I buy the coin first, but prefer the NGC holder. I think everything about it is more professional looking than the others in the market. I just don't like the look of the PCGS holder, but I own a lot of coins in this holder.
I only buy slabbed coins when I want one particularly nice example of a coin. 99% of the time, I just buy circulated coins so I dont care what slab they come in, but if I want a nice example of a coin thats MS60+, I'm going to buy it slabbed rather than from some coin dealer who may or may not know what he's doing in his grading. For slabbed anything, I go NGC because I enjoy the look of the slab AS WELL as the look of the coin I'm buying. I always buy the coin and not the slab, but its helpful to know what a TPG considers a particular grade (especially in MS grades which I cannot grade to save my soul).
Well I wouldn't go so far as to say that grading services are a sham, frankly I think they do a great job overall. For the novice collector, it is highly encouraged that large purchases are graded by a reputable company. They do a really good job of counterfeit detection and grading, i just feel that their grading of proof coins in the 1860 to 1940 range has been very inconsistent for the last decade or so. Grading a brilliant proof coin in the range of PR-60 to PR-68 is based almost exclusively on minute hairlines that disrupt the mirrors of the field, and the other major factor is strike. Though proof