Harrington and Byrne advert

[MickB]

This advert in the Daily Mail is offering a 2018 1/4oz krugerrand for £249 plus free delivery. I was looking around other dealers sites but this is the cheapest so far.

Has anyone dealt with this firm before and got a good deal or is this a way of luring you in then telling you they've already sold out, only to offer a more expensive product instead? Offer only lasts for seven days, so would it be worth buying?

I keep thinking that if they can afford to advertise like this and sell cheap then there must be a catch somewhere.

 

[MancunianStacker]

If it was a real offer it would be available immediately on the website so this looks like a marketing exercise to get a new post GDPR list of suckers.

[MickB]

2 minutes ago, MancunianStacker said:

If it was a real offer it would be available immediately on the website so this looks like a marketing exercise to get a new post GDPR list of suckers.

I couldn't see it on their website, just the proof version. Thought I may have missed a page on their site but you're probably right about it being a marketing exercise getting a new post GDPR list of suckers.

[MancunianStacker]

I can’t see the advert properly but in the bottom right it has a * next to email and small print. I’m sure it will say something like “yes, please feel free to spam me for the next 50 years” or just call be every week with another amazing deal lol.

[SILVERFINGER]

Someone I know bought one of the gold sovereigns, when it came it was a sovereign, but only a half, for just under full size price, it was years ago and in the back of a TV guide.

[Xander]

Hatton Garden has 1/4 oz Krugs for £251. 

[sovereignsteve]

Avoid.

They are another one of those exhorbitant priced firms that try to lure the naive and unsuspecting.

My recently passed father-in-law got sucked in without me knowing and we found out he'd recently spent about £5k with them for coins worth around £3k.

[fehk2001]

6 minutes ago, sovereignsteve said:

Avoid.

They are another one of those exhorbitant priced firms that try to lure the naive and unsuspecting.

My recently passed father-in-law got sucked in without me knowing and we found out he'd recently spent about £5k with them for coins worth around £3k.

Are they good coins , like pristine ?

[sovereignsteve]

33 minutes ago, fehk2001 said:

Are they good coins , like pristine ?

mostly modern coins, yes perfectly fine condition, just overpriced. Some old silver, poor condition and grossly overpriced.

[MickB]

51 minutes ago, sovereignsteve said:

mostly modern coins, yes perfectly fine condition, just overpriced. Some old silver, poor condition and grossly overpriced.

One of my work colleagues gets regular updates about coins from another overpriced firm. He buys everything they recommend even though I've tried to educate him in looking elsewhere and check to see what they eventually sell for on ebay, just to give him an idea. He thinks he's sitting on a good investment but will be very disappointed when it comes to selling them.

[RogerBelmar]

H&B: 2018 UK Gold Sovereign £249.00
Atkinsons: 2018 UK Gold Sovereign £238.29
H&B: 2018 UK Gold Proof Sovereign £899.00
Chards: 2018 UK Gold Proof Sovereign £485.00
H&B: 2005 UK Gold Proof Sovereign £999.00
BullionByPost: 2005 UK Gold Proof Sovereign £679.70
H&B: 2002 UK Gold Proof Sovereign £1,099.00
The Royal Mint: 2002 UK Gold Proof Sovereign £735.00
CAVEAT EMPTOR (Latin: “Let the buyer beware”)

[ChardsCoinandBullionDealer]

We have also seen many of these ads - many in mainstream papers. The title of the original Krugerrand advert is quite misleading as the image is a 1/4 oz and so is the price (roughly speaking) so its likely some customers order only to realise upon delivery they have not bought the Krugerrand they expected (it does however mention the weight when you read on). We would like to think there are many good coin dealers out there but there are also these "coin marketing companies" that are selling products at inflated prices (maybe to pay for the advertising itself) and perhaps trying to boost mailing lists etc. We recommend doing research and price comparisons to find the best deal. 

 

Ian

[LawrenceChard]

Lets start with a few facts:

23rd June 2018 was a Saturday, but the average gold price on Friday 22nd 2018 was £955.

