Out of curiosity I visited their site. I've been told they were high price, but I did not know they were outrageous! $75 for a common, VF morgan dollar. $9 for a 2003 $2 bill. The same kind you can get from your bank for.....you guessed it, $2! $50 for a worn two-cent piece. Same coin is $19 in red book. $24 for a regular 1964 silver quarter. $40 for a heavily worn walking liberty half.
Their prices are for sure bloated! I got some unexpected coins for christmas from my father this year. I asked him where he purchased them & he said online threw Littleton. I cringed internally after hearing that, but was still touched by his attempt to surprise me. He is not all that familar with coins & to a unknowledgeable person Littleton probably seems like a wonderful company to do business with. Decent website, long history, big inventory, etc. Luckily the coins he purchased for me were nothing too fancy. Its only after some experience with coins that a person realizes how truely ovepriced Littleton coins really are...
I hate littleton a lot they think people are dumb and will actually pay that. They need to be banned from the coin market !!!:devil:
They are kind of the opposite of Apmex. Where Apmex came into existence with a desire to not just make money, but just as importantly to serve the investor and collector, Littleton pretty much defeats the purpose of people trying to enjoy what they collect or invest in with precious metals and collectibles, like a lot of coin dealers with huge spreads. But they employ a lot of people in their Littleton, NH plant. Look at their ads with David Sundman and his cohorts smiling from ear to ear! Well, they give generously to ANA activities and so forth. But if you sent your collection to them they would probably cherry pick the nice ones at their prices and send the rest back to you, that is the experience of most collectors. "We wouldn't call this 1916-D dime an AU, at best it's a VF35". That is the strategy, buy at low grade prices, sell at the highest possible retail price. Heck, they even buy gold eagles at 30% back of spot, last I checked! And the reasoning is it's a free country, all contracts are good as long as the two parties agree, even when one party gets royally screwed. In my book if a fully knowledgeable party is doing business with an uneducated person, it is up to the former to disclose their extortionate terms.
Here is an example where they did the right thing and got a lot of mileage out of it: http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=94885&page=1
Littleton has introduced a lot of people to the hobby. I got my first coins from them through an ad in a magazine then got hooked. Never bought from them since.
If they continue to send you coins on approval after you have requested that they cease and desist from doing so, just keep the coins as their gift to you. After a few shipments without getting paid, they'll catch on and stop shipping to you.
I didn't hear of that. If they want to send me gold coins without a contract obligating me to return them if unsatisfied, that would be a first for a company like that.
That coin ad that introduced you to this hobby was an expensive piece of advertising. Something unaffordable to dealers who sell closer to the bone. I have posted about Littleton before, and people think I work for them or something. The point is, Littleton and tv sellers are REAL retail. They reach out to non-collectors and inttroduce coins to them. This way of reaching out is EXPENSIVE, and someone has to pay the costs. Its like any other product on tv, if you knwo where to buy it wholesale you would NEVER buy from them, but someone who does not know how to buy wholesale pays the price. Like Copperhead correctly points out, lots of people are collectors today because of them. Do I wish collectors to buy many coins from them? No, same as with tv shows. However, their prices are the real retail. Prices we consider retail from dealers are really more a wholesale price for people who know what they are doing. I liken it to buying a snickers from a small convenience store in your neighborhood versus driving across town to a Costco.
Littleton's money comes from sending out coins on approval to suckers, er I mean collectors. It's always the small print hook on all their offers in various publications. If you return their approval coins, telling them you do not wish any further approvals, then any future shipments from them are unrequested merchandise and yours to keep for free (as per USPS regulations). That regulation was adopted about 40 or 50 years ago to keep merchandisers from sending junk to unwitting individuals and expecting them to pay for it. Believe me, long before Littleton gets to the point of sending anything valuable, they will have long established a solid business relationship with the recipient.
When I am bidding for coins on eBay, I always check Littleton's price for the same coin, and if the eBay price is half of Littleton's I know it's a fair price.
On the other hand.....in a separate thread a poster pointed out how the 2011 half-dollar commemorative army coin had taken off in value and was now above $50 on e-bay and another posted how it was still selling for $31.50 on Littletoin. I took this as a sign that I should order it from Littleton and just did so. The way I got back into Littleton was ordering three ASE's for $45 a few years ago. I haven't ordered anything since until now. If you want one of the army Commems, they are available.
They have bought some pretty huge collections. I spoke with a lady who runs an antique shop the other day in Bethlehem and she said her family got a huge collection from their mother and it was "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" with each kid selecting a coin. They went to Littleton with the inherited coins, kept a few for mementos. Too bad. They left a lot of money on the table by selling to the biggest advertiser.
Let me start by saying I am not a current Littleton customer. But, I am just wondering since when is it illegal to ask whatever price you want for a coin. I am not personally attacking anyone here. But, I have bought coins from other on-line dealers that knowingly misrepresent buffed, whizzed, and polished coins as uncirculated. This is fairly unlikely through Littleton. It seems they are doing something right. They've been in business for over fifty years! I have to admit, the on approval service is not my cup of tea. But again, it is stated in the ad when you make that initial order.
You know, Littleton isn't as bad as people say and they certainly aren't the worst out there. Yes, their prices are very high and with a little searching you can find an equal coin for much less money. I agree with that. However, I have never seen a coin from them that is over graded or a problem coin that is being sold as a good coin. They are over priced...but they don't lie and cheat people. As for the price, I said this today in another thread...all the information about coin values is readily available and easy to find online and in books. This information should be used by buyers to make informed purchases. With all this information available, one only has themselves to blame if for buying a coin for more than it's worth...especially if it's properly graded (which from what I have seen their coins are).
