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That, plus send a well-written, straight-forward letter to the producers. Of course, they would most likely argue that people are free to spend their money as they please and it's up to them to do their own research.

I would, however, point out that saying that there are not a lot of these coins around is a lie. And quoting the price for a BU coin when you're actually selling a "Good" coin is false advertising.

If you show pictures of AU/BU coins and then sell Good coins, that is nothing like false advertising. Do you realize that HSN's customer satisfaction ratings are extremely high and they have a very small number of complaints? There are people that want to shop without learning and just have things delivered to them. There is nothing wrong with serving that segment of the market. Littleton has been doing it for 50 years.

It's bait and switch which is a deceptive trade practice.

My biggest gripe against them is that once again it is an example of corporations hiding behind the excuse of market capitalism as a defense against ethics. HSN and QVC and others prey on uninformed consumers with disposable income, namely, retired folks and the elderly. Along with many of the infomercial products, dietary supplements, skin care products, and worthless insurance policies, our senior citizens get scammed out of tens of millions of dollars per year all in the interest of making a quick buck.

HSN is allowed to pitch its coin products as investments without SEC and FTC regulation, depriving consumers of the organizations' defenses against Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, MLM garbage, and full disclosure of risks.

If they show a coin for sale, and the customer purchases and receives exactly that coin, that is ethical business and a faultless transaction.
The price paid isn't important (legally) - because that is an agreement between buyer and seller - it's whether or not you receive the product that you ordered.

Advertising a product in a described condition with a value based on that condition and then sending the purchaser an inferior, non-identical product of lesser value and not in the described condition is unethical and unlawful - it is fraud and deception. At least on ebay and Amazon you have some measure of buyer protection if what you order is not what you receive; with HSN and other shopping channels you have no such protection at all.

Should you desire to actually return something you bought from HSN, you will be delighted to know that they also run a returns scam, where they advertise "EZ Label Return" and free return shipping, but fail to openly disclose to consumers (it's buried deep in the fine print) that the vast majority of their products are ineligible for this service, and furthermore, in most cases you are only eligible to receive an item exchange or store credit, which expires after 1 year. In addition, the return window is limited to 30 days from the time of PURCHASE, not the date of RECEIPT. There have been numerous complaints filed with the BBB and FTC where the company sends out a defective product, which the buyer returns; they then ship a second defective product, sometimes taking over 30 days to exchange it, and when the buyer tries to return the second defective item, they are informed that the 30 day exchange/returns window has expired.

As a coin community we should all be against such practices because they damage the hobby and ruin future generations of collectors who begin to equate coins with scam investments when they go someday to sell the $20,000 worth of stuff Grandma bought and get offered $500.

Couldn't agree more paralyse. Hopefully we here at CCF can serve as a defense against these schemes by being a source of information for those contemplating such purchases.