Serial Grannybaiters Bradford Exchange are back with another ripoff

This came in a Sunday paper



The coin is not listed in the catalogue - but this coin is of the same series - https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces174942.html

I did a thread about this a while ago and its the same type of coin - Tristan da Cunha (No evidence the coin is being used there) and its gold plated Cupronickel crowns again. The coin is 25p or approx 51 cents and minted by a Private mint (Basically not even a proper coin, but a collectible coin shaped object).

That is bad enough - but the cost has gone up from $30 (I don't bother with .95s as our coins are in units of decimes not cents) to $40 plus $10 Postage and papackaging (Which is mainfestly excessive, as it could be sent in a $1.30 envelope and probably the actual cost of the coins themselves).

Even worse is that subsequent coins will cost $90 plus the $10 postage and packaging - basically $100 dollars for a piece of plated copper!

The Bradford exchange is the shittiest and most parasitic of all organisations offering manifestly overpriced collectible tat and chintz like ceramic Thomas Kinkaid crap, tacky paintings you expect to find in a Tennessee house with plastic wood from the 1970s. They are the modern day FRANKLIN mint - who were banned from New Zealand in 1993 after a sea of unresolved complaints.



Notice how they play up the "GOLD" claims and call it a "Gold crown" when it clearly is not, the plating will be microthin and worth a few cents at most - it is as bad as an 80s scam called "Santo Gold" (Look it up - its all over the net).

I am ready to complain to the Rair Trading association over this - as calling it golf is misleading, if this coin was even 9 carat gold, it would be worth around $900 in metal value and more likely $2100 at 22 carat level given the current gold price - yet given the cost of puff and selling collectiabilty - actual price could be over $3k, not $100. It is misleading and lying advertising.

Although its apparently got a score of NUMISTA 100 and only 2,000 pieces were made - but who would honestly want it anyway and TDC only has a population of 250 anyway. Most are now obese and/or dying of glaucoma apparently.

What do you guys think of this junk.

Most non-circulating commemorative coins are nothing but consumer products mass manufactured for consumers.

As a coin dealer I can honestly say that even the "better" commemoratives aren't worth anywhere near as much as they're being sold for to collectors, as an example I get US silver proof commemoratives for a flat price of 20€ each no matter what type (excluding the actually rare ones) and sell them for 40-50€ depending on the type.

These coins aren't easy to sell and usually you will have to wait for quite a bit to make a sale but the profit margin for this stuff excellent so hoarding them is actually profitable, basically the economy of commems is based on artificial scarcity.

Catalogue "values" are for collectors, not dealers, scarce dates of common types are usually sold for a flat price no different from other dates when bought in large quantities.

These commems are hoarded by dealers and mints and slowly sold off to collectors for huge profit margins, it works much like the diamond industry.

Wealthy collectors don't buy this stuff, it's mostly directed towards lower middle-class consumers who lack understanding of basic economics.

The more expensive these modern commems are, the more likely they're sold for the current spot price by collectors who originally bought them as wealthy collectors want nothing to do with this stuff.

It's not uncommon to see heavy gold proof commemoratives being left unsold at auctions even for spot price, they're basically treated as junk buillion aside from a few rare cases of coins that are actually considered collectable but these coins are almost always coins which you simply couldn't have bought directly but received as a gift of honour in a specific event such as a coronation or a competition.

Honestly, I don't really care if people fall for this stuff.

Selling forgeries however is something I strictly look down upon, I find it despicable.

People buy this stuff because they mislead themselves by thinking they know everything about stuff that they know nothing about, it's a mix between ignorance and arrogance.