Forgive my ignorance on this. New to collecting. I have been doing some more purchasing of things just to kind of get my feet wet as I sort through older coins in inherited. I have found I kind of like Mint sets, the jury is still out on silver proof sets. However, Mint sets are cheap enough to me, it lets me appreciate some of the newer coins or coins that have been around in my lifetime that I really didn't notice before. I have got quite a few at a few dollars over face value of the coins. I have also learned quite a bit researching the mint sets and cost. Like 2012, I have not bought yet as the price was really high. Researching they didn't make that many that year. Anyway I purchased a 2016 SLQ, because why not. Being new, I thought it was a cool coin, not only that my first gold coin. Plus I had the extra cash. Pretty safe coin to buy as it is coming form the US Mint. The coin was bought specifically for me and me alone to have an appreciate. Quite honestly it may be one I treasure for a long time, it is my first gold coin. Ok I plan to buy the new WLH when it becomes available, which then I look at it and say well I might as well try to get the dime. This way I have a full set. Reading through the forum and so on I will wait a while as I am sure they will go down in price. Too many sold in large quantities to flippers. It not crucial I get it either. Maybe some of the returns will come up for sale from the mint. I did go take a look at them on ebay though which leads to my question. To me, being this is newly released, why not keep it in the original box, original holders. I guess since I have been buying some of the mint sets I appreciate the packaging as well. I think it adds to the coins. I do understand slabbing and grading but you know they are all pretty much 69 or 70. I can fully see this with circulated coins, especially older coins to help preserve them and grade them. The beautiful Ancients in the Ancient forum, most definitely. But this is a 2016 release that comes in what I consider great packaging. The ones that are slabbed don't come with the original box or materials either. They are selling those separately. So I guess I just don't get it. Maybe it is just my other collecting knowledge outside of coins coming into play. Like I have some of the late 70's star wars figures in original packages. I guess I just appreciate these new 2016 coins in the original packaging over the slabs. I must be missing something here. I do plan on getting the dime maybe later this year or next year. I am in no rush it's not overly that important to me. I do have other much cheaper coins I would like to have more. However I personally would snub my nose at the slabbed ones vs one in all original packaging as I consider that part of the purchase as well. Sorry if this is a silly question, but I figure I must be missing something. Maybe I am just missing this is a flipper trying to take advantage of people thinking slabbing makes them worth more. I don't really know, so with all the other great advice I have received here I figured I would ask.
Because the 70s are worth more than the dogs (69s). Yeah I know, crazy, but that's the game. Buy them, slab them, flip them, hoping to break even on the 69s and make money on the 70s. I posted the math in another thread, but something like this: Buy 2 @ 485, $100 for slabing, so you are into them for $1,100... Normal % is 50/50 so you get 1 69 and 1 70 Sell the 69 for $500 Sell the 70 for $750 Make $150 before selling fees
So they are still 69 or 70 in original packaging. Why slab then vs leave in original packaging? Just without official grading. To me I wouldn't pay 500 for slabbed version, I would rather have one in original packaging. So that's my question why slab? Is the answer Just to make more money as a flipper? This just to fool people on ebay. Like the people buying slabbed slq already?
Ok then more thinking about your answer with the math. That doesn't make sense to me either. So say someone buys 2. Why not look at them under a microscope, send the best one off to be graded then sell the other in original packaging since you know it will be a 69. You would probably end up making more money this way. Actually looking on Ebay today, the mercury dimes in original packaging are selling for more than the slabbed 70's. So maybe I am correct in my thinking? In the long run original packaging worth more?
The only reason is to facilitate resale down the road, since so many of your potential customers aren't sophisticated enough to realize the slab adds no intrinsic value whatsoever.
Can you so easily identify a guaranteed 70 from a 69? Honest question. Aside from this, you've made it clear your desire is to keep the coin for personal enjoyment, so why worry about what others are doing if you prefer the original packaging? I certainly could be wrong, but I'm getting the idea that you're focusing on what others are doing and/or potential value instead of simply making yourself happy. Trust me on this... too much of the former will ensure you don't get enough of the latter.
Me, nope, I would figure someone doing this could though. To me it wouldn't matter. I am not worried, I am more curious as to me it just doesn't make sense. To me this is like take buying a new action figure from a toy store, hoping it will be collectible, removing it from the original packaging and sealing it in a cube of plastic. As someone more familiar with those kind of collectibles. Removing from the original packaging makes it worth less. They actually sell plastic containers for the action figure in the original packaging as well. So I am curious as to why this is not so with coins or commemorative of this type in where they do actually come in a well designed original package. Or another way to look at it. Looking at the new Ronald Reagan Coin and Spouse Medal set, I look at it and say very nice, however if I were to buy it I would want it in the original packaging it came from the mint in. Again that's just me However say for example only 1000 of these were made, would people be breaking them out of the original packaging and slabbing them? If so why? Wouldn't this hurt the value? I guess why wouldn't the original packaging make them more valuable as to where people would want to keep them together. This question is truly only out of curiosity as I do not understand why people are slabbing the new mercury dime and the SLQ. I have my SLQ and am quite happy with it. I am just trying to figure out the why people are slabbing them? I mean there must be a reason they are spending this extra money? As I said I can understand slabbing older coins for protection, to stop corrosion, etc. However, these are coins that do not come in special boxes or boxed sets and are hundred and thousands of years old. I am not trying to figure out how to make mine more valuable, I am just trying to understand the why people would slab them vs leave them in original packaging. To me that makes them less valuable as it is destroying the original packaging which personally adds value to me. Maybe value and worth are the wrong words to use. How about Collectable. Wouldn't keeping things like the Mercury dime or the SLQ in the original packaging make them more collectable? Why or Why not?
