I went to a coin show yesterday. One of the dealers there was berating me (I didn't buy from him) for not having a certain rare coin I own slabbed. According to him, if it's a rare coin (rare along the lines of, for example, among others, my 1916D, 1921, 1921D Mercs, 1914 Barber half, and 1916S Walker half) he won't even look at it if it isn't slabbed. Now I understand that slabbing offers an extra bit of certainty, but to not even look at the coin?!? Why is it that when several dealers each with 40+ years of experience say in their opinion the coin is real, that's not good enough, but if in the opinion of a single grader (who has I don't know how many or few years experience) at any reputable grading company it's real, that is enough? However did the numismatic community survive before graded slabs?
He wants someone else to do the heavy lifting, i.s. authenticating and grading. He either does not trust himself or know how to do it. I cannot blame a buyer for requiring that a rare coin be slabbed, and I can not totally blame the dealer, but he is taking the easy/lazy/risk-free route.
I wouldn't trust any raw coin in his collection, because it is obvious that he doesn't trust his own ability to authenticate coins. And if that weren't enough of a reason to avoid him, it sounds like his personality leaves something to be desired...
I understand your frustration KLJ, but your comment is not accurate. The top TPGs all use multiple graders for every coin, usually 3 plus a grading finalizer - not just one.
The Coin Dealer sounds like one that I know! I have offered to sell him some real nice error coins but he refused to consider buying any of them. He stated that unless it was certified and graded or he could see the error with naked eyes, he wasn't interested. That is closed mindedness in my book! Besides, there are a lot of folks that cannot even distinguish the doubling on a 1955-P "Doubled Die #1" Lincoln Cent with their' naked eyes. If all Coin Dealers were like these two idiots, then they would miss out on some really choice error coins and deals! Also, unless this Coin Dealer is a total imbecile, he should know that ANACS, PCI and possibly other TPGs have tables at most Coin Shows and that you can take the coin to their' table for an opinion. Frank
We are entering the age of the dealer that has let TPG's do all his authenticating for him. He will no more know the difference between an authentic coin and one that has been counterfitted resonably well than tell you the difference between ms66 and 67. Now granted I don't always get my grades right, but I study and study and study so that when presented with the opportunity to buy something, I can make an informed decision regardless of its being slabbed or not. I might take the TPG's grade as a second opinion, but I will always rely on my own eyes first. That is something that todays up and coming dealers are forgetting.
More importantly - a lot of collectors are relying on the TPGs. Simply put, many of them won't even buy raw coins anymore. And many of the dealers know this - so they won't buy raw coins anymore either because they don't want to incur the added expense of having the coin slabbed. But I'll be the first in line to agree that there are a lot of dealers who don't know their coins.
I dont nessesarly trust my grading abilities, but sheesh I want to learn how to grade, not let a grading company do it for me!
The point of the TPG system was to eliminate much of the fraud, counterfeit, and junky coins being sold back in the 50's-80's. Now, anyone with a big enough wallet who sees a nice coin can just look at the date, grade, and mintmark indicated on the label, look it up in a price guide and buy it for what may or may not be 'fair market value.' So, TPG's have worked in one way, but clueless dealers are just one side-effect the collecting community will have to deal with.
Thanks guys! I should note that this dealer's attitude didn't ruin the whole show for me. I got a few pieces I wanted, and was still in a good enough mood at the end that I was able to point out to another dealer that he might want to rethink the $12.75 price he had on a 2001S Sacagawea.
I think that on balance, TPGs have been a more positive than negative influence on the hobby. For one thing, it probably increases the number of people who have the confidence to collect more than pocket change, expanding the number of participants in the hobby. It probably also makes it safer. There are more than a couple of dealers out there that push the grading of the coins they are selling a bit too far.
I see your point. I suppose there is a scenario where there will be "slabbed" and "everything else" and the "everything else" will be subject to discounting, perhaps heavy discounting. As long as the TPG process doesn't get too far out of control, e.g. we start seeing decimal fraction grades, slabbing "ordinary" coins in order to sell them, I think it can be a good thing on balance. The safety factor is largely going to depend on the general acceptance of the TPG process in general and specific TPGs in particular. The potential issue here is that enough spoilers (need I name any?) could tarnish the reputation of the entire TPG enterprise and perhaps even coin collecting in general. "60 Minutes" won't do an expose on how fairly and accurately a TPG does its work! I don't know that I will ever own a slabbed coin; it depends on how far we get into this. I sincerely doubt that anything I personally own is worthy of slabbing. On the other hand, it's not like anyone's overgraded raw coins, now is it?
I like slabs myself, i also like raw coins. I have gotten a lot of good deals on raw coins that have come back high grade... here is a good way of looking at it: If you know how to grade you will have a leg up on the people that do not, even when purchasing slabbed coins. A good grader can look at a slabbed coin and tell if its PQ or under graded, I have done this several times. I will also admit that i have gone the other way, I have a 1934 peace dollar that i was sure was unc. came back AU-58. Still a nice coin for a tough date. I also have a Morgan that came back "altered surfaces" from NGC. I would still consider that a good thing, because i learned from it On a related topic, i think it would be cool if you could purchase a "grading set" form ngc, say common date mercs. in a multi-coin slab, with a good examples of good to MS64 or so as a learning tool. I guess you could build a set yourself, but man it could get expensive! Having it already done would be really cool... It would be a good money maker for NGC as well as a valuable teaching tool... kind of like a companion to the grading books or photograde. Just a thought. I would buy it if the price was reasonable...
