In September of my mother-in-law contacted Lear to buy gold after seeing their ads on Fox News. She and her invalid husband are living on social security and whatever income they can generate from their assets.
2. That same month, she purchased 47 numismatic gold coins from Lear in two installments for $108,719. Of this amount, $21,775 was the "spread" that represented the difference between her purchase price and Lear Capital's cost, which is approximately 25%.
3. The spot market price for gold at that time was just shy of $1,000 per ounce.
4. On Saturday, September 22, Lear informed us they would repurchase her coins for $61,841. The price of gold this week closed around $1,784. So, backing out Lear's "spread", her original investment had a market value of $86,944, and is now down to $61,841, which comes to a drop of 29%, without even factoring in the spread she paid for. During the same period, the spot market price of gold rose to $1784, which is an increase of 78%.
My mother-in-law is not a sophisticated investor, and had never heard of investing in numismatic gold coins until she called Lear. I have little doubt that their transaction was technicallyl legal, and that they gave her all of the requisite disclosures/fine print to protect their interests. I'm more interested in the ethical aspects of this business. They sold speculative gold coins to an elderly person living on social security with few liquid assets, yet apparently advised her to consider numismatic gold coins, when all she called for was gold.
Most amazing to me, when we called Lear with the simple request to tell us what the coin portfolio was worth, they went into "sales mode", stressing the uncertain economy, the coming election, the Fed's printing of money, etc. I recognize that fear is a prime tool that such outfits use in their sales pitch, especially to elderly prospects such as my mother-in-law, but I confess: I was truly amazed.
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