The original coins released are holding $37.89 at the current rate. I suspect in time they will surpass their sale price of ~$100, but more importantly it demonstrates an incredibly unique and innovative concept that continues to operate successfully today.
With the recent Bitcoin price run, the original minted seats purchased in this thread are now holding $114.09 in BTC with another $3.13 pending distribution. This $117.22 in BTC marks these coins having a positive ROI in real dollar terms after only 7 years and is a great sign of things to come.
newly bought seats start at zero - correct?
All minted seats are engraved after they are ordered, so you are correct to assume that any Minted Seat purchased from the shop for $95 will not contain $117.22 (more now) in BTC. It is great that the original seats here were able to more than ROI in 7 years, but that return isn't promised going forward. While this is an amazing proof of concept on an innovative idea, I don't believe people should be purchasing these purely with ROI in mind. If that was the goal, purchasing online digital seats from nastyfans.org would get you a much faster ROI, as the cost of an online seat is currently around 20% the cost of a Minted Seat as a result of not needing 1oz of silver, a custom generated vanity address, assembly with a custom hologram, a donation to NastyFans, or precious metal engraving services.
The balances weren't much, but the coins still look gorgeous!
