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When I was in my 30s, I knew a man named John Gromak.  He was a salesman at a local hi fi salon.  I would occasionally stop by the store, chat with John and check out the latest audio gear.  John spent a fair amount of time demonstrating equipment for me and helping me learn about high-end audio.   At some point, I ended up buying an Audio Research preamplifier that he had demonstrated for me, from a competitor.  I was caught off guard when he called me and asked me why I didn’t make the purchase from him – since he was the one who introduced me to the product.  Up until that moment, it had never dawned on me that it would have been the right thing to do, and at the very least, I should have asked him for a quote.  His point was well taken because I never forgot what he said, and here it is, some 35 years later and I am writing about the experience.

Two months ago, I received a call at home from a lady who lives in Minneapolis.   She said that a friend of hers who had purchased gold from me several years ago and was very satisfied with the transaction referred her to me.  She wanted to spend a million dollars and needed to be educated.  She had many questions and we spent an hour and a half on the phone.  I had my son Andy get back to her to finalize the sale since he is involved in the day-to-day affairs of the business and I am pretty much on the sidelines these days, reading and writing.

Well, this lady spent hours and hours of Andy’s time asking the same questions over and over again.  A couple of weeks ago, she told Andy that a friend of hers wanted to join in with her on the purchase and wanted learn about gold and silver and how to move her IRA into physical metals.  Andy made a special trip to the office at 6:30 in the morning to meet with her and answer all of her questions.  The total order, between the two ladies, now totaled around $1.3 million.  After we had done all the work for these ladies, they decided to price-shop Miles Franklin.  They checked out everyone on the Internet and eventually found the lowest price in the industry and compared it to our quote.  We were $2,000 higher – on an order for $1,300,000!  Without even giving Andy the courtesy to meet the price, they placed the order with a stranger, halfway across the country to save .0015%.  We had done all the work – all the education and all the handholding and in the end, they purchased from a total stranger in order to save $2.50 an ounce.  Geeze!  Gold can move up or down that much in the time it takes to lock in an order after we make a quote on the phone.  For $2.50 an ounce, all of the work that we did for them meant nothing.

When Andy called her to see if she was ready to place the order, she told him that they had already ordered from another firm, but she would probably buy a little more from him, eventually.  Without being rude, Andy told her not to bother calling him – ever again; he had no interest in doing any business with her in the future.  I have never seen him soooo mad!  “Dad,” he said, “they wasted so much of my time and then bought from someone else for a measly couple of bucks a coin.”

I don’t know whether she was one of those buyers who only cares about price, and mind you that is fine, but then don’t waste people’s time and buy elsewhere.  That is the message that John Gromak gave me when I was 35 years old.  He was absolutely correct.  It is a lesson this lady, who is in her 60s, should have learned a long time ago.

This is not uncommon.  I have an acquaintance who lives in the same building I do in Aventura.  I have spent so many hours educating him about the economy and precious metals that I have lost track.  Before we started talking, he knew absolutely nothing about precious metals.  All of his money was in CDs.  He has never purchased anything from me, but since I opened his eyes to the benefits of gold and silver, and the reasons not to have all of his money in dollars, he purchased a million dollars worth – from other people.  Yesterday, he told me, “David, I purchased some more gold recently,” I said, “You should be ashamed of yourself for not buying it from me!”  He made up some flimsy excuse but he really doesn’t have a clue of what proper behavior is.  He places no value on other people’s time and expertise.  The world is full of people like my neighbor and the two ladies who so angered Andy.

I wonder how many of you who read my daily and Ranting Andy Hoffman’s daily and educate yourselves courtesy of our free state-of-the-art daily information, buy gold and silver elsewhere, without even giving us a chance to be competitive.  You know, apart from all the time we put into getting you this information every day, it costs a lot of money to do it.  We pay our bills by selling precious metals.

Our prices are very competitive.  In the case I just discussed, we were within .0015% of the lowest price in the entire industry.  That said, I happen to believe that price is not everything and actually is not even the most important factor in deciding whom to buy your metals from.  We go the extra mile and then some, with the best service and education in the industry.  Our buy back prices are the best you will ever find.  Our reputation should allow you to sleep at night, knowing you will get exactly what you paid for and it will be shipped in a timely fashion.  We offer so much.  So much more than most of the other fine firms in our business that we would like to think we at least deserve a chance to quote you on your next purchase.  If you find that you are benefiting from our newsletters, think about giving us a call.  At least see what we have to offer.  It is really the right thing to do.  It took John Gromak to open MY eyes to this, many years ago, and ever since, I have respected other people’s time and expertise to the extent that if I benefit from their time and knowledge, I will always give them a chance to earn my business.