Saw a TV commercial today for "Gold Plated Tribute" to the $50 buffalo coin - Plated with 14milligrams of gold (~72¢ worth at current prices) for the special price of $5.95! I was too far from the screen to read the seller's name, and of course no mention of how much for S/H, but c'mon guys - are there really enough stupidos out there to cover the cost of the advertising?
You have to understand manufacturing costs account for the price too. $5.95 does sound steep, but you must understand. The company that advertises them has employees. Each one has to be paid. Taking orders, shipping orders, etc. The ad itself probably cost money too. If it ran during prime time, a substantial amount. I think the last time I checked, it was $20,000 a second. Then the cost of the coin itself. The coin had to be minted from metal, probably brass or copper, they probably contracted the minting out, which costs a bit of money. Either they, the mint, or another place electroplated the coin. It would be the same effect of seeing an ad for a silver round, and going "why are they asking $34.95, there is only $26.54 worth of silver in it". There are all kinds of costs that have to be added to the product, besides the manufacturing cost alone.
It's sad, really. They have been constantly advertising it on the kid's weekly saturday morning cartoons (Channel 5) channel...and selling it for 9.95! Saying they have limited quantities so "call quickly"...yeah right.
I love it when those ads say "call within the next 10 minutes". They have NO idea when those commercials will air. You can call any time of day and still get the special.
I've rarely seen someone miss a point so drastically. As the other posters recognized, I was criticizing the concept of marketing a "tribute" coin with plating so thin that it is almost certain to start peeling if it is handled at all, at any price, not the price per se. If you had read my entire post you would have noted the reference to advertising cost.
If properly bonded to the base metal, gold or silver plating should never peel, but instead wear down to the base metal. Besides gold plating, there is gold wash, which is a process that covers the base metal only about .2 microns thick. Regardless, it's meant as a display piece. It's mean to be in a protective holder, and looked at, not handled around. It doesn't really take much gold to plate things. Heavier plating results in higher prices. Here is a set of gold plated silver ware for 80 dollars. http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/14-kt.-Goldplated-Flatware-Set/29209/product.html Now, silverware is something meant to be handled, its jostled around in the dishwasher, stabbed into food, etc. So it's plating must be very thick and durable. Not only that, but a lower gold content must be used, because high purity gold is very soft. A gram of 14kt gold is $29 It probably did not even take a gram of 14kt gold to plate that entire set. It just goes to show you how little gold it takes to plate an item.
Oh my best guess is that dear Hontonai has been following them. He's rather selective to where he responds and when dear 'Tim' responded here in this (Hontonai's thread) he came down like a hammer.......
but guys....it's 14 milligrams! They played that commercial OUT on the science channel over the last few months. He just sounds so excited to say "fourteen milligrams!". You can only get 2 per household so I couldn't buy 2 or 3 hundred like I had planned.
In the commercial, they do a close up of the real Buffalo, showing the W mint mark. They show it for a good 5 seconds, then switch to theirs from further away lol.
From the folks who brought you the $5 gold indian tribute and the 1933 St. Gaudens tribute proof - collect them all!:yes:
Actually they do, most who purchase ads can pick the time slots they want because they also purchase how often it is shown, so they usually do know when they're airing. But one thing for sure is, their "Special" is 24/7 more than likely. Marketing terms and gimmicks to get gullible people to call right away is all the commercial is adding to the advertisement.
These ads run in Canada as well since we have access to U.S. tv stations. They run day and night for almost a full year on almost all the channels which gives you a pretty good indication of the amount of money they're making. Last year or so, it was the Sept. 11, gold foil banknote. I got sick of seeing it at every commercial break.
