Certified VS. Raw coins

There seems to be an ongoing debate between certified and raw coins between collectors. As a dealer, it seems that certified coins seem to sell much better online, where the raw coins are hot items at coin shows. As collectors, what do you prefer?

 

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It depends for me. For the majority of coins I will take them raw, but I will only buy trade dollars and old half dollars once they are graded.

 

I prefer slabs. They stay protected, are guaranteed authentic, and so much easier to sell. Numerous other reasons, but those are what I deem to be the most important reasons for me.

 

I buy mostly online so I prefer graded coins. I also prefer them when buying in person, but then it comes down to price in that case.

 

For me it depends on the rarity and the price at the time I am buying.

 

I don't own any stabbed coins. I don't have any problems with the professionally graded coins, I just have never really sought out any coins that would benefit my collection by being slabbed.

 

That debate ended a while ago. As time goes on more and more are getting graded and the raw only crowd shrinks.

 

As far as buying coins I couldn't care less whether they are slabbed or raw. However, any slabbed coin that I do buy seems to magically become raw once I get it home.

 

I collect a lot of raw commems, but my higher end coins (commems) are in coffins (slabs) because I can't trust myself to make a decision.........

 

I collect both, generally the more expensive the coin the more likely I am to buy certified, likewise with MS or proof coins I tend to go with professionally graded.

 

Certified coins are are far superior to raw coins. No debate

 

What a silly question, raw coins can be faked or have flaws, while graded coins are inspected by professionals.

 

I can't say the same for ICG or ANACS though

 

The benefits of slabbed are there for sure but raw coins look so much better in my Quadrum album.

 

Well if your putting them in an album...

 

I love and hate both slabs and raws. Slabs at least give some measure of assurance that you're buying the real thing, but, as already said, fake slabs have also made their way into the wild. Slabs also take away the experience of actually holding a coin just as it would have been held historically. Raw coins give the full coin experience but they also make me worry about damaging them and knowing their legitimacy. I would very likely never buy a coin over $200 raw. Though I have in the past, what I've learned about today's ominous and sometimes undetectable counterfeiting technology I would just hate to take the risk with that much money. Also, coins in slabs often have the much debated "grade-flation." So, as the mantra goes, always buy the coin, not the slab. That said, I probably buy more raws than slabs, but for the pricier coins - and I never buy really really expensive coins - I almost always try to find them slabbed so I can sleep better at night. As long as the slab checks out, that is...

 

After collecting for close to 40 years I am fine going raw except in the case where counterfeits are known. The premium on so many "slabbed" items makes no sense to me.

 

Are you saying mentioned services can't tell if a coin is authentic and/or has issues? They're professionals, even when they're known to be more lenient than NGC/PCGS...

 

I'm not really a collector... More of a stacker. I generally only buy raw gold and silver US coins slightly above melt. Lately my lcs had been offering me slabbed AU 50s to MS 62 for the same price as raw. Apparently low graded common coins don't have any special value.... Which is fine by me.