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Replies: 21 / Views: 2,697 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
876 Posts |
Coin wise.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
94367 Posts |
Littleton is not truly a coin dealer, but closer to a newspaper insert hustler like the Bradford Exchange with its junk commemorative plates. This company sells good quality collector coins at over-the-top prices, but depends mostly on junk like "starter sets", "WWII issues" and gold-plated Buffalo nickels to survive, as it has for decades. It's a marketing company - not a coin dealer.
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Moderator
 United States
34393 Posts |
@dow, to echo the frog, I think that you can find better deals on coins elsewhere.
"If you climb a good tree, you get a push." -----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed." -----King Adz
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1484 Posts |
They'll suck you in with a deal that's not really a good deal, then make you feel guilty if you don't buy overpriced coins on approval.
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Moderator
 United States
56855 Posts |
Short answer,no. John1 
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2280 Posts |
Nope
You realize when you know how to think, it empowers you far beyond those who know only what to think.
-Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Moderator
 Australia
16804 Posts |
The only "deals" you might routinely find from Littleton are the "bait" deals: the coins intended to entice you onto their mailing list. Once you're on, they start sending you much more expensive coins, and billing you for them.
The only way to get good deals from Littleton is to "steal the bait": accept the limited-time introductory offer, but include a note in your order requiring that you don't get put on any mailing list and advising them you will refuse to pay for any further coins sent to you. Then tell your credit card company not to process any more payments from Littleton.
Littleton's "perfect customer" is someone who is too shy, timid or introverted to ever return a purchase or cancel the contract.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Valued Member
United States
218 Posts |
Littleton's quarterly coin catalogs were actually a big part of what increased my awareness of and interest in coins back in the day...should I be embarrassed now?  I concur with the rest of the responses, though. They do offer some good stuff (albeit at rather overinflated prices), but they peddle a lot of sets of junk as well, including plenty of colorized and gold-plated coins. At 8 years old, I thought some of that stuff was neat; now I just want to get rid of it but I'm not even sure my local coin dealer would touch it. Their "coins on approval" stuff is something YOU have to opt out of - and it has caught a lot of customers off-guard over the decades. A lot of people have ended up billed hundreds of dollars for stuff they didn't know they signed up to get, which is a VERY risky and arguably unethical way to do business.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
584 Posts |
I answered an ad that was selling 6 Sacagawea dollars the 2018-2020 P & D set for the face value of $6. They also threw in a penny. You can keep getting cheap coins from littleton if you keep unsubscribing. However, if you don't unsubscribe, they'll keep sending you coins you don't want then ask for them back with you paying for the return shipping.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1648 Posts |
Everything posted above I agree with such as to be informed about the intro deals that are linked to clubs and their regular sending of coins to buy unless you cancel. The second issue is that they have their own graders and so many coins listed as uncirculated may actually be picked over bottom examples in some cases based on the grade they actually show on the coin sale listing, 'uncirculated' can be MS60 only in their grading. It would have to say Gem Uncirculated-65 to be a MS65. So pay close attention to grade listed for items vs this list. https://www.littletoncoin.com/LCC/h...tandards.pdfMost of what you find there can be found elsewhere for less and also you have possibility to find higher grades that werent picked through unlike at littleton due to their own grading. There are occasionally deals such as online-only has some on their site and when they have sales with coupons, but the main ones that are worthwhile would be new items where they didnt pick them over grade wise. Otherwise your coins may be exactly as ordered, just possibly a higher price if your not paying attention.
Edited by datadragon 08/20/2022 12:59 pm
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
7174 Posts |
All they are in business for is to separate uninformed people and their money.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
3634 Posts |
More than 50 years ago, when I first started buying coins by mail, Littleton was one company I used a time or two. Didn't take me too long to learn to avoid them...
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Pillar of the Community
United States
797 Posts |
I agree with above comments, steer clear of Littleton.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3402 Posts |
I too purchased coins from Littleton when I was a lad (late 60's)...I enjoyed receiving their monthly approval selections. Littleton got me interested in foreign coins...an area I still enjoy. I used Littleton as a stepping stone in my advancement from accumulator to collector to Numismatist. I just can't knock them from my point of view. They are expensive and there are no deals...but they can start you on the collecting road.
KK
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3207 Posts |
Their intro offers are usually quite inexpensive, and I've never seen them overgrade a coin, usually what is delivered ends up a higher grade than promised. Can be a reasonable way to get started, but the prices of coins in their catalog will take your breath away, not in a good sense. Prices of coins on approval are not quite as high as the catalog, but you can usually find that material for less elsewhere.
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Moderator
 United States
187446 Posts |
I also got coins on approval from Littleton when I was a kid. Most of my LWC and Buffalo nickels came from them. I have no regrets, but it is not really something I would recommend now.
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Replies: 21 / Views: 2,697 |