The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 5, February 4, 2007, Article 5

KARL MOULTON CALLS FOR ELIMINATION OF PRINTED COIN AUCTION CATALOGUES

In his Winter 2007 fixed price list Karl Moulton also comments on the
accelerated state of the rare coin market today and its effect on the
collecting of auction catalogs.  He writes: "It used to be 'buy the
book before the coin', now, it's 'buy a bookcase before the books or
catalogues that will come pouring in to entice you to buy the coins.'
Just one year's catalogues from the various auction companies can
equal 15 feet of shelf space if you keep them all."

"In the age of CDs and DVDs it remains an expensive and silly concept
for these companies to spend huge amounts on production costs for
temporary sales and pay the continuous postage expenses.  A 3x5
bookshelf would easily hold all the CDs and DVDs of all the coin
auctions for the next 50 years; and each company's bottom line profits
would actually increase! Why don't they get realistic?

"I, for one, believe it's time to make a change in the coin marketing
business, and do away with the printed auction catalogues that often
weigh several pounds each... Who agrees?"

[Not me, at least not yet.  In time I do believe the world Karl
envisions may come to pass, but I would argue that he's already
pinpointed the reason for the existence of so many beefy color
catalogs - to entice people to buy the coins.  Yes, images and
text are available online, yet it's having that glossy catalog in
hand that often entices people to bid.  Flipping thru the pages of
a catalog takes just seconds, and the human eye is drawn immediately,
almost subconsciously, to items of possible interest.  Online, it's
out of sight, out of mind.  Few buyers would sit for hours poking
thru online catalogs in the hopes of finding something they might
want to bid on.

The catalogs are, have always been, and shall always be a marketing
tool for the sellers.  And unless all competing firms make the same
change at once, the first firm to do so would be cutting their own
throat - without a catalog, interest would drop, or perhaps plummet.

The computer age has not led to the demise of the printed catalog in
other merchandising fields. The effect there has been the same as
in numismatics - the flow of catalogs has INCREASED and shows little
sign of slowing.  -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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