sjhdesmond

Jesus Christ.
 
I mean, seriously.
 
It was a joke.
 
But why let that stand in the way of a good conspiracy.

These are stills from the movie "Three Kings" (1999)

These are stills from the movie "Three Kings" (1999)

More speculation going on here.

Just unfollowed this thread

Having read through this thread from the start, I could feel my IQ dropping to the point that @LawrenceChard could have said anything and I would have agreed.

Anyone else find this thread odd?
Ask a load of question (which are all answered on the dealers website) and then criticise the answers.
No please, no thank you.

Having read through this thread from the start, I could feel my IQ dropping to the point that @LawrenceChard could have said anything and I would have agreed.

How does that work then? Because, you know, people aren't stupid and are able to think things through... 😅

Just want to say thanks to @dicker for pointing us in the direction of this highly entertaining thread. I've really enjoyed the arrogance and stupidity of Allison asking "is this fake" even though they were already certain it was "legit". 

Thanks for your post.
I have always run our business on the presumption that people are sensible, reasonable, and not stupid, or at least until we find out otherwise.
Arguments and discussions about so-called "free postage" will surely continue. I have my point of view, and have explained the reasoning and logic behind it many times. I realise this will not convince everybody, and so be it.
I have also stated quite a few times that Atkinsons are sometimes cheaper than us, usually only by small amounts, as are a few other competitors. I also get to see some coins which people have bought from competitors, and am appalled by the number of low quality, worn or polished coins I see, and also fakes. Buying reject quality and fakes is hardly ever a bargain, but if buyers do not know the difference, they cannot readily compare like for like.
I do not insinuate "that people cannot work out that postage and insurance costs money as insulting to my intelligence.", but it sounds like the OP did not understand that fact, and survey we did shows that about 50% of respondents would prefer "free postage" rather than postage shown separately. Perhaps we would be better to change to "free postage", but I would feel uncomfortable doing so as I know it would be untrue.
I am sorry to hear your first order with us was not perfect, but am pleased that we do appear to be doing something right.
If you look at any of our popular bullion pages, and the price comparison on them, you will see that on quantities, we are usually the most competitively priced. Despite this, most people using Google end up buying their bullion coins from the Royal Mint, Bullion by Post, or Gold.co.uk (these last two websites are owned and operated by Jewellery Quarter Bullion, and almost always have different prices from each other, which stikes me as cynical marketing).
 

It’s a Facebook thing “innit bruv”.
I have to say there was a young lady (Allison I think) who started a thread on a perceived Morgan Dollar error.  Worth a read!  My suspicion is that she didn’t attend finishing school in Switzerland.
Best
Dicker
 

Having read through this thread from the start, I could feel my IQ dropping to the point that @LawrenceChard could have said anything and I would have agreed.

