As always, you all make some excellent points. Let me separate my thoughts into two areas:
1)
Price of coins versus market:
Yes, the coins were priced above market, but they were packaged and presented a very nice way, in a classy little folder, with nice write-ups, etc. And yes, these things were all much more expensive to produce in the pre-desktop publishing era. Given the technology available today, and the offshore printing/manufacturing opportunities available to even the smallest companies, the presentation could be better at the same pricing.
If the same offer was made now for a lovely high-quality folder (linen, etc) with three
fine to VF
denarii for $600, I would not buy it, but there are many people who might buy it, and be happy to keep it on a shelf and show it to the grandkids, etc. It might be over-priced, but it would be a lovely thing to own, especially for someone who did not plan on collecting more ancients. If I could have scratched my ancient coin itch for a mere $600, I would have been way ahead!
I don't really have a problem with the high
price of package, versus the value of the coins alone. They made a pretty nice product that added value to the coins.
2) The investment hype:
What I do have a problem with is the way that the coins were marketed. If you read the text of the brochure (see my first two posts) you might get the impression that these coins were a sure-fire bet, and that you could essentially treat them as valuable assets for your retirement. I have a problem with anyone marketing overpriced items or faux-collectibles in this manner.
A quick
Google search on "Goldline hearings" will pull up a number of articles detailing how the firm and others sold
gold coins to individuals as investment/retirement assets. They even brought politics and fear of the government into their sales pitches. The prices they charged for these coins were frequently far, far above what you could have bought them for at a coin dealer.
Is the company that marketed these coins in Goldline's league? I certainly don't think so. Did they oversell a pretty nice product that a casual collector might enjoy? Probably. Given that I
work in finance, I am always annoyed and disgusted by people misrepresenting purchases as "investments," like the
car salesman who says what a great "investment" a new
car would be, but I guess that's my issue to
work through.
I do know one thing, they never offered anything like
FORVM's great buy-back guarantee!
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/About_FORVM/Guarantee.html