okay I want you to post a ad or a video of what you believe is a scam ... here are some guidelines it must be extremely over price or over amp the facts surrounding the coin must be false...p.o. you can post video or links
Any ad that exclaims... RARE!!!!!!.... I do not go any further. Biggest turn off I ever seen for a coin sale.
hype does not equal scam. Illegality does. High (even super high) prices do not equal scam. Illegality does. The fact that only a sucker would fall for a particular pitch does not equal scam. Illegality does.
Rare means nothing, but I don't think saying rare is a scam. Same as "sold out limited edition". Or in car world, the salesman tells you "this is the last one like this we have in the entire county!" Do you believe him? Is that a scam? I don't think so. Scam is when they try to sell you a modern replica as a genuine old coin, when they try to make you think the coin is something else than it is.
From The National Collector’s Mint in 2012, when describing their ‘tribute’ to the $50 Buffalo: “...gold plated with 14 milligrams of PURE 24 karat gold!!... for ONLY $9.95 (+S&H). Here’s a link to an article describing the ‘coin’: https://www.energyandcapital.com/amp/articles/beware-of-this-gold-coin-scam/2018 New, for 2018, they’ve moved away from “privately-struck” to... The Cook Islands! Now, from the National Collector’s Mint, you can get your own 37mm, .9999 pure 24 karat, 200 milligram, $5 gold coin - and it’s even LEGAL TENDER! Hurry!! Mintage is limited to the first 5,000 coins and each comes with its own Certificate of Authenticity. Act now, before they’re gone forever!! Once all coins are minted, the dies will be destroyed and this rare, stunning beauty will never be produced again! At the low, low price of $39.95, they won’t last long. Limit of 5 per household; no dealers, please. https://www.ispot.tv/ad/wmoA/national-collectors-mint-2018-gold-buffalo-tribute-proof-struck Quick math: For the $50 Buffalo tribute from 2012, you’d need to buy 2,222 ‘coins’, plated with 14 mg each of 24k pure gold to own 1 troy ounce of gold. Assuming they’d be kind enough to send all of them to you for free, you’d pay ONLY $22,108.90 for an ounce of gold - that no one would EVER want anyway, because the effort to separate 14 mg of gold from its substrate would far exceed the market price of the gold. However, they did become more generous this year. For 2018, we’d only need 156 coins to get to an ounce. At $39.95 ea (assuming free shipping and that you were able to talk them into waiving the 5 coin limit for you), you’d only pay $6232.20 for your ounce of gold. At roughly 5x spot, that at least brings them back down into the realm of ‘common thief’.
Call now. You can trust me, because I’m sitting in my wooden rocking chair on the deck of my log cabin with the American Flag waiving in the background.
Still, not a scam. They tell you exactly what you're getting. Not their fault you don't know what 200mg means, or that you're too lazy to click the left button 3 times to find out.
Thanks for initiating the thread! I’ve always wanted to do the math on the 1st one, but never quite found the motivation to do so at 3AM during the commercial break a few years ago. I’d never seen the 2018 ad until I searched for the plated Buffalo earlier today.
Technically, you are correct. There is nothing illegal (that I’m aware of anyway) with either piece. Deceptive? Yes. Unethical? Perhaps. Illegal? Probably not. For a true definition of a scam, use your favorite web search engine to look for “Chinese replicas of US coins”.
An act need not be illegal to meet the definition of the word "scam". There are undoubtedly many dishonest deceptions / tricks already out there, or yet to be devised for which no laws have yet been written to address.
I wish I could post the phone message I just played in my office. Most upbeat voice ever.... Please call me ASAP at Rich Man's Oil company.... Yeah, right.
That's a pretty sweeping statement. If someone offered a legitimately rare coin as rare - take an 1804 Dollar for one example - that is not a scam. At least not in my own mind.
I am aware of that. However in my limited internet shopping I tend to find the bold and punctuated version typically attached to a sale of a questionable parking lot, doubled, "insert your description here" type of nothing coin. Something us seasoned sorts would never remotely fall for, but something a new collector might shell out way too much for. People marketing legitimate rarities are a bit less colorful with their descriptions.
Here's a scam I keep seeing when doing my eBay searches. Do read the full description. The seller is quite spirited in selling what is basically a $10 coin slabbed for no good reason and marked up to $468. https://www.ebay.com/itm/273420608425