Copper Ingot, $1 Million Note, and Marketing

I recently ordered a one-ounce copper ingot from Noteworthy Collectibles, which resulted in a background story about the event, online here, with images.

 

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Cool story, This is a first for me on the copper ingot as well, Very nice

 

This sounds more like your 'background story' is a huge amount of marketing for that company.

I am very curious how $14.95 for an ounce of copper is the right price? On what planet? For instance, you can buy an 1 oz. round from Provident Metals for $2.29 as of this writing. What was that $14.95? The price with the total shipping and exchange rates, commissions, surcharges, etc.? Or was it the unit price for the ingot alone? I don't dispute the validity of copper as bullion for investment, though I do question some small investors who buy it for that purpose. I also don't see many collectors or investors easily swayed by some novelty paper currency either. Most people buying physical are fleeing fiat paper currencies and this company is promoting themselves to the buyers of physical bullion with paper currency marketing schemes.

Give me a break.

If you are in the U.S. and want copper bullion, you can buy it a LOT cheaper without all the bull.

 

Ouch.

Well:
* I am aware of other, less expensive copper bar, ingot, etc. sources
* The item I purchased is noted on the website as a collectible, also referenced as such in my post
* Noteworthy does not, as far as I can tell, sell any other 'bullion' product
* The 'banknote' is obviously not paper currency, and is not unique to Noteworthy
* My point about the note was its marketing value, not its intrinsic value or lack thereof
* After a couple of recent questionable dealer experiences, yeah, I liked how they handled this tiny sale
* To repeat, I have no financial interest in Noteworthy Collectibles

If the post was misleading that's my fault, not Noteworthy's. It is, after all, just a blog post.

One man's bull is another man's fertilizer.

Thanks for reading.

 

Precisely what I thought when I saw how much you paid for an ounce of copper. Hence my review of your blog post.

If you were aware of less expensive sources for this item, then why ever elect to pay so much more? There are other reputable sources who DO not price gouge like your Noteworthy has done to you. That's an equal disservice to the customer as are the other problems you cited experiencing from other dealers' customer service practices.

And can you please break down that $14.95 price. Is that the unit price of the ingot or inclusive of shipping, etc.?

You can call anything known to man a collectible. Not much to support your argument for buying from this company. You sound more like an uninformed consumer willing to hand over your money for 'customer service' easily impressed by some novelty trinkets tossed in with your order.

Again, not really supporting the reasoning for buying from this company. At such a huge increase and that they don't deal extensively in this product, this should have been a red flag for NOT buying from them.

And therefore superfluous to the sale. Even unrelated and distracting to the nature of what you are paying for.

My point about the note was what it represents and that it was an ill-conceived piece of marketing selected by the company. Selling bullion then giving you an insert ad in the form of a hyperinflation note is misdirected, especially since they are gouging you on the value of the product you are buying from them and NOT helping you preserve your wealth in the form of bullion like most buyers seek to do. The spectre of hyperinflation is what drives many to physical bullion. Passing out such a note is either a scare tactic to get people to buy more physical bullion, potentially from Noteworthy, or a good joke they are making on their uninformed customers who buy these overpriced collectible copper bullion ingots.

Of course they are going to kiss your rear end with overwhelming customer service, especially while you are shoveling money into their pockets for something they are making a few hundred percent profit on! If you had looked around or even inquired in CT threads about which bullion dealers people prefer to deal with, you will find others far less overpriced, who deliver more market accurately priced products, which you can call *collectible* and who provide consistently good customer service.

Nor should you... not having just been fleeced on this item, but that could be said to be more your problem than Noteworthy's, since you didn't shop around and decided to go with them.

Yes, just a blog post and not a very well researched one at that, yet one that serves to paint this company in a positive light without delving into specific comparisons to other products vs. other companies customer service issues. I'm really puzzled why you'd promote the company without being informed about what you are buying and comparing this company to.

Plus your bull got slaughtered, financially and journalistically.

You are very welcome.

 

This has got to be a joke - surely, nobody would willingly pay that much (plus that much again for shipping) for an ounce of copper.

 

This area can be quite confusing and difficult for someone new in metals to understand. By old usage, "bullion" has been used with such base metals as aluminum and antimony ( for example) due to their rarity and difficulty to purify, but in modern usage it does not apply to such, and those including copper are considered base metals and not precious metals. Base metals are a commodity such as cocoa, coffee, wheat, oil are considered.

So discussion of any non precious metals or other commodities ( other than comparative studies to PM), should not be on CT, except as related to coinage, such as saving 95% copper cents.

Copper is traded and priced in avoirdupois ounces and pounds rather than troy ounces and pounds as are PM. Some on Ebay are selling copper "bullion" , advertised as a pound which should be avoir. (16 ounces) rather than 12 troy ounces as if it was silver. If a person doesn't know the difference, it compounds the error. Copper is currently about $3.725 per avoir. pound.

 

This is how Provident Metals sells their copper offerings in 1 oz and smaller fractional sized AVDP ounce .999 fine copper.

 

I surrender.

I obviously did not write my post well enough to convey my intent. To those offended by my apparent profligacy and/ or inexperience, I apologize.

desertgem, I didn't realize I was crossing the line on post content and will not, to the best of my knowledge, do so again. Delete this thread if you so desire.

 

I don't see the need to delete. I will close it though. Sometimes it is a judgment call as to the intentions of the posters so I do get it wrong some times.

Jim

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