The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 29, July 22, 2007, Article 23

HOUSTON PRESS ARTICLE RECOUNTS BOILER-ROOM COIN SALES TACTICS

The week the Houston Press published an in-depth article about the
lawsuit against Michael Fuljenz' numismatic marketing companies.
Here are several excerpts, but there is much more to be found in
the original article.

"The 2004 magazine ad for Silver American Eagles that caught Maureen
O'Neill's eye included a thumbnail history and some mumbo jumbo about
the coins being "certified gem brilliant uncirculated" and "sonically
sealed in a tamper-evident holder." But the 74-year-old widow and
retired nurse didn't understand or care about any of that.

"O'Neill just figured that filling out the coupon would save a trip
to the mall: "I thought they would make nice Christmas presents for
my son and son-in-law."

"Two weeks later, O'Neill received a phone call from the Beaumont-based
company that sold her the silver. The salesman was extremely personable,
eager to hear all about her newly adopted grandson. The salesman
also learned that she lived alone in Connecticut, and that her family
resided out of state. It seemed he had all day just to chitchat. She
enjoyed the attention.

"So, what the heck, she bought some more coins. "I spent a couple
thousand here, a few thousand there." And her phone kept ringing.

"O'Neill would return home from shopping to several urgent messages
on her answering machine. 'I told them I didn't want any more; I
wasn't a collector,'  she says. 'I cried on the phone; I hung up;
but they just kept pushing.'

"Following the salesman's advice, O'Neill eventually moved her money
out of stocks, bonds and IRA accounts and put it all into rare coins.
She maxed out her credit cards and took out a $50,000 home equity
loan, all for coins she knew next to nothing about. Only that the
salesman assured her they were safe, stellar investments. And that
she needed to buy them — now.

"During the next 15 months, O'Neill invested more than $180,000 in
coins — her entire life savings. Appraisers later revealed her
collection had been overvalued by about 50 percent, she says.

"Today O'Neill is a plaintiff in a lawsuit against several related
Beaumont-based companies with very official-sounding names: 1st
National Reserve, 1st American Reserve, First Fidelity Reserve and
Universal Coin & Bullion. The rare-coin companies gross more than
$100 million a year, almost exclusively in phone sales. All
operate out of the same nondescript property.

"Michael Fuljenz trains his salespeople that customers do three things:
lie, puke and say no. It means they lie about personal finances, puke
excuses and ultimately say no to purchasing rare coins.

"His staff of several dozen salespeople, who call thousands of people
across the country every day, are taught to overcome these obstacles
by 'isolating objections' and 'finding out where the money is.'

"But Fuljenz is uncomfortable with the notion that he promotes
high-pressure sales. He prefers to call his employees by another
name: enthusiastic.

"Fuljenz writes the esteemed monthly newsletter Investor's Profit
Advisory and has authored several self-published books that have
won awards from the Numismatic Literary Guild, a national trade
group based in New Jersey. "Some say we have too many awards, that
we give one to everybody," says Ed Reiter, executive director of
the guild and senior editor of COINage magazine.

"In depositions taken last summer, Rollins and several other
former salespeople provided a description of the inner workings
of the Beaumont-based coin companies that contradicts Fuljenz's
claims and provides support for the scores of former customers
seeking redress."

To read the complete article, see:
Full Story

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

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