you are right. the same thing happens at all auctions just not ebay or heritage. it even happens on the local auction. auctions are never about fair prices they are always about winning that's what makes them so successful. my submission is we cannot look at heritage auctions and use that as a benchmark for actual prices. My apologies to GD for the following example. We all know that GD is knowledgeable. some of you who know me also consider me knowledgeable. have I overpaid for coins from time to time? absolutely. I bet if you ask GD you will get the same answer. find me one knowledgeable collector who has never overpaid for a coin willingly. I think we are taking a huge leap of faith if we start saying that such a thing happens only at one auction site and not the other. we are showing a certain level of hubris by calling ourselves knowledgeable while we don't have the numbers to back it while the so called idiots are laughing themselves to the bank. we should also consider that if someone is spending $10 they might have fun even if they don't get anything from it, but the guy who spends $10000 will know what they are doing before they drop the money. which is better to be a novice collector and spend $500 and lose it while having fun or to be a know all expert who spends a million and then is happy to make 400k back after years of collecting? just a thought for us to consider if we find any merit in it.
Interesting discussion. As a newbie without the experience or grading skills of an expert, I see the value-added of a top-tier slab. Many of the coins I'm interested are expensive (> $1000) and known targets of counterfeiters. I couldn't imagine going into the marketplace without the protection and insurance a slab provides. I'll happily pay extra for it. I'm still very selective on what I buy, but it absolutely must be in a premium slab to protect me from making an expensive mistake.
I think ICG is fine. You don't have to be a member, their slabs aren't bootlegged, they use intercept in their slabs, the employees and owners don't also deal coins. I think a big part of the hype behind NGC and PCGS is the sheeplike mentality of collectors.
I would still buy an ICG or for that matter ANACS coin...if I liked the coin. I would at least put enough confidence in the slab that the coin was authentic (which is worth something) and grade on my own.
I agree absolutely. I trade in Canadian coins and many of them are graded by ICCS. Their grading may be a bit more different than NGC of PCGS, most notably that they will certify a grade on a problem coin, but at least you know what you are buying. I'm curious to see what some of my ICCS coins will cross to when I do submit them to PCGS, since I think ICCS sees many more Canadian coins than does their US contemporaries.
I think you may actually be pleasantly surprised...ICCS has a good reputation of grading conservatively, and I have seen coins go up a grade or two when crossed over to PCGS or NGC. Serious Canadian collectors will often times pay more of a premium for an equally graded ICCS coin, or even ONLY buy ICCS.
I have a few ICCS graded coins, and I would agree that they are accurately graded or deserve a point higher in general. I just wish they would have hard slabs.
This was my though (about the slabs). It seems odd that, although securely sealed, they are little more than mylar flips. Odd, if you ask me.
Looks like a sealed thingy for coins from the Canadian Mint - which I have been changing out for air-tites.
Not even close. ANACS is a respectable #3 in the TPG industry. While nobody is saying that there are are lots of nice coins in ICG slabs, their grading is very haphazard, in my experiences.
That depends on the specific time period you are talking about. There was a time when it was generally accepted that older coins in ICG slabs were graded correctly. And there was a time when coins in older ANACS slabs were considered graded correctly. But in today's world, coins recently graded by both companies are suspect. Now I'll grant you that not everybody agreed with those ideas, but people who know coins did.
I can accept everything you say except for the last sentence. That implies that anybody that doesn't agree with your opinion "doesn't know coins." Nothing could be farther from the truth, as the hobby has lots of "opinions." but few "absolutes.