Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 21152, member: 57463&quot;]In the thread &quot;Searching for the Bargain&quot; National Dealer complained of mass-market sellers charging 400% over retail.&nbsp; Cable-TV and Sunday Supplements are the usual venues for this.&nbsp; In a coin store I saw a real heart-breaker.&nbsp; It was a series of 19th and 20th century US Type coins mounted under prints of Norman Rockwell paintings.&nbsp; It was an interesting&nbsp; concept, but one you could do yourself better for less.&nbsp; Buy the Rockwell print, have it framed, and buy the coins according to your best judgment.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>And yet...</p><p><br /></p><p>Collectors do not always keep good books on the time and effort behind those great deals.&nbsp; I often advise that collectors not waste their money on impulsive buys of mediocre coins online when they can save their money and go to a major coin convention.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;But travel... hotels.. food... It is all too expensive!&quot; comes the reply.&nbsp; My counter-argument is that you will waste that much on junk you cannot sell for anywhere near what you paid for it.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>A typical example is the collector who drives 30 minutes to the coin store, spends three hours looking at Indianhead Cents, and buys an XF with a rimnick at VF money and thinks they got a bargain before driving home 30 minutes. The time invested is not to be ignored.&nbsp; If you take your usual wage and apply to FOUR HOURS going to the coin store, you see that conventions make sense.&nbsp; Furthermore, that damaged XF will not sell for XF money when you offer it to a dealer.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>When you actually do the brutal accounting, the collector above is in the same position as the shop-at-home buyer, clicking the cable remote and buying &quot;the coins your family will treasure for generations to come!&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>For many people -- millions, perhaps -- the shop-at-home alternatives on TV and in print, are a way to avoid the cost, the burden, the time, of reading, studying, joining the ANA, taking the seminar classes, etc., etc., etc.&nbsp; It is unfair to denigrate them in orde to puff up ourselves.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in