The intrinsic value therefore of a quarter Krugerrand was £238.75

Simple arithmetic gives £249/£238.75 = 1.04293, for a 4.23% premium.

In my opinion, this was a bargain price for a quarter ounce gold coin. The "free" delivery makes this even more so.

It is worth comparing with a similar offer from H&B last year, in the screenshot I posted on Flickr, but have only just made "public" rather than "private":

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lawrence_chard/36186635935/

I am sorry I did not see the original post at the time, but if I had, my advice to MickB would have been:

If you want a 2018 quarter ounce gold Krugerrand, then go ahead and buy one from the advertiser, you are unlikely to get one cheaper for now.

If you do not particularly want one, then you could buy quarter ounce gold coins, including quarter Krugerrands, elsewhere.

Krugerrands are not exempt from CGT, so if may be worth thinking about British gold coins, such as a sovereign, or quarter Britannia.

If you checked the next week, you would have been likely to find the same offer, there are a number of reasons to time limit the offer, one to protect the advertiser in case of price increases, the other to hurry people into making their mind up rather than forgetting about it. We see similar adverts by H&B and other coin marketing companies almost every week.

The fact this offer was not on their website strongly suggest it was a "loss leader" to get you onto their mailing list. 

The heading "Own the BRAND NEW 2018 South Africa 22 Carat Gold Krugerrand today" is of course misleading, in my opinion. If you ask most bullion dealers for their prices on a Krugerrand, they would automatically quote prices for a one ounce gold Krugerrand. 
Krugerrands were first produced in 1967, and were the world's first modern one troy ounce gold coin.
It was only in 1980, that other sizes and weights of Krugerrands were issued, namely half, quarter, and tenth ounces.
I firmly believe that the use of the word Krugerrand, when not qualified by the word half, quarter, or tenth, should mean the original one ounce size.
 

"Someone I know bought one of the gold sovereigns, when it came it was a sovereign, but only a half, for just under full size price, it was years ago and in the back of a TV guide". This reinforces my last point. Actually the British Royal Mint used to advertise "Gold Sovereigns from £70", way back in 2000; but when you read the small print, what they were offering was only a half sovereign. I pointed this out to them at the time. they ignored me, but stopped for a few years after our trade body also wrote to them about it. They then re-started the same thing with the quarter sovereign when it was introduced in 2009. I reported this to the Advertising Standards Authority, who ruled in favour of the Royal Min, although they did advise the RM to change some of their wording and procedures. The ASA ruling did not entirely surprise me as I suspect they gave more weight to the state owned Royal Mint.

On the day of RogerBelmar's price comparisons:

H&B: 2018 UK Gold Sovereign £249.00
Atkinsons: 2018 UK Gold Sovereign £238.29

Our price for the same 2018 UK Gold (Uncirculated Bullion) Sovereign was about £231 for a single coin, with quantity price breaks available. We have not yet done a price comparison for the other 3 products, or against the other dealers mentioned, but may undertake this during the next week if time permits.

The main reason I don't post on forums more frequently is the time factor, as I do not like to give a partial answer, and a more complete answer takes time. However I do frequently post screenshots of Flickr, sometimes for reference or staff training and education, but mostly for public viewing. I find this quick and easy. Often we will use my Flickr uploads as the basis for an information/blog page on our main website.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[whitesands1]

A very fair and comprehensive summary. 

May I say welcome @LawrenceChard I will certainly look forward to reading your future posts.

I think this was a very good offer to get a newly minted 1/4 Oz. 2018 Krugerrand - with a great probability of receiving a coin in great condition, if like me that is important to you then I think this offer made sense.  So I'd say one way or another there was good value here for general consumers and coin enthusiasts on the spotlight deal.

Last year I received offers from them in the post, I suspect the details having being procured from somewhere else pre GDPR. 

[SILVERFINGER]

On 21/07/2018 at 17:24, LawrenceChard said:

Lets start with a few facts:

23rd June 2018 was a Saturday, but the average gold price on Friday 22nd 2018 was £955.

