1944 - Walking Liberty Half - Deal or no deal?

I just saw this ad.

Even $19.95 is too much

 

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It’s worth the junk silver price. There are many of these available to collectors in Mint State. The date was saved by the roll.

 

I often sell to these companies and you’d be surprised what they pay.

 

Nothing wrong with getting a fair price selling to these companies.

The problem arises when said companies knowingly dupe unwitting neophytes. Is a WW2 era Walking Liberty worth $19.95? Yes, but not in the condition shown.

There are many companies who do this, in fact they depend on making their margins using this tactic, and I, for one, no longer associate with them.

 

I can sell my extras of WWII Walkers at $12.50 and I’d be happy with that price.

 

Part of the problem is that these companies have advertising costs plus an expectation for REASONABLE mark-up. Maybe after all of the advertising is paid for, this price is reasonable, BUT the buyers should know that this is not A DEAL. The chances of making a profit from this purchase in the long run depends upon the price of silver.

Someday there might be a small mark up because this piece is a Walking Liberty Half Dollar, not a Franklin or a Kennedy. I don’t think that day has come yet. When I was a dealer, the difference between the junk silver price and the value of common date Barber Half Dollars in Good or less was not very much. You used to see low grade Barber coins in junk silver lots.

 

NO DEAL!

 

Their "mark up" is meaningless, they care about their margin. That's the third line down on their Income Statement.

 

That, and I couldn't care less what their marketing costs are. I see all the insurance company ads on TV and think, oh, so that's what I'm paying for. With coins it's fishing for suckers and then the suckers paying you for the privilege of getting hooked. (Gosh I'm cynical)

 

That day HAS come, and is here.

 

This is probably about what they pay.

 

I felt that way too, but generally, the quality control is quite good at these companies. Littleton for example has REALLY high standards. The end buyer pays up, but they do get nice coins.

 

I know of an honest dealer who won’t ship to Littleton because their grading standards are to the point where it’s like cherry picking. I’ve never sold them. When I was a dealer, I got letters from them offering to buy Civil War Tokens at attractive prices, BUT if you had to send them AU tokens to get EF prices, that’s not cool.

 

I can sell at that price as I pay less.

 

Littleton coin can get you excited about the hobby, but once you feel you are out of the newbie status, you don't make them your primary dealer. It's simular to buying stamps from Mystic Stamps.

 

Are stamps even still collected? I have no idea if the USPS even issues anything other than forever stamps anymore. I've got a ton of neat stuff I collected as a teen, haven't looked at any of them in 30 years, they are in albums in boxes in the attic. I'd just give them to a young relative of mine, free of charge if I thought they'd care about them. But then again, I'd be afraid they were serious nerds if they really wanted them.

 

I wish I didn’t bring up Stamps. I sold my late father’s collection, and it was a painful experience. I learned from that experience that I didn’t want to collect stamps.

 

I know what you mean. I spent hours as a young teen collecting those, had some decent stuff too, some came from my grandfather who was a postmaster in a small town, gave me a pile of error stamps that might not should have gotten to the general public. My favorite ones were really old US ones and these lessor valuables were issued by Carribbean countries with bright but fantastic nature coastal scenes. It's a shame. Back in the late 60's and early 70's, stamp collecting was a real hobby.

 

That is contrary to my experience. Littleton was supposed to send me MS60 coins in 2015, and what arrived didn’t have wear but had way too many contact marks, scuffs and nicks. They barely qualified as MS60 and I concluded any further business with them.

 

When you order something in MS-60, that is pretty much all you can expect. I’ve found only a few older coins from the early 1800s and late 1700s which were pleasing in that grade because most of the coins you see from then are kind of or really ugly.