I received an email that claims to be from National Analysts Worldwide , saying they are doing the survey on behalf of the US mint. The email says. "As a customer of the United States Mint, we would like to invite you to share your insights on potential new U.S. Mint products for 2014 by taking a brief survey. The United States Mint, Department of the Treasury, has commissioned National Analysts Worldwide, an opinion research company in Philadelphia, to conduct a survey about a variety of potential new products the U.S. Mint is considering for 2014." is this a legit survey or a hacker scam?
Very much legit. I have completed two surveys online in the last two years. I am happy that the U.S. Mint would solicit my opinions. I buy a lot of their "stuff." I seem to like their "stuff," too!
It took a long time, or seemed like it. How likely are you to buy product x? Very unlikely. Then the next page, How many of product x do you plan to buy? Zero! The stuff about the Kennedy set was interesting though.
Something along the lines about a 50th Anniversary Kennedy Half Dollar struck .999 Proof Gold, which they said would be around $1100-$1300. What caught my attention was, they asked if i would be "more interested" in products struck in .999 Silver rather just .9. Of course i said yes. And other questions about ASE's, Gold Buffalo's, 5oz ABT pucks, AGE's ect..
I always answer the opposite of what I really want. Helps keep the mintages lower. If we all do that we might create a "winner".
I think that the surveys have some impact on the mint. I was quite upset when they use to require a signature on deliveries of the pucks. I'm rarely home and it was hard for me to get the pucks with a required signature. I complained to a survey and they now deliver without signature. It could be just plain luck but I'll give them credit for listening to the working man.
I've done a couple too and almost got invited to an in person survey but did not qualify as I was not purchasing gold coins at the time of the survey.
They also do focus groups. I was in one about 18 months ago - paid us $150 for 90 min of our time to provide feedback on what kind of products we were interested in and what kind of emails and mailings would be more appealing.