Best Of

@MFezziwig said:
Hi Folks, new member here checking in. I just wanted to report to all that I was able to place an order for the 2024 Flowing Hair gold via the US mint website on January 1st. I was able to get the coin to "add to bag" about one week ago, and I had been dutifully logging in each morning at 07:30 EST, hitting "refresh" every 30 seconds or so. I was astonished when I was able to complete check out and got my order confirmation yesterday. For those that have been tracking the order numbers , mine is in the USM15009XXX range. My order is still showing as "processing" today, and I will keep you posted once I get a shipping confirmation. So there may still be hope for others , just keep trying. Please forgive the weird default avatar that was assigned to me (I did not pick that) I will change that as soon as I can. Happy New Year to all.

Mark

Now that is quite the first post, and yes, quite astonishing to say the least!!!!

Welcome aboard, Mark!!!!

Man, where did this troll come from!!

@PeakRarities said: I think we can give them a pass here on this one, in light of the bad faith premise of the OP.

Actually, it is you who should get a "pass" based on the fact of your relative newness to the forum. Let me explain.

In the past, maybe prior to 2015, when someone new showed up they were given a bit of deference. I can't recall the time, maybe prior to 2008-2010, a new member came asking questions about stuff he had inherited. The collection unfolded before us and went for weeks, several pages, as members actually talked to him and helped him figure out what he had. It was a splendid example of Hobby good will. It was also pretty much the norm back then. I remember my welcome.

Things have since changed.

Certainly you are correct, the forum got "played" in this instance but the guys at the top of the thread took the bait they couldn't resist. Both are knowledgeable and instead of actually looking at the coin decided to be gruff. I don't know when that tone changed here, but it has. As a whole we are now less likely to give the benefit of the doubt. Maybe everyone is burned out on all the "parking lot finds" and other stuff. I can say this much for myself, I enjoyed the tone from earlier days and you might think of threads that wonder why some on the luminaries who used to hang their hats here don't want to come back.

This one is funny, though. Stay safe.

Maybe you could have deliberated a bit more and thought about how you delivered that. After all, it is how you deliver it.

I have been here many years as a frequent visitor and infrequent poster. My experience over 15 or so years is that there is a wealth of valuable information here. There are many experts in the field who freely share their knowledge. Lurking here, while posting infrequently, has taught me a lot.

I’m sorry that you came in suspicious of a group of extremely knowledgeable people and were not able to realize how wonderful this resource is. Had you followed your own advice - More respectful replies it’s how you deliver it - perhaps you could have benefitted from this community. Unfortunately that is your loss, not anyone else”s.

@Fordee4 said:
Well, folks, I ran an experiment, and this forum failed miserably. I posted a fake picture of a real eBay listing of a rare 1909 cent selling for around $59,000 to test whether anyone here would give accurate information on its rarity and value. Instead of offering real insight, every comment downplayed the coin’s significance, claiming it wasn’t rare or valuable.

What’s worse is that some of you clearly knew better. The so-called “investigators” here figured out the coin’s rarity but chose to stay silent or give vague, dismissive responses. Why? To avoid giving someone else credit for a valuable find? To downplay someone else’s success? It’s clear this forum isn’t about helping others learn — it’s about protecting egos and gatekeeping information.

I came here to see if anyone would give honest, accurate feedback on a well-documented rare coin, and instead, I was met with fake advice and outright misinformation. The fact that I had to fake a listing just to see if anyone here actually knew what they were talking about is proof enough that this forum is unreliable.

If you’re looking for genuine advice or honest guidance, this is not the place. It’s a community that thrives on downplaying others and withholding the truth. The moment I posted proof of the coin’s actual value, the silence and dismissiveness spoke volumes. This place is a joke — nothing but a circle of people pretending to be experts while keeping others in the dark.

Congratulations, forum. You had the chance to be helpful, and instead, you proved you’re not trustworthy. I tested you, and you failed.

You sure reached a lot of very broad negative conclusions about this forum based on your experiment.

In addition to that, you’re wrong. Anyone who reads large numbers of threads here would know that.
But if you’d like to ignore the massive body of evidence that contradicts your assessments, that’s your prerogative. Enjoy whatever fruits you derived from your trickery.

"I kept imagining some worker wandering around a giant fulfillment warehouse saying "hey, do we still have one of these laying around here somewhere?"

It was that janitor that snuck into the "back room" where the "missing" 7500 coins are stashed lol...

Keep us posted, congratulations!

It’s Trolls like this that make it hard to help real newbies. I don’t mind being nice to newbies and helping them out without insulting them, but on this forum there have been multiple banned members who like to come back and pretend they are newbies trying to either prove a point or just to get attention. But if I have to figure out if the post is real and if it is a Troll, it makes me less likely to try and help.

I hadn’t read the post in question until I saw this one. I saw that a forum member responded that they recognized the coin and that they used to own it, so not sure what you accomplished other than showing you were a Troll. And now people will be even more suspicious of new posters and will be more likely to either ignore them or to give dismissive responses.

@Fordee4 said:
Well, folks, I ran an experiment, and this forum failed miserably. I posted a fake picture of a real eBay listing of a rare 1909 cent selling for around $59,000 to test whether anyone here would give accurate information on its rarity and value. Instead of offering real insight, every comment downplayed the coin’s significance, claiming it wasn’t rare or valuable.

What’s worse is that some of you clearly knew better. The so-called “investigators” here figured out the coin’s rarity but chose to stay silent or give vague, dismissive responses. Why? To avoid giving someone else credit for a valuable find? To downplay someone else’s success? It’s clear this forum isn’t about helping others learn — it’s about protecting egos and gatekeeping information.

I came here to see if anyone would give honest, accurate feedback on a well-documented rare coin, and instead, I was met with fake advice and outright misinformation. The fact that I had to fake a listing just to see if anyone here actually knew what they were talking about is proof enough that this forum is unreliable.

If you’re looking for genuine advice or honest guidance, this is not the place. It’s a community that thrives on downplaying others and withholding the truth. The moment I posted proof of the coin’s actual value, the silence and dismissiveness spoke volumes. This place is a joke — nothing but a circle of people pretending to be experts while keeping others in the dark.

Congratulations, forum. You had the chance to be helpful, and instead, you proved you’re not trustworthy. I tested you, and you failed.

Thank goodness the forum members failed your test. Does that mean you are going to leave and never come back playing silly games?