DON’T BUY COINS ON TELEVISION!
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Reading: DON’T BUY COINS ON TELEVISION!
Over the years, I have heard from many people regarding the problems with mailorder numismatics. Every few months, person writes and asks about the value of something they bought from a non-numismatic magazine or from something they saw on television .
My answers tend to be overturn because the market does not respect these items as the television hucksters do .
recently, I wrote about the know with person who brought in a box of coins he bought from television and magazines. I described his chemical reaction as “ The look on his face when I told him was as if I kicked his dog. ” then I was provided an exercise of why my words land very hard .
Sunday ’ s are my day off. even though I have personal exercise to catch up on, I will play sofa potato and watch television. This past Sunday, I entered the wrong number in the distant and landed on the Fox Business transmit .
On the weekend, when the markets are not receptive, the occupation channels broadcast other program. At this time, Fox Business was airing an infomercial for Coins television .
When I tuned in, the camera was panning a expose with grade american Silver Eagle coins. Of course, I stopped to stare at the glazed eloquent coins. then I heard the pitch .
The pitchman is Rick Tomaska, owner of Rare Collectibles TV. Tomaska seemed pleasant and appeared knowledgable. His sales talk was selling a date run of american Silver Eagle graded MS-69 by NGC for $ 1,995.00. It about seemed fair until it was made clear that the pitch was for a date run of 31 coins from 1986-2016 .
Is $ 1,995.00 a good bargain for the 31 coins ? My first instinct was to check the price guides. Since the on-line Greysheet does not include the retail price for grade bullion coins ( why ? ), I used two other guides : Numismedia Fair Market Value Price Guide and the price steer from NGC. Based on a class of MS-69, the guides provided the following information based on prices for the 1986-2016 34-coin adjust :
| Numismedia FMV 34 coins @ MS-69 |
NGC Price Guide 34 coins @ MS-69 |
RCTV Infomercial 31 coins @ MS-69 |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | $1,240.00 | $1,679.00 | $1,995.00 | Average | $40.00 | $54.16 | $64.35 |
But Numismedia and NGC are monetary value guides. Guides are not the retail prices a collector would pay. So we turn to the interwebs to search for “ date run American Silver Eagle coins. ” The search returned several entries on the first page that was not RCTV .
Taking the clear three entries from the search, only one dealer was sold out. The others offered a complete set of 34 coins, 1986-2019, graded MS-69 by NGC for well less than Tomaska ’ mho price. To be fair, where there was a deviation between the cash and citation prices, I used the recognition tease price, which is normally higher. then I searched eBay and sorted for the lowest price. The be is what I found :
| Company | Date Run | Coins in Set | Advertised Price | Shipping | Average per coin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RCTVcoins.com | 1986‑2016 | 31 | $1995.00 | $64.35 | |
| JM Bullion | 1986‑2019 | 34 | $1541.70 | $45.34 | |
| Mint Products.com | 1986‑2019 | 34 | $1399.99 | $41.18 | |
| eBay Seller constitutionclct | 1986‑2019 | 34 | $1299.00 | $14.95 | $38.65 |
For the eBay trader who was charging for transport, the cost per mint was the lowest evening after adding the shipping costs to the total price .
JM Bullion and Mint Products.com are reputable companies. Both firms are deserving considering if you do not feel comfortable making this purchase from an eBay seller. note that these companies will base the price of their bullion coins on the current position price of silver. Their retail prices may fluctuate.
When you buy from these television advertisements, you will overpay .
To help enforce the issue, the JM Bullion web site said that they would buy a complete date specify of american Silver Eagle bullion coins for $ 1,094.12 when I looked up the price. If you purchased the rig advertised on television, you would be LOSING $ 900 !
As separate of the pitch, if you ordered the jell, Tomaska would send a copy of the 4th edition of american Silver Eagle : A Guide to the U.S. Bullion Coin Program autographed by Miles Standish, the book ’ s co-author, who was portray with Tomaska .
What is sad is that Miles Standish joined Tomaska as function of this infomercial. Although standish did not assist Tomaska in his pitch for the determined, his presence is an appearance of authenticity. It is like to the appearance of by ANA President David Ganz on an infomercial. Neither endorsed the product that was being sold, but their presence was used to suggest otherwise .
I would not recommend buying coins or any collectible from a television receiver show. Every collectible I have seen being hawked on television receiver was 45-60 percentage over what might be considered sweeping value for its commercialize .
As a little business owner, I would be anserine to criticize person for making a profit. It ’ s the Ameican way. however, there is a deviation between making a profit and price gouge. It is why I am warning you against purchasing collectibles from a pitch on television .
All images are screen shots taken using an external television camera. Use of images are permitted and protected under the Fair Use Doctrine 17 U.S.Code §107 ) .
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