Yes there is. In fact there is a reason for everything we do, and all our policies. We believe these are good valid reasons.
We are also highly transparent about our business, and many of the reasons we make particular decisions.
We have a blog page here:
https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/free-postage/26
Which explains a lot about so-called "free-postage".
"Free postage" is propaganda, and an illusion, which unfortunately fools many gullible people into thinking that they are getting something for nothing, when in fact they are often paying more for it. If I remember correctly, I have also posted an article on TFS about it. 
However, as you asked, let me give you a little history:
Once upon a time, two cousins opened a coin shop in Dale Street, Blackpool. Amoongst other things, they (we) bought and sold gold sovereigns. Our shop was "bricks and mortar". Most of our sales were to local people, from perhaps a 20 mile radius, but people also travelled from further afield like Manchester and London to buy from us.
Most of our trade in those days was in person, over the counter, but we also offered mail order, including for gold sovereigns, almost the only gold bullion coin available or worth buying in those days. Krugerrands were not invented until 1967.
One of our old adverts in Exchange and Mart read:
Gold sovereigns £4 each, £37.10 per 10, £365 per 100, £3500 per thousand. In those days, we traded as R&L Coins, at number 10 Dale Street, Blackpool. Perversely, these prices included postage although we did not claim postage was free, partly because the advert would have cost us more.
The main reason I have related this is because we were "Bricks and Mortar", before the term was even coined It was well before the internet and "clicks". In 1998, a little late, we set up one of the first coin dealers websites 24carat.co.uk, which still exists and works, although it has started to creak slightly. We were now "Clicks and Bricks", although the term had not been invented.
Apart from a few old adverts similar the above, we used to charge postage separately on mail order transactions. With our website, our mail order business grew, but we have never abandoned our showroom base. It was the simplest and fairest method, and at least 99% of people were happy with it.
We offer free collection, which many of our competitors don't, because they don't have a showroom or shop, and don't want the extra inconvenience of people turning up on the premises, taking up staff time. Shops and stores cost money to run. Why waste money on providing this facility, when you can run a "cut-price", no frills services, where people have to buy online, pay online, and you don't need to employ knowledgeable staff to deal with customer enquiries. 
I say "cut-price", but most of our competitors charge more than we do, so I should have called it "cut-cost". 
At this point I should ask you a question:
Do you or have you ever worked out a pricing system for any business? How are you at arithmetic, maths, logic, algorithms, formulae, spreadsheets, databases, and I.T. systems?
If you can truthfully answer "yes" or "good" to the above, then you will understand that developing an automated pricing system requires a lot of knowledge, skill, and care. But I suspect you don't because otherwise you would not have asked the question.
If not, then how would you go about designing a system which would calculate prices, including quantity discounts for, for working out your retail prices for every quantity from 1 to a few thousand? Two answer spring to my mind. The first is "with great difficulty", and the second is "you wouldn't". We find it simpler, easier, quicker, and better to operate a system whereby we price the actual goods, then calculate shipping costs separately, rather working out prices including shipping. We are are quite simple people!
It is almost beyond doubt that our "free postage" competitors set their prices by looking at their cost price, adding their margin, adding postage packing and insurance, to arrive at their retail price. Then they lie to you and all their customers by telling you that their postage is free, which it is not, but you believe it because we want to believe it. In our business, we do not treat customers as suckers, prefering to treat them all as intelligent, sensible people, unless or until we discover otherwise.
Another bit of historic information:
When we set up our first website, we wanted a simple postage charge system, so we decided on (within the UK):
£2 postage at customers own risk, or £5 fully insured.
This was easy for us to implement, and easy for customers to understand
Eventually, it started to cause a problem. When someone phoned us and wanted to invest a large amount, for example £100,000 on gold coins, they were understandably unsure and concerned when we asked only £5 to post and fully insure the delivery. Sometimes, I or a staff member had to spend valuable time and energy assuring customers that our paltry charge did indeed cover full insurance. In fact, the cost to us was around 0.11% at the time, so on a £100K sale, we were subsidising the shipping cost by about £100 equivalent to about £1 per thousand, because it was easier to calculate. We possibly even lost some sales because we were not charging enough! Eventually, we learnt our lesson, and changed our shipping costs to £5 per order (later £6), plus £1 per £1000 insurance. Most of our customers were happier about this than they had been before. We have tweaked these charges to fine tune them a few times since.
If you feel you should only buy from people who offer free postage, then if you want a brand new 2022 bullion sovereign, you should buy one from Harrington & Byrne. The run a loss-leader strategy to get your name on their mailing list. Don't do it by phone, otherwise you will lose about 20 minutes of your life trying to avoid their unethical and possibly illegal "bait and switch" tactic. They then follow up by offering you lots of rip-off price items, and exclusive new issue coin offers, which most dealers don't offer so there is not much competition. If you like any of their other stuff, and can wait a few years, you should be able to buy it on the secondary market at much lower premiums, possibly half price. Their loss-leader offers are limited to one per household per year, so if you wanted to buy a second coin from them, you might be able to, but only at their higher "usual" price, and the two coins will cost you more than buying from Chard, even after postage.
You will also find that many of the bullion pages of our Chards website include a UK dealer price comparison, and this includes Chards prices with and without postage, to make comparison quick, simple, effortless for our customers, and transparent. For example:
On our 2022 Gold Sovereign Bullion Coin page
https://www.chards.co.uk/2022-gold-sovereign-uncirculated-coin/15066 
Price Comparison Against Other UK Bullion Dealers - Updated at 01-Mar-2022 06:34
Qty Chards (Excl Delivery) Chards (Inc Delivery) B* G* A BB UKB 5 £353.46 £354.86 £358.80 £358.70 OOS £360.05 £361.25 10 £352.46 £353.26 £358.00 £358.00 OOS £359.55 £360.52 25 £351.12 £351.56 £357.30 £356.90 OOS £359.05 £359.98 50 £350.62 £350.96 £356.60 £355.90 OOS £358.55 £359.43 100 £349.78 £350.07 £355.90 £355.00 OOS £358.25 £358.71 250 £349.62 £349.96 £355.60 £354.60 OOS £357.85 £358.35 500 £349.28 £349.57 £355.20 £354.30 OOS £357.55 £357.98 1000 £349.11 £349.37 £354.70 £353.60 OOS £357.55 £357.44 As far as I am aware, we are the only UK dealer to feature this price comparison. Our competitors don't want you to be able to compare easily, for obvious reasons.
I could say a lot more, but I have other stuff to do.
😎
P.S. I just realised I could have answered your question much more quickly and easily by saying:
"Yes"
😎😎
 
 
 

Just remember that the CGT rule is at the whim of any government. Can be removed at the stroke of a budget.

Thank god I didn't dump my (small) Krugerrand stack yesterday; I was in danger of making a profit, which goes completely against my ethos of 'buy high, sell low'. 
Usual places are now down around £1375 to £1385 a coin 😕

I know what you mean about too good to be true. Maybe I have seen Antiques Roadsow and Pawnstars one too many times. He wanted about $18 for the Morgan, which didn't seem far from what a quick search told me market value was. I definitely thought there was a good chance that at least 1 of the coins was fake. I especially doubted the Russia one being real because although I had no idea what it was at the time, I expected something that old to be more valuable. 
I guess like many people,  I was hoping I had found a bargain, and was counting on the seller being unwilling to do his research, but that is probably much rarer than the buyer being ripped off.

Yes, very as long as you check that you are buying from a trusted forum member with good reputation / trading points.

gold is so boring.. palladium is the new bitcoin for volatility
 

I'll offer £250 for a 2022 full sov if anyone wants to sell before they're worthless? 

I sold a pile around that price 4 or 5 years ago when starting out...think I made £10 profit a sovereign and thought I won the lottery 😅 Well that worked out well 😅 

Did anyone back the horse  SILVER MAPLE that won in USA earlier tonight, it won at 2/1  FAV
I just seen the result flash up 

Full Sovereigns are still valued at £180 on BBCs Flog It today 😂😂 that really does date a program 
Could we be seeing £1450 oz in a few days from now ?

Does this mean Cuba Gooding Jr can't use PayPal?

Does this mean Cuba Gooding Jr can't use PayPal?