Letter to the Editor
Skipper53
Posts: 723
I just sent a letter to the editor of Coin World.
Great publication but I noticed they sell advertising space
to dealers who misrepresent their coins.
Coin World's Advertising Policy For Uncirculated Coins states,
" Any coin advertised as "Gem Brilliant Uncirculated" must meet
MS-63 standards."
When I first started collecting a couple years ago, I bought all my
coins from ( can I name names ?) Coast to Coast. All coins were
advertised as Gem BU. When I had them graded the most expensive
came back AU-55, and another was bodybagged for cleaning.
I told the Editor that it seems this is a blatent violation of their rules.
Could it be that a dealer's ability to pay for two or three pages of ads
makes it possible for them to circumvent the paper's rules ?
Making money on newcomers to collecting gives dealers like this the
means to continue their dishonest trade.
I'm curious what response I'll get from Coin World, if any.
Skipper
Great publication but I noticed they sell advertising space
to dealers who misrepresent their coins.
Coin World's Advertising Policy For Uncirculated Coins states,
" Any coin advertised as "Gem Brilliant Uncirculated" must meet
MS-63 standards."
When I first started collecting a couple years ago, I bought all my
coins from ( can I name names ?) Coast to Coast. All coins were
advertised as Gem BU. When I had them graded the most expensive
came back AU-55, and another was bodybagged for cleaning.
I told the Editor that it seems this is a blatent violation of their rules.
Could it be that a dealer's ability to pay for two or three pages of ads
makes it possible for them to circumvent the paper's rules ?
Making money on newcomers to collecting gives dealers like this the
means to continue their dishonest trade.
I'm curious what response I'll get from Coin World, if any.
Skipper
0
Comments
Sadly, I have learned that there is a group of long time dealers who call the shots at many levels and no doubt can justify their actions for the good of numismatics (at least in their own minds).
Remember ACG advertises in CW, shouldn't that make it pretty clear about what rules and what drools?
John Marnard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1920, page 235ff
Maybe the next grading test Coin World does shouldn't be on the grading services, but instead on their advertisers.
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
Economically, it's less expensive to loose a few hundrerd/thousands paying subscribers, than to lose a client like Coast-To-Coast. Every issue they run a minimum of a 2 page spread and in a very good position (Page-Wise & more expensive) in CW.
I'm not defending Coast-To-Coast and/or CW, but pointing out the economic reality of the publishing business. Go to CW's web site and I'm sure you'll find their Ad Rates, multiply the 2 page Rate times 52 @ say 80% for the multiple issue rate discount & it will come clear very quickly why your letter will never get off the Editor's Desk.
sometimes I fall into the "buy the slab" trap. I'm gun-shy that
the raw material is going to end up burning me later. The most
expensive raw coin I ever bought was from Heritage (MS61 1872
Seated Dollar) PCGS graded it AU58. I can accept a variation
inside the uncirculated grades, but to drop to an AU was a shocker.
David
What really annoy me is so many dealers pretend to not know they overgrade. I am not in the business and spend maybe 7 hrs/week looking at coins. If someone does it 40hrs/week I should hope they can grade better than me.
CW lost me way back then and I have not resubscribed despite an offer for a free 12 week subscription. Ever wonder why CW readership has headed south for so many years? You can fool some of the people some of the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
Dealers like C to C can only make money buy preying on newbies. CW makes it easier for them since there is no feedback system like ebay.