Don’t Buy European Gold or Rare Coins – Gold Dealer Ripoff And Media Bias Exposed

How do you know if you are getting ripped off from your gold dealer?

I thought I would add some more thoughts to my original article Warning! The Gold Dealer Scam – Don’t Get Ripped Off When Buying Gold and Silver as to how gold dealers ripoff unsuspecting buyers of gold. But I also want to address media bias when it comes to me getting the word out to keep investors from getting ripped off when buy gold and silver. It seems some in the media don’t want you to learn how to buy gold and silver and I’m writing this article to expose their blatant bias.

Gold is getting more and more attention from the average investor of late. Even Jim Cramer from CNBC’s “Mad Money” has been pushing gold the past month telling everyone that “they need gold,” and recommending investors put up to 20% of one’s portfolio into the precious metal. Jim Cramer also correctly points out that gold is a currency and I have to give him credit for that.

But most people who hear about gold, do so from a radio or television commercial where some talk show host is recommending they buy gold like the following promotion from Goldline International.

But what makes these talk show hosts experts in hawking gold for gold dealers? Do they have any experience in investments? The answer is no, they do not. While Glenn Beck may have a good following of loyal listeners, and he may know his history a bit, he does not understand that the company he is promoting is charging their clients for the same kind of gold coins that could be bought elsewhere for much less.

But it is the coins all these gold dealers promote, primarily the Swiss francs, British Sovereign’s and French Roosters, that I question as to why anyone would buy them when they can buy American Gold Eagle coins for much less premium over spot. The reason people pay more for these coins is they are talked into it by the gold sales person. No offense to anyone, but the gold sales person takes advantage of the complete ignorance the investor has when it comes to buying gold.

Media Bias Against the Truth Being Known About Gold Dealer’s Ripoff Tactics

Even worse, I tried to first expose gold dealers in July of 2009, well before Anthony Weiner and company or anyone else started attacking Glenn Beck and his relationship with Goldline. How did I do this? I had written the first version of my book in May of that year detailing the ripoff and wrote to the editor of the Christian Science Monitor and told them I had a good story for them about how gold dealers were ripping people off.

I made a copy of what I sent the Christian Science Monitor which you’ll find it below;

Millions of listeners everyday hear commercials touting investing in gold on such shows as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin to name a few.  But what happens when folks call into these companies that do the advertising? These companies, known in the industry as “Gold Dealers,” take advantage of people’s ignorance about gold and utilize a bait and switch technique in selling individuals coins with a mark-up of 30% to 40% over the spot price of gold.

My pitch is to write an article that exposes this Gold Dealer tactic to help individuals make good decisions about investing in gold and not get ripped off.  How do I know they’re getting ripped off?  I worked for one of the largest Gold Dealers and left to write a book to help investors keep and grow their wealth by investing in gold the right way and expose the Gold Dealer scam.

I received no reply and was surprise by this. It wasn’t until much later that I realized the Christian Science Monitor was actually the recipient of advertising dollars from Goldline. Take a closer look at the screen shot above, and you will see their name listed under “As seen in.”

The same goes for the LA Times who you will also see is the recipient of Goldline’s advertising dollars. I had contacted a reporter there to share my story about gold dealers ripping people off and he wasn’t interested.

It seems that congress, the NY Times and the Santa Monica city attorney aren’t interested any longer either.  I was interviewed by the NY Times for a story that was supposed to appear September 26, 2010, but it never surfaced. Instead, the NY Times did an article basically praising Glenn Beck with only a slight mention of his gold dealer relationship.

With the subsequent release of my book, “Buy Gold and Silver Safely,” I had approached others in getting the story out about gold, thinking they would appreciate my efforts in getting the truth out. These include Lew Rockwell from http://lewrockwell.com, a strong advocate of gold ownership, and Chris Powell from the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) whom I had both sent copies of my book.

Neither of these folks even mentioned anything about my book, although I had promoted their causes. I believe these two to be avid inflationist who don’t understand the deflationary credit contraction we are currently experiencing. This despite the fact that I have 100 footnotes for the Chapter (4) from mostly Austrian economists.

Rockwell and Powel, among others like Schiff and Gary North have been talking inflation forever, yet treasuries have been strong. Why is that? Do they have an explanation for this?

You’ll have to read Chapter 4 of my book to find out why and just know, it’s the real reason why gold and silver are moving higher. It sure as heck isn’t as a result of higher inflation, at least represented by the CPI that’s on its second year of zero increases of Social Security payments to seniors. And yes, I know the CPI isn’t indicative of inflation, but it does represent some of the picture. It just so happens that gold moves higher in deflation too.

