Marketers for the National Collector's Mint have created a TV commercial so ridiculously manipulative that it deserves its own Examiner.com article. This commercial walks a fine line between legitimate vs fraudulent advertising. To watch the TV commercial click here.
A writer at cointalk.com posted the following question on their forum:
"I keep seeing the commercial for the $50 gold buffalo tribute proof being sold for $10 claiming it is solid 24-karat gold, how much does this coin weigh?! Wouldn't that be thousands of dollars of gold for just $10?? I collect junk silver for its silver content as an investment, is this too good to be true or is it a killer investment? What am I not catching onto here haha ~Thanks"
The commercial convinces the audience that they are selling a one-ounce pure gold coin for ten dollars. The slight of hand implies that you can buy a coin with a gold-content net value of $1,622 for today's low price of $9.95.
NCM also boldly claims that their coin contains '14 Milligrams of 24 kt gold.'
Let's run the numbers...
- One ounce of gold is currently $1,622 an ounce.
- Fourteen milligrams equals 0.000493 ounces.
- 0.000493 is 79 cents worth of pure gold.
The actual gold-content value of the coin is 79 cents.
How do they get away with it?
They begin the commercial by discussing the original one-ounce $50 Gold Buffalo coin which was forged using .9999 24 kt gold.
Then they flip the script on the audience 35 seconds into the commercial:
"Now you can reserve your own tribute copy of the $50 Gold Buffalo clad in 14 milligrams of pure gold!"
The keyword in the above sentence is 'clad.' That's an artful way of saying that the coin is 'plated' in 14 mgs of gold. Again, this means the gold-content value of YOUR coin is 79 cents. However, the ORIGINAL Gold Buffalo contains a gold-content value of $1,622.
The commercial continues to amaze us by claiming that the original price was going to be $50 - but they have decided to be gracious and offer it today for $9.95.
The most incredulous part of the commercial is near the end where they make two startling claims:
- Since the price of gold is skyrocketing they can only guarantee the low price of $9.95 for the next seven days.
- These tribute coins are in such demand that they can only allow five coins per caller.
The problem with the commercial is that it advertises the gold tribute coin as an investment. They never use the word 'investment' but everything in the commercial implies that you are getting a gold coin for $10 and that its gold-content value is $1,622.
If you need a shiny paperweight buy this coin.... otherwise forget it. An honest commercial would say something more like "this tribute coin is forged in .9999 bronze worthless metal."
You can read the angry comments posted on youtube by clicking here.
The Director of the National Collector's Mint is former Republican Congressman (CA) Barry Goldwater Jr.
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