Here's something that has always interested me. I call CoinTalk my home and I haven't seen a thread on this since joining in February. Who has been involved with "Coin Approval" services before? Personally, I started collecting coins in about 1970 up to 1983. This was in SUPER rural Minnesota. Back then, the only way for a boy like me to collect coins was through the "approval services". I bought most of my coins through the Littleton Coin and Stamp Company. I guess I was on the "foreign coin" list, because everything was from Jamaica or the Ukraine or whatever and I didn't know that you could change it - being all of 12 years old. When I restarted collecting a couple of years ago, I re-discovered all these old coins I had bought in the 70's. SURPRISINGLY many had gone up significantly in value. In fact, I have sold about half of them on e-bay for 10-20 times what I paid (and don't forget that Littleton marked them up for me!!). I really don't remember the exact coins, but the ones that stick out were several series of "WON" coins from Korea. They were all in UNC. I actually sold them to someone in Korea on e-bay - I thought it was funny that he was buying my 1974 littleton coin purchase and I now had to send it BACK to Korea. Of course, there are some that are worth less or nothing. I also bought stamps back then and they're all worth basically nothing. SO, what are your experiences with Coin Approval Services? I don't know what the rules of the board are, but it's probably best to just make comments and not mention any company in your post (especially if you're going to bash them). I know that I mention Littleton in my post, but I think they were pretty much the ONLY one out there then - at least the only big one. I guess the purpose of this thread is to get the goods and bads of approval services and it is NOT to bash any bad ones that may be out there. That is for another thread.
I have had HORRIBLE experiances with littleton (yes, experiances is plural). So i stay away from approval services now.
The only way "approval service" outfits can make enough money to cover the coins they send out and never see again without getting payment, is to seriously mark up the prices to be paid by the people who don't rip them off. Not a good source in my opinion.
Littleton is very big on the approval business. They typically offer something that is a genuinely good deal as a loss leader to get people to sign up. To be fair to Littleton, they are very gracious about cancelling a program (even though you keep the loss leader) and even include an envelope in which to return items. However, their prices are 50% to 100% above market prices. One of the approval items I received was an uncirculated ASE coin worth about $15. They wanted $27 for me to keep it. Even if all the coins you bought have increased in value in 20 years, they would have increased more if you had originally bought them on the open market. I also would want more control over what I buy. When you go the approval route, you get whatever they send you.
I would personally discourage anyone from buying coins "on approval" exactly for the reasons mentioned above. The markup on the coins is astronomical and you dont get a choice of year/mintmark of any certain series. This is a bad route to go. I would suggest to any collector to save your money and go to either your local coin shop or to any local coin show. I joined the silver dollar club through Littleton and recieved absolutely no silver dollars in the first two shipments of coins, just overpriced dimes and nickels. This was years ago but I'm sure its the same way now.
Yes, Korean and Russian coins are in crazy demand for UNC coins. And yes, I just had to be one of them trying to collect such coins.
I use to have stamps on aproval for years until my dealer passed away, I had such trust in him & he allways knew what to send me, his prices were extreemly good I just coudnt ask for a better guy that after his passing I just coudnt bring myself to deal with anyone else Never tried it with coins, I honestly dont know of anyone who does it over here in the UK
Never heard anything good about Littleton including thier albums that fall apart. I feel sorry for people that get taken by places like that.
