special offers or lack of them

[craig12]

maybe im going to be on my own with this one , but here goes,  I genuinely believe  that the uk dealers offer little or no offers whatsoever , looking to bullion dealers across the world, their homepages are often boasting free shipping,  % discounts , ive seen of some dealers I think it was gainsville coins , sending a free gift/round with some orders,

what do we have over here ,  at best  deaalers with at best very boring web sites, often  £7 del on average, we have a dealer that states 3% off some items  , and after that 3% is taken off theyre  still way dearer than anyone else, , we have a dealer  that states special offers  , only to find out its secondhand sold as seen

 

I find our sites pretty poor and the so called offers crap to say the least,

they all want a good shake up and should look to the usa and perth mint to see what a proper website with attractive offers looks like

im ssure someone will comment that they would rather have a cheaper item and a boring web page ,

true , have a quick look at some of the uk web pages  as I would have thought that a web designers job was to really grab your attention and make you  want to buy .......really.... 

id say they ALL need re designing

one of the common themes that seems to run through usa and aus web pages is colour  lots of colours and white space , illustrations of coins in 3d /in presentation boxes/   if we look at the opposite end of the spectrum   hgm uses powder blue and white  and goldline  uses gold and black   mmmmmmmmmm

[Danny-boy]

Believe it or not Craig, I agree with you in part [emoji1]

I think a lot has to do with the general market - there are huge amounts of stackers in the US / AUS so business throughput is a lot higher.

It's not so popular in the UK, possibly due to the tax on silver, but does seem to be growing.

Margins seem to be pretty tight for UK vendors, so special offers are usually pretty modest.

Some more special offers would be nice though, especially from the EU dealers.

[HighlandTiger]

Just a point to note, HGM is not primarily a bullion dealer. The coins it sells are basically an offshoot of its main business of buying PM's and melting it down for resale to the jewellery trade. And at 3% over spot for Gold, I'm not sure just how special you want their offers to be.

 

If you are talking about silver then UK companies are hamstrung by the VAT. They are automatically at a disadvantage by the 20% HMRC forces them to charge.This is why there are very few, if any primarily Silver bullion sellers in the UK, and most are old fashioned coin dealers slowly getting on the new silver coin bandwagon. These coin dealers are not big companies but usually one man bands, or family concerns. The silver market in the UK is just not that big for it to warrant them having flashy big websites and 50% off offers, because there is neither the trade nor is their any profit in doing so.

 

Until Silver coins become VAT free, you won't see any change. However if that does happen, then believe me, you will see the all singing and all dancing websites that you crave.

[morezone]

It all boils down to different markets.  The UK market for silver is tiny.

The USA and AU are much bigger so many companies have the advantage of economies of scale.

Apmex and Ganisville.  I bet they turn over in a day or two what Atkinsons does in a year.

 

HGM and goldonline aren't really dealers and retail sales are a fraction of their overall business.

 

VAT is a major handicap and until it is removed, we will never see anything close to the US.

 

In the US, free shipping is usually associated with graded coins where their profits are huge.

[silversword]

Seems to me Craig, that you have discovered a gap in the market. I recall you saying you have a lot of retail experience, so why not exploit it; bring the UK market up to date with a flashy website and special offers go tempt the buyers in. You could be the next APMEX

[DrDime]

Sound like a good idea to me - you could set up an office in the carpet shop and run it when there's no customers in.