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Poll: Are Coin Sales TV Shows Good for the Hobby?

GritsManGritsMan Posts: 2,599 ✭✭✭
in U.S. Coin Forum
By the way, this is my first attempt at a poll, so forgive the brief explanations. I just find they have great entertainment value and, if you question absolutely everything they say, you can learn some stuff from them.
Winner of the Coveted Devil Award June 8th, 2010

Comments

  • secondrepublicsecondrepublic Posts: 2,619 ✭✭✭
    How's this for an answer: TV is good for heightening awareness about coins, which is good for the hobby. However, folks who actually buy these coins are getting a very painful introduction to numismatics. One which may put them off for life.
    "Men who had never shown any ability to make or increase fortunes for themselves abounded in brilliant plans for creating and increasing wealth for the country at large." Fiat Money Inflation in France, Andrew Dickson White (1912)
  • phillymattphillymatt Posts: 170
    The only thing they are good is if a new coin collector sees these programs AFTER they visit a local coin store or the US Mint website to see "real" prices.....then they can just watch and smile that they didn't pay 5+ times the value from those carnival barkers.
    Sure, we want to go home. We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the bastards who started it. The quicker they are whipped, the quicker we can go home. - General George S. Patton
  • dohdoh Posts: 6,457 ✭✭✭
    TV is good for heightening awareness about coins, which is good for the hobby. However, folks who actually buy these coins are getting a very painful introduction to numismatics. One which may put them off for life.

    That's a very good answer. image
    Positive BST transactions with: too many names to list! 36 at last count.
  • greymarsgreymars Posts: 405 ✭
    image
  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭
    For me.. the few times I have seen them, they make me angry... very angry. Also, I personally know some people who have been taken by these shysters. Not nice at all. They are ripoff artists of the worst form. Cheers, RickO
  • OPAOPA Posts: 17,131 ✭✭✭✭✭



    << <i>They are ripoff artists of the worst form. Cheers, RickO >>

    >>



    Truer words have never been spoken.
    "Bongo drive 1984 Lincoln that looks like old coin dug from ground."
  • cladkingcladking Posts: 28,702 ✭✭✭✭✭
    They'd definitely be good for the hobby if they used honesty to
    sell the coins. Instead they skirt the truth, dodge it, and destroy
    it altogether. I'm not even sure this increases sales but it seems
    to be SOP.

    Some people can more readily accept paying finding out that they
    paid too much than that they were lied to.
    Tempus fugit.
  • ShortgapbobShortgapbob Posts: 2,332 ✭✭✭
    I bought a small collection from a gentleman yesterday who had obviously purchased all of his items from television. I felt really bad about it, as I realized how much money he had lost.

    The exposure could be very good if the TV guys were honest. But, I guess they have to pay for all of the overhead and television time somehow.
    "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." -- Aristotle

    For a large selection of U.S. Coins & Currency, visit The Reeded Edge's online webstore at the link below.

    The Reeded Edge
  • nicetoning42107nicetoning42107 Posts: 1,162
    The TV coin sellers are entertaining to watch. To be fair, a coin is worth what someone will pay for it. But when the TV guys say that what their selling is a "good deal and you won't find it cheaper anywhere else" only then do I truly get mad.
    A lie told often enough becomes the truth. ~Vladimir Lenin
  • LakesammmanLakesammman Posts: 17,426 ✭✭✭✭✭
    However, folks who actually buy these coins are getting a very painful introduction to numismatics. One which may put them off for life.

    Amen, Brother. image
    "My friends who see my collection sometimes ask what something costs. I tell them and they are in awe at my stupidity." (Baccaruda, 12/03).I find it hard to believe that he (Trump) rushed to some hotel to meet girls of loose morals, although ours are undoubtedly the best in the world. (Putin 1/17) Gone but not forgotten. IGWT, Speedy, Bear, BigE, HokieFore, John Burns, Russ, TahoeDale, Dahlonega, Astrorat, Stewart Blay, Oldhoopster, Broadstruck, Ricko, Big Moose, Cardinal.
  • direwolf1972direwolf1972 Posts: 2,076 ✭✭✭


    << <i>How's this for an answer: TV is good for heightening awareness about coins, which is good for the hobby. However, folks who actually buy these coins are getting a very painful introduction to numismatics. One which may put them off for life. >>


    image

    I like to watch them to get a laugh. Sometimes I learn something small out of it. Which always has to be double checked since their is so much of what they say is false.
    I'll see your bunny with a pancake on his head and raise you a Siamese cat with a miniature pumpkin on his head.

    You wouldn't believe how long it took to get him to sit still for this.


  • BigRedBigRed Posts: 716
    I think if someones knowledge progresses fairly fast and they don't spend years buying from such places it can help the hobby. When I first started collecting I read a lot and made some mistakes but I figured them out fairly fast and quit making so many. I feel sorry for the people who purchase coins from these people for years and years only to find out they have been taken advantage of and feel bitter about the hobby.
  • MORGANHUNTER2MORGANHUNTER2 Posts: 4,473 ✭
    I chose models- in really really teenie bikini's....

    thongs have my approval! imageimage

  • 7Jaguars7Jaguars Posts: 7,584 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Probably a wash in the end, but I get entertainment hearing half truths (or less than half truths) spread by them. Definately helps spend time when riding the stationary bike!

    These guys are entitled to a profit, but the hype is pretty crazy. The coins are attractive when seen on a big screen HDTV and I find that it does help pique up my interest even though I wouldn't dream of buying anything at their prices.
    Love that Milled British (1830-1960)
    Well, just Love coins, period.
  • garsmithgarsmith Posts: 5,894 ✭✭
    They are good at bringing people into the hobby, but not good for people in the hobby!

  • MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 24,333 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Every collector makes mistakes when they get started, and nobody lasts in the hobby unless their interest is strong enough to withstand those initial setbacks. So if we lose a new collector to the TV shows, it doesn't matter to the hobby. Even if he found the hobby in some other way, he wouldn't have lasted.

    So the bottom line is the TV shows help the hobby, because some TV buyers do progress to the next level.

    Andy Lustig

    Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

    Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
  • MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 24,333 ✭✭✭✭✭
    These guys are entitled to a profit...

    Nobody is entitled to a profit. Profits must be earned in the marketplace, honestly or dishonestly.
    Andy Lustig

    Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

    Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
  • ttownttown Posts: 4,472 ✭✭✭
    Hey I actually thought the coin vault screwed up when they were selling the 2006 W UNC plat sets for $4995 after the big sell out frenzy.
  • GritsManGritsMan Posts: 2,599 ✭✭✭
    How delightful to find this poll is still alive! And some analysis to boot! I gotta admit if I had cable, I'd be wasting too much time watching these shows. They're kind of like Jeopardy--a chance to test your knowledge.

    BTW, one thing that irks me in a big way is how they (presumably) clean their coins. THAT, I think is one definite way they are hurting the hobby. But the way they manipulate the truth is something I find truly hilarious, except for the buyers they are duping.

    Keep those analyses coming!
    Winner of the Coveted Devil Award June 8th, 2010
  • dac076dac076 Posts: 817 ✭
    However, folks who actually buy these coins are getting a very painful introduction to numismatics. One which may put them off for life.


    Maybe in a few cases. Many more will never check the value of the coins they bought. Others will be hooked on the hobby regardless, and so I think it's a net positive. I know I overpaid a few times when I first started collecting. Live and learn.
  • GritsManGritsMan Posts: 2,599 ✭✭✭
    I STILL overpay! Didn't I just shell out $2K yesterday?
    Winner of the Coveted Devil Award June 8th, 2010
  • dpooledpoole Posts: 5,940 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The hook and the damage is to hawk their stuff as investments. They make a deal about how rare their stuff is, how this issue is the first this or that, how it's sure to go up in value, etc.

    Buying that stuff to make money has nothing to do with the "hobby."


    Here's a warning parable for coin collectors...



  • dac076dac076 Posts: 817 ✭
    The hook and the damage is to hawk their stuff as investments. They make a deal about how rare their stuff is, how this issue is the first this or that, how it's sure to go up in value, etc.

    True. But in that regard, they're no different than someone pushing stocks, gold, or real estate as can't miss investments. Buyers who bite based on that aspect are not candidates to become coin collectors in the first place, so again, no loss to the hobby. They'll just go on to invest badly in some other vehicle.

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