Because unfortunately we are now in a society of collectors that worships the slab. The coin is not of great importance, the slab and number on the label, sometime the designation on the label are the be all and end all. If it is not in the "right" companies holder and blessed with a nosebleed grade, preferably with a meaningless First Strike designation, then it is lower than dirt and not worthy of gracing their cabinet. If it does have those wonders that it is something to cherish, even if the coin is an unappealingly dog. After the selling fees (13% or $162.50) and the grading fees about ($50 or so) and you have a net loss of $62.50 not including shipping costs to the buyer.
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Ok that makes sense. I was beginning to wonder if that was the only reason. I kind of like my coin collecting better. I look at and appreciate the coin for the coin and not the number grade. I mean I do understand the grading, and from reading and looking at other peoples pictures and things I do understand where a more visual appealing coin, has a higher grade even I can see that and seeing the difference from good to very fine is obvious to me. But the taking a brand new in the mint coin and slabbing it wasn't making sense to me since everything is pretty much a very high grade. Doing it just to put a number on it because people value that slab and number more. To me that is destroying part of the coin. However if there are people that value it that way then that makes sense of why to do it.
@JeffsRealm I appreciate the clarification, sir; thank you. There may be countless reasons for why some prefer slabbed over OGP, or at least as many reasons as their are coins available, but a big part of it imo is marketing. This hobby is far from immune to the very same marketing we're targeted for in other circles. The TPGs, no matter how valuable of a service they can at times provide, do not exist for the benefit of the hobby or collector; they're businesses first and foremost, and as with any real business, they're in it for the money. The more they can make collectors think they need their services, even if with gimmicks or unnecessary holdering, the better off they are, especially when we consider the fact that the time comes when there simply isn't enough older coins in need of slabs to pay the bills. There's certainly nothing wrong with this, but the wise collector (or dealer or individual) needs to recognize this in order to use it in ways that will instead benefit them. Other likely possibilities are the very human desire to have the "best", even when something actually being the best is open to debate. There's also the likewise human desire for approval. A coin still residing in the OGP could be either one of the best examples produced or one of the worst, and in the eyes of regretfully many, the TPGs put this question to rest. Then there's the very regrettable fact that a sad number of collectors today simply cannot or will not do for themselves. They don't invest the time into leaning how to grade or any other necessary part of the hobby other than buying coins, and such people suit the TPG just fine. I could go on and on, but the point should be more clear now. It's up to each individual to decide for themselves what they'll like or enjoy the most, and if that's TPG plastic, so be it. That said, your feelings on original packaging are shared by many and who knows... in time may just prove to be correct.
This is the point - we all like it our way. Those who collect for fun can make up their own rules and get a lot of enjoyment out of their coins. Those whose hobby is not coins but profiting from chasing the current fads will gain enjoyment if they guess right and hate the hobby if the guess wrong. My personal rules require I only buy coins that really are coins and really were spendable at some point in time. My most recent purchase's time was c.500 BC and cost less than half yours. In a hundred years we will both be dead and someone else will own our prizes. Meanwhile, I intend to enjoy my unpopular purchases as much as I can and not care in the least whether my grandson gets 20% or 2000% of the issue price. If you tire of chasing the fads set by investors, search Coin Talk and find the areas that cater to those interested more in the metal contents than in the plastic containers. We are here.
@BooksB4Coins Thanks for the very clear explanation. I didn't think about the Human desire to have the best either. I can understand that as I have been pulled into that as well in other things but only to get myself out of that when I realized I was doing that to have the best and not for the enjoyment because it wasn't enjoyable anymore it was more like work then. @dougsmit Thanks, it is funny you mention that as well as I was thinking the same thing. The things I am buying are for me, however I am buying pretty safely, as I am learning. I was thinking about that too that after I die, I sure hope someone enjoys my SLQ in the original packaging because that's what it is staying in. Like I said I am still learning, but I regularly browse the Ancient Coin forum. I must say I am attracted to them and have enjoyed that forum the most. Especially when people give the history of the coin and the story and the era which the coin came from. I found myself this morning looking up on the internet all kinds of articles about the Chinese coin knives. For some reason I find them really interesting. Someday I will start buying some of those. But I think I need to learn a lot more before taking that plunge. I don't think I am chasing fads, but for me more playing safe while I learn. However also going back and being able to look at coins that were around since i have been alive but never really truly looked at until now. For me learning and experiencing is the enjoyment. However I need to kind of dabble and try things here and there before jumping in. For now I feel comfy in U.S. currency coins. I am not afraid to break out, as I kind of did buying the SLQ, I just want to learn more before I do. Its kind of like drinking fine Scotch or fine wines. I used to drink whiskey, Jack and Jim Beam, I thought they were good, mixed with coke they are. Then someone introduced me to Scotches, then I began to learn how to taste them and enjoy them properly, to understand the different types of flavors from the nose to the finish. To now I have my own mini barrels of Scotch Aging on the mantel. It wasn't until I started aging my own where I really learned to appreciate them. To appreciate the flavors the wood placed into the whiskey and why. While drinking the scotches are whiskey are great the learning and the process of doing it yourself which takes years for one bottle is the enjoyment. Ok I do take a lot of enjoyment drinking them too, but you get the idea. ;-)
Well, what are you waiting for? PM us or create a thread asking for advise, and well be all to happy to guide you into the dark side...you know you want to.
You don't like Kool Aid? Good for you Jeff. Collect as you see fit, and not as others do. Your arguments for why you collect in a certain manner make perfect sense to me. The only plastic my moderns are entombed in is OGP (original goober packaging). I like most of the mint packaging too, though at times it is bulky.