The intrinsic value therefore of a quarter Krugerrand was £238.75

Simple arithmetic gives £249/£238.75 = 1.04293, for a 4.23% premium.

In my opinion, this was a bargain price for a quarter ounce gold coin. The "free" delivery makes this even more so.

It is worth comparing with a similar offer from H&B last year, in the screenshot I posted on Flickr, but have only just made "public" rather than "private":

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lawrence_chard/36186635935/

I am sorry I did not see the original post at the time, but if I had, my advice to MickB would have been:

If you want a 2018 quarter ounce gold Krugerrand, then go ahead and buy one from the advertiser, you are unlikely to get one cheaper for now.

If you do not particularly want one, then you could buy quarter ounce gold coins, including quarter Krugerrands, elsewhere.

Krugerrands are not exempt from CGT, so if may be worth thinking about British gold coins, such as a sovereign, or quarter Britannia.

If you checked the next week, you would have been likely to find the same offer, there are a number of reasons to time limit the offer, one to protect the advertiser in case of price increases, the other to hurry people into making their mind up rather than forgetting about it. We see similar adverts by H&B and other coin marketing companies almost every week.

The fact this offer was not on their website strongly suggest it was a "loss leader" to get you onto their mailing list. 

The heading "Own the BRAND NEW 2018 South Africa 22 Carat Gold Krugerrand today" is of course misleading, in my opinion. If you ask most bullion dealers for their prices on a Krugerrand, they would automatically quote prices for a one ounce gold Krugerrand. 
Krugerrands were first produced in 1967, and were the world's first modern one troy ounce gold coin.
It was only in 1980, that other sizes and weights of Krugerrands were issued, namely half, quarter, and tenth ounces.
I firmly believe that the use of the word Krugerrand, when not qualified by the word half, quarter, or tenth, should mean the original one ounce size.
 

"Someone I know bought one of the gold sovereigns, when it came it was a sovereign, but only a half, for just under full size price, it was years ago and in the back of a TV guide". This reinforces my last point. Actually the British Royal Mint used to advertise "Gold Sovereigns from £70", way back in 2000; but when you read the small print, what they were offering was only a half sovereign. I pointed this out to them at the time. they ignored me, but stopped for a few years after our trade body also wrote to them about it. They then re-started the same thing with the quarter sovereign when it was introduced in 2009. I reported this to the Advertising Standards Authority, who ruled in favour of the Royal Min, although they did advise the RM to change some of their wording and procedures. The ASA ruling did not entirely surprise me as I suspect they gave more weight to the state owned Royal Mint.

On the day of RogerBelmar's price comparisons:

H&B: 2018 UK Gold Sovereign £249.00
Atkinsons: 2018 UK Gold Sovereign £238.29

Our price for the same 2018 UK Gold (Uncirculated Bullion) Sovereign was about £231 for a single coin, with quantity price breaks available. We have not yet done a price comparison for the other 3 products, or against the other dealers mentioned, but may undertake this during the next week if time permits.

The main reason I don't post on forums more frequently is the time factor, as I do not like to give a partial answer, and a more complete answer takes time. However I do frequently post screenshots of Flickr, sometimes for reference or staff training and education, but mostly for public viewing. I find this quick and easy. Often we will use my Flickr uploads as the basis for an information/blog page on our main website.

 

Quality is often better than quantity.

 

 

 

 

 

[RogerBelmar]

I did order this 2018 1/4oz Krugerrand from Harrington & Byrne and it’s definitely a bargain at £249. All of H&B’s other coins are excessively overpriced and set at fixed prices rather than fluctuating gold and silver prices. The coin itself arrives in good condition encapsulated in an air-tite capsule with a COA from the company. I’ve never been swayed by such fancy accessories. Anyone interested in bargain 1/4oz Krugerrands, however, is much better off purchasing them from Chards at £242.31 from the secondary market. At least with Chards you get generous quantity breaks. Chards has them back in stock.