof Coin (W) will remain open through February 27, 2023, and subscriptions are available for many other products: