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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Hobo, post: 390025, member: 11521&quot;]Yeah, but they like me. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The ANA is the voice for coin collectors on matters that affect them (the collectors). This may be a bad example and I man be inaccurate but it&#039;s all I can think of in my sleep-deprived state. Suppose a state proposes legislation that states all coin dealers must be licensed in their state and all coin sales are subject to sales tax. This could be a death knell for coin shows in that state if out-of-state dealers have to obtain a business license and collect sales taxes and file reports just for one show. The ANA would work to kill the bill because it hurts the hobby. Who else would do that? I don&#039;t think CoinTalk does anything like this. Sure, collectors who &quot;find each other&quot; on the Internet will discuss it and complain and talk about what should and should not be done but in the end the only thing they will do is talk. The ANA DOES things. And not just for themselves but for the HOBBY (which, by the way, includes non-members). </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The ANA has a Consumer Protection program that tries to protect everyone - not just members - from coin scams and the like. They have the Coins In The Classroom program where they introduce kids to coin collecting in school. I don&#039;t think CoinTalk (no offense) or any other coin collecting message board is doing any of this. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Ben, no offense to you but I think your expectations of what the ANA should provide are a bit high. The ANA is a member organization. Their purpose is not to provide authentication or grading services. (They used to do that with their ANACS division but they sold that long ago.) What they DO do is to provide you with access to information where you can gain the knowledge and skills you need to authenticate and grade coins yourself. As a member you can buy books at a discount, you can check out books from their extensive numismatic library for free, you can take correspondence courses, you can attend mini-seminars at ANA coin shows, you can attend the ANA Summer Seminar, and much more. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The ANA has a staff of about 30 (for a membership of around 32,000). If they opened an office in every state how many employees would they need to staff each satellite office? I don&#039;t know but they would need at least two and probably more than that. Let&#039;s go with 3. So to open 49 satellite offices they would have to hire 147 more empolyees. Now they are up to 177 employees. The rent and overhead on 49 satellite offices would be tremendous. I don&#039;t think this is a good idea from a cost-benefit standpoint. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I really need to go to bed now.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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