Seeking Alpha Editors Biased Too

But there is one more complaint I have about media bias and this comes from Seeking Alpha. After battling it out with Seeking Alpha last year for not having a category that represents physical gold and silver as it deserved to be an investment category that hedged U.S. dollar risk (U.S. stocks, U.S. corporate bonds, U.S. government bonds, CD’s etc.) they have since added two sections for “Precious Metals” and “Gold Price.”

Recently I decided to start writing what they call “Instablog’s” for them again, as they have a good reach to investors. They take an Instablog and if it is compelling enough to the editors, they make it an “article” and post it on their main page to be read by all. If it stays an Instablog, it doesn’t get read by anyone.

I have written 6 Instablogs and 4 of them Seeking Alpha made articles. But it was the two Instablogs they did not make articles that I wrote them to complain about. These were the two that offered my expertise as an insider in the gold dealer industry, exposing their ripoff tactics, exposing Glenn Beck’s ignorance and Anthony Weiner’s attempts at more regulation as wrongheaded. It was the education of the individual gold investor where I wanted Seeking Alpha readers to be aware of these things and make good decisions.  But it seems the editors at Seeking Alpha don’t want you to know about these things.

Here’s a screen shot of the articles I wrote, with the last being a Seeking Alpha “Editor’s Pick.”

The two Instablog titles they decided not to post were;

Glenn Beck vs. Rep. Anthony Weiner, Who’s Right? An Insider’s View Into the Gold Dealer Industry

and

Gold Confiscation Won’t Happen Today

Again I ask, who better to expose the industry than an insider? Who is out to protect the gold investor if the media is so biased against you learning the truth? Of course I didn’t receive a reply back from Seeking Alpha yet as to why they refuse to inform investors, and I risk them canceling my ability to post good articles there, but I have to speak out about this blatant bias. Every article I wrote for them I replied to the comments of people in the comment section. Anyone who has been reading the articles I write here knows my goal is to help educate first, and that’s why I wrote the book, Buy Gold and Silver Safely. I’ve been writing on sites like Richard Russell’s Dow Theory Letters and Doug Gnazzo’s Honest Money Report for years in their forums before they closed them down and decided to just put my words out there for the public to see with my own site which I have been doing for almost three years now.

So all I have is my book and my perch here at Buy Gold and Silver Safely to get the word out about how gold dealers ripoff unsuspecting buyers of gold and make the case for a deflationary credit contraction that is the real reason gold and silver AND treasuries are stronger. I am hiring a company to help with the marketing and Google seems to be showing my site more love with each article I write. I just wish I had time to write more as there is so much to say these days!

One thing I am seeing occurring though is my business is growing quickly as the word is getting out about how I only charge 1% over my costs for buying bullion gold and silver.

What Makes All I Do Worth the Effort

I receive many calls each week from people who understand why they need to be invested in gold and silver, but are tired of the gold sales person trying to convince them to buy rare or European coins. Last week I had someone call and tell me they were about to buy gold from a gold dealer who was trying to have them buy some rare coins. These rare coins, they were told, were not the type of coins that could be confiscated. But they found me because someone had read my article debunking confiscation. See; Gold Confiscation Nonsense; How Some Gold Dealers Rip You Off.

They told me that they were going to be charged 30% in commissions and wanted to know what I was charging. I told them I don’t sell rare coins and I recommend they buy only gold and silver bullion coins as what they really need is to buy the most gold for their money. Then I told them I only charge 1% for these coins. They couldn’t be happier. Here is the note they sent me after doing business with Buy Gold and Silver Safely.

Our gold purchase experience has been made truly gratifying, owing much to your personal, thoughtful, knowledgeable, generous and honest service to us.

Thank you for all you have done to aid us and ease the cloak of mystery surrounding these matters, for the beleaguered American citizen. Thank you also, Doug, for the e-book you sent, which will make us wiser still.

About Doug Eberhardt

Doug Eberhardt is a 28 year financial services veteran and precious metals broker selling gold and silver at 1% over wholesale cost. Doug has written a book to help investors understand how gold and silver fit into a diversified portfolio, how to buy gold and silver, and what metals to buy. The book; “Buy Gold and Silver Safely” is available by clicking here Contact phone number for Buy Gold and Silver Safely is 888-604-6534