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Letter to the Editor

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

Comments

  • airplanenutairplanenut Posts: 21,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    What's the actual letter that you sent?
    JK Coin Photography - eBay Consignments | High Quality Photos | LOW Prices | 20% of Consignment Proceeds Go to Pancreatic Cancer Research
  • Curious too. My bet it that you will get no response at all.

    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?
    "Lenin is certainly right. There is no subtler or more severe means of overturning the existing basis of society(destroy capitalism) than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and it does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose."
    John Marnard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1920, page 235ff
  • ms70ms70 Posts: 13,946 ✭✭✭✭✭

    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.

  • I've been in the magazine business for 16+ years and I'm sad to say that the Advertising Dollar is a publication's major focus. 80%+ of Large/Small publcations Revenue comes from Ad Sales.

    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. image
    PCGS sets under The Thomas Collections. Modern Commemoratives @ NGC under "One Coin at a Time". USMC Active 1966 thru 1970" The real War.
  • I bought a coin from Coast to Coast off of ebay. It was a variety 1 - wide border capped bust dime in AG. It came as pictured. The scratches were a little more pronounced, but it's what you would expect for the grade, and I got it at a reasonable price. Then I got about three months worth of direct mail before they gave up on me.
    The strangest things seem suddenly routine.
  • It's sad; dealers who overgrade are the primary reason that
    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.
    Robert Getty - Lifetime project to complete the finest collection of 1872 dated coins.
  • LincolnCentManLincolnCentMan Posts: 5,347 ✭✭✭✭
    I've never bought from them. Their little statement about they grade by in house standards has always been enough to make me think they were less than reputible.

    David
  • Dog97Dog97 Posts: 7,875 ✭✭✭
    Coin World is interested in knowing about problems with their advertisers. I had a problem with Teletrade several years ago and Coin World put the heat on them for me. CW doesn't want a reputation as a rag for scammers & ripoffs to sell from.
    Change that we can believe in is that change which is 90% silver.
  • I too bought some raw [there were no slabs back in the 1970s] from a major advertiser in CW about 30 years ago. All "choice BU" Lincolns and Washingtons, I sent in a bunch for grading and they came back anywhere from xf45 to MS 62 from PCGS. I was not surprised as in the meantime I learned how to grade a bit and could see what I didn't see back then.

    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.

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