The highest markups in the hobby? Subscription plans.
DNADave
Posts: 7,324 ✭✭✭✭✭
We all say “collect what you like” but how much tuition should a person pay before they realize there’s a better way? If you buy from the public at all you’ve seen evidence of old folks paying out the nose for subscription plans, money their family will never recover.
This recent collection is one of the worst examples I’ve seen in a while. Fella spent thousands on it over decades and his widow said he did enjoy getting the pages in the mail and adding them to the binders.
$40 a page for 28 pages of mint sets. $1120
$17 a page for two statehood quarters 56 pages $953
And so on. He kept every receipt for posterity.
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Comments
If you know how to edit I think your computer auto corrected. the word "prosperity" was subbed for posterity. thanks for the post. james
I don't think "mark up" is exactly the right word. Those sets are EXPENSIVE but direct marketing can be expensive and you are paying for the display as well as the coins. Their actual "mark up" over costs is probably not as high as you think.
People who enjoy the display are not going to be as happy staring at dull coins in a Whitman album.
If you want to consider just costs, then you are on the wrong forum. PCGS has made a fortune by creating registry sets which have encouraged people to sink $35 into $3 coins. The TPGs would be out of business or very expensive if they were just slabbing classic coins today. Most of their slabbing activity is moderns that don't really need to be slabbed EXCEPT that people like to collect them in slabs, just like that gentleman liked to collect them on colorful pages.
That is not "tuition" if he liked the displays. It is, again, a case of collecting what you like.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
I'm going through this as well, trying to dispose of the junk coins purchased as part of subscription plans. Thousands of dollars wasted on junk. Fortunately, my gf's father also saved some silver and gold bullion.
Three crappy, cleaned buffalo nickels inlaid in fake marble in a fake gold foil cardboard box.
Be careful out there.
Yes subscription plans can be high markup vehicle for raw stuff. Guy in coin club in that area both mail order and shows. I think double bubble or more cost plus. Huge profit from world banknotes too. At shows lots junk in bins. Draws many buyers. One show he had a mountain of a junk pile - people flocking to it.
They are aimed at the general public and include more than just the coins. Overpriced? Probably they are in the eyes of serious coin collectors but the coin collectors value the extras at zero. The extras do have value to the general public.
The extras cost considerable money to make, package and ship. If the original buyer enjoyed getting them then it's OK. They weren't sold as investments they were sold as attractive collectibles.
I'm not justifying the business model at all, but I don't think the coins in these sets are really part of the "hobby." These sets are marketed to people who lack education, but think the idea of coins--whether it's the art, history, whatever that's appealing--is interesting. The people that buy these sets either stop because they get bored, realize they've been had, or start doing research and become real collectors such that they move on to buying coins smartly.
Lots of industries have profit centers based around selling to the uneducated masses. It might be the same or tangential material to what's normally seen in the hobby, but I don't think it's apples to apples.
I can't believe they charge shipping on top of those prices.
Joseph Segel (Franklin Mint) made billions starting off with subscription service and introduced countless numbers of individuals into the ranks of collecting. Quality products and packaging do just that. While certainly not with every service, there are exceptions such as this. My only real issue is the quality aspect mentioned, or lack there of. I would like to believe the vast majority of average collectors priorize enjoyment over investment so I see nothing wrong with these.