Harrington and Byrne Marketing...

[Tipsmart]

So like many of us here I picked up half a dozen of the £224 sovs from Harrington and Byrne in 2019. 

But almost immediately, I was sent letters on fancy paper with picture postcards of overpriced coins. I thought nothing of it, I obviously didn't fancy the coins they were offering, but they started sending duplicates of the same letter. I don't think they have much of a range to sell! 

Anyway, I stopped opening these elaborate marketing letters after a few months. And thought, maybe I should just ask them to stop sending them?

But then I considered the cost and lengths they were going to, by sending these fancy letters. How it must work for their business model to send this all out? Maybe when someone gets duped into buying a proof set 200% over the odds, it pays for all the postage, printing and paper?

So I decided to just keep them all, unopened for a full year... To see what the total would be. 

I wouldn't put anyone off buying from them, I got a few more this year under spot. But the main part of their business is pretty unethical. So I hope by receiving all these unwanted letters, it's maybe made a small dent in their enterprise. 

And I'll have enough cards now for a full game of patience! 

 

 

[richatthecroft]

Here’s my haul of H&B Postcards from their marketing envelopes.
I’ve asked them to remove me from the mailing list but to no avail, so I gave up.  I get at least one a week! 
The weekly ritual of opening- removing the postcard and dropping the remainder in the recycling continues.  
I use the postcards to jot down the odd note to myself and my family and have used them for their intended purpose.  
 

[Tipsmart]

It would be fun to collect the cards. But I bet you've got at least 10 of the same cards there? They don't even seem to sell much of a range of different coins. God knows how much letters they send a day in total? What do you reckon each letter costs them including postage? Maybe £2?

Its mad how they make money doing this? When also selling the under spot, intro stuff too! 

 

[richatthecroft]

I'm not sure what it must cost them, but certainly a significant amount.  Like you say, it must be worthwhile to them, but not very environmentally friendly, I guess however, firms adopting this type of marketing will help keep the Royal Mail ticking over.

Just had a count up- there's 71 postcards and a dozen duplicates and 5 of them were Elton's- he must have been the one they couldn't shift!  I don't find that surprising and I'm pretty sure the Music Legends designs won't be featuring on the shortlist for The Great Engravers second issue in a hundred or so years time.

[Tipsmart]

2 minutes ago, richatthecroft said:

I'm not sure what it must cost them, but certainly a significant amount.  Like you say, it must be worthwhile to them, but not very environmentally friendly, I guess however, firms adopting this type of marketing will help keep the Royal Mail ticking over.

Just had a count up- there's 71 postcards and a dozen duplicates and 5 of them were Elton's- he must have been the one they couldn't shift!  I don't find that surprising and I'm pretty sure the Music Legends designs won't be featuring on the shortlist for The Great Engravers second issue in a hundred or so years time.

Yes, the RM music series was awful. I thought the Queen one was bad coz they didn't use Freddie's face. But blimey, that Bowie coin looks bad, and like you say, no one wants an Elton. 

[richatthecroft]

10 minutes ago, Tipsmart said:

Yes, the RM music series was awful. I thought the Queen one was bad coz they didn't use Freddie's face. But blimey, that Bowie coin looks bad, and like you say, no one wants an Elton. 

Agreed.  But I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[Tipsmart]

I just think the Bowie portrait was poor. And the others were also novelty cop outs. Same with the bond issue. I mean the RM can engrave fantasy characters in much more detail, so they should try harder with real people. 

[Coolsmp]

I saved all the unopened letters over several months and wrote 'return to sender' on each one of them. I suddenly stopped receiving any marketing from them.

[Paul]

Tape all your unwanted correspondence to a 25kg sack of spuds and mark "return to sender" include a covering letter saying

"All future mail will be returned will need a manned 3.5 tonne lift & load tipper truck to unload to comply with H&S working regs 

They should get the hint  

[Elements]

I thought I’d wait it out see if they get the message that I wasn’t interested. My will broke after about a year and simi,are piles as those shown above, so I phoned to tell them to stop. They said I’ll receive a couple more since it’s an automated system and those in the process will be in the way. Another 4 or so months later the number hadn’t relented so then emailed so there was written proof. Again they kept coming faster than I could burn on my woodburner stove. Finally they gave in when I wrote on the back of one of their letters sent in the prepaid envelope.

Ws it worth getting a couple of below spot sovs? To me yes but clearly not to them!

[Ranks1970]

 I just sorted all my letters out today and I have quiet a few I love the post cards 👍🏿

[kiskelo]

My account was closed for buying too many, no correspondence since. 😭

[Hunter87]

Yup there hounding me too they are relentless! Is this legal?

[ilovesilverireallydo]

I recently sent 50 odd letters back, got a call said moved to Spain lol 

[Coolsmp]

On 31/12/2020 at 20:00, kiskelo said:

My account was closed for buying too many, no correspondence since. 😭

New year new bullion allowance from H&B 😉