this is an embarrassment

you folks say what you will but I'm ashamed and embarrassed to even say I own PCGS graded coins. Not sure if I can post this sold auction but $3 stinking bucks for a 85-S PF69RD DCAM? I might as well pitch them in the bonfire!!!This batch was graded 25 years ago supposedly to "maintain the value" somebody in CA needs to be drawn and quartered.....https://www.ebay.com/itm/99cent-sta...468696?hash=item46a31f9cd8:g:aTkAAOSwPW9d4hkx

 

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Is an 85 S proof worth more that?

 

$6 shipping? That would be factored in if I was to bid.

 

How is PCGS responsible for what eBay auctions bring especially when it’s actually about the value that it has always been?

It’s an ultra common modern proof that a small no name seller started at 99 cents while also charging almost 6 bucks for shipping which by the way his final price of about $9 for shipping and the coin combined was actually pretty strong.

Not as a 69. You might get like $10 if you’re really patient but they consistently sell for under 9 dollars all the time and as super common.

The 70s are pretty difficult to find for that date though and they’d be like $200ish

 

What do you think is going to happen when you have a $0.99 starting bid and not much interest in the coin? If somebody wanted one they can just buy a 1985 proof set for a few dollars.
I saw one for $5.98 with free shipping.

 

Blame the fool who submitted this coin for grading, but don't blame PCGS for accepting the submission. ~ Chris

 

The embarrassing part was sending that coin in to be graded.

 

I've gotten both NGC and PCGS slabs at bargain prices to fill some modern set slots. Some auction houses bundle groups of 5 or more in a lot. With shipping and buyers premium I've gotten some at less than $6 each. Of course the coin is probably worth less but I've got a lot of plastic to show for it

 

Are you the seller? If not, how do you know they were graded to "maintain the value"?

Also, that statement makes no sense. Value is predicated on the current market for the coin. Some stupid piece of plastic is not a shield against market forces.

 

I suppose you could take the alternative view: if the coin is worth one cent face value, and slabbing it costs $35 all-in, then it must be worth at least $35.01 in the slab. Difficulty: very, very few people share that view, so you'll have a very hard time ever getting that $35.01 out of it.

Counterexample: an abused proof Trade dollar I once got as part of a lot. I assumed it was fake, but I showed it to a couple of people who thought it might be real. I eventually submitted it to PCGS through a dealer here. It came back in a slab -- damaged, XF45 details, but genuine. Without the slab, I'd gotten offers in-hand as high as $200 or so. With the slab, it went for $700 on eBay, more than half the market value of a problem-free example. (To be fair, that did include shipping!)

So, slabbing isn't necessarily a joke, but you do have to be at least a little selective in what you submit, or else (as @geekpryde said) rely on probability and large numbers.

 

I might understand it if the submitter had a proof set in which he/she wanted one specific coin graded such as a half dollar or quarter, and it was safer to ship it in the OGP. I've done that on occasion with proof sets!

"This batch was graded 25 years ago supposedly to maintain the value...."

But, the above quote makes me think that it wasn't the case. ~ Chris

 

It was slabbed to establish the condition, and to hopefully preserve it in that condition. There is NEVER any guarantee that a coin will maintain its value, raw OR slabbed.

 

Im pretty sure he’s just going off the label for when it was graded especially since that was coin 48 in the submission. It was almost certainly a bulk submission which is like $5-10 a coin

 

I was thinking that, too, but it should be the OP's responsibility to "make his case" since he is the one complaining. ~ Chris

 

Well I'm not sure what age crowd is commenting here, but Yes that is my "no-name" scumbay page and I graded those coins in 1990's which some of you might remember from a crib (I can pretty much tell the post-- baby boomer comments from the wartime babies comments). The history of the "TPG's" was a supposed attempt to take "slabbers"out of the business and "standardize" coin grading for the benefit of the collectors and unknowing buyers. If you geegle it you'll find out that PCGS was slapped with a FTC Complaint Sept.1990 Just days before the ANA opened its annual convention, "the FTC stunned many collectors by charging that Professional Coin Grading Service Inc. (PCGS), a leading coin rating service, had misled consumers by falsely claiming that its services eliminate the risks of investing in coins"(The Washington Post). Unfortunately the same time frame I was having many coins graded because of their claim which was echoed by the multitude of coin dealers enlisted to submit coins for customers to get graded. So we are not talking about Angels here. I was one of the "sheep" that followed that assessment being told in advertising and from dealers. Now I am realizing the damage that did to my overall portfolio and multitudes pf blue boxes of coins. I prefer educating over name-calling so here, read what was going on from 1983-1990. https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...ervices/7064d615-5679-415b-81b3-d12857bb48be/

 

I'm sorry for your losses. I hope at this point you're more skeptical about "investment" claims.

 

If the coin before slabbing has minimal collector value, putting a slab around it does nothing to increase that value. Whoever sent it in to get slabbed is the real loser here and the one who bought it for more than FV runs a close second.

 

Standardizing grading doesn't mean standardizing prices. Markets set prices.

Your listing was going to do poorly regardless though doing a .99 cent auction as an account that doesn't have a large following and charging a high shipping fee. Setting BIN listings is honestly the best way for small eBay accounts to sell most things as the big accounts get all the views. Things like that are never going to have break out prices though when there's almost 5k of them from PCGS alone.

PF 69 moderns never had any business in any portfolio.