Got an e-mail from NGC touting their version of Vault Box called "Rip a pack". I guess you choose a tier ($159, $500, etc) and pay for it, then rip open a virtual pack to discover the coin therein. Kind of strange, but at least they post the percentage odds of getting a premium coin. Must be a lot of gamblers out there amongst us collectors.
I have not done eBay live for a long time, but I was bored and browsed them for a few minutes. I was surprised by how many live streams are doing the pack thing, too. I did the Vault box once and will not do it again. Too expensive and not worth me trying to play around with. My budget is limited and I don't like paying high for cheap mystery prizes.
The whole vault box thing is dumb AF. The NGX thing is just downright stupid, trying to reinvent the Sheldon grading system. The Vault Box thing is even dumber, like gambling on a roll of "alleged" uncirculated coin rolls never rerolled from 60 years ago, let's just go with the enders.
When I took business law in college in 1970, this sort of thing would have been illegal because it's a lottery. How times have changed! I think that this is a very foolish purchase.
An annuity is a horrible "investment". You pay the highest commissions out there, because annuity sellers understand this and need to compensate people who do sell them. Is it better than no investment practices at all? Yes. But it's a ripoff, and outgained by any other indices and for people who neither understand finances or the power of compound interest or rising values of equity funds.
If you invested $30 a week for 30 years, you would become a millionaire given a reasonable rate of return, like 8% per year. I’d have figured that one out to get the exact required amount.
~$30/week, $130/month, compounded monthly, earning a steady 8% interest for 30 years, would give you... just under $200K. Source: https://www.investor.gov/financial-tools-calculators/calculators/compound-interest-calculator Compound interest is great, but if you want to become a millionaire at $30/week, you'll need to average between 15% and 16% returns. And if you can do that consistently over 30 years, lots of wealthy people will pay you a lot more than $30/week to do it with their money.
Agreed, some spend their money like that but it wouldn't be me, I like to see exactly what I'm paying for. If I want to gamble, there's always the casino!
Kids now a days look at that and say is that all. It took some work but I finally got 1 nephew to invest about 1/3 of his savings. In 6 months that 1/3 of his savings has earned him more than the other 2/3s will for all 12 months. Now if I can just get him to automatic deposits of any amount will be a start. I like to gamble at casinos, but not with things like this - I don't know why. Prior to retiring I used to say - buy a $200 coin invest $200, got to a casino and lose $100 now I have to invest $100. If I win this one current auction this will be the first time in 20 years I take money out of my account for myself to buy a coin.
