Blanchard charged me a premium over spot of $136 for each Liberty Head Double Eagle $20 VF random date when spot was $850 on May 1. That's a huge 16% premium, much more than the fairdealing competition's prevalent average of 6% to 7% at that time.
Yes, I was new to the gold coin market and, yes, I believe Blanchard took full advantage of my ignorance. The salesman asked, "Have you ever purchased gold coins before?". To which I answered, "No". I was lazy in believing that such a competitive market would keep prices roughly equal among competitors. I was wrong. I wrote several letters of complaint to Blanchard's management hierarchy from the top down, but they never responded.
I will never deal with Blanchard again. I made subsequent online purchases from Tulving, APMEX, and Gainesville Coin, and I have no complaints with those firms' prices and performance.
I have noticed that Blanchard now, 3 years after my dealings with them, appears to offer online webstore purchasing for some of their coins at fixed prices quoted on their webstore page. However, the fine print I've seen throughout their website states that your order is not complete until Blanchard calls you back to "confirm" your order and "lock in" your price. I would exercise extreme caution during that call-back against the possibility of attempts to change the webstore prices or "up-selling" to other higher priced "investment grade" coins.
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