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  The Society for Consumer Advocates and Mavens

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COLLECTIBLE COINS SOLD ON TV AND ELSEWHERE

Buyer beware because the TV shopping network allowing sellers of coins to be sold on TV as collectibles may be offering coins that have very little more value than face value compared to the $40 to $100 or more the seller may be asking for coin collections of nickels, quarters, dimes and so forth!

It may be wise not to buy these type sets of collectible coins as investments but simply buy them to collect because it could a hundred years before they may be worth more than face value. For example, a collection of nickels selling for $40, that only adds up to maybe $2 in coins if you were to add up all the nickels in the collection, may currently only be worth around $2 and five cents total! The same goes for any other coin collections as well that are sold on TV and elsewhere.

Even the TV shopping networks' management says they are NOT aware that the coin collectible vendors selling coins on their TV networks are offering the coin collections as investments but the collections are supposedly only being offered as collectibles, similar to collecting baseball cards of players playing professional baseball, today, in 2006. However, by all the "hype" in the sales pitches on TV to viewers at home, some coin collection buyers at home may think they are buying coin collections as investments and not for mere amusement!

If you buy one of these coin collections go get it appraised by an independent and certified coin dealer and if you are not satisfied with the coin dealer's appraisal, typically, you have 30 days to return the coin collection to the TV shopping network for a full refund excluding shipping and handling costs which you, the buyer, will have to pay.

Also, the coin collections that supposedly are covered with a layer of gold or platinum to enhance their value may add only 2 to 3 cents of value to the "entire" coin collection, as that is how much gold or platinum may have actually been added to the "entire" coin collection, if, at times, any gold or platinum is even added at all!

Remember, TV shopping networks boast about how much product they sell but they do not boast about how much product gets returned which, for some categories of products, may be up to 50% returns because when a buyer receives the product at home it too often may turn out to be not exactly what the buyer expected.

SUPPLEMENTAL SOURCE: INSIDE EDITION TV NEWS 5/12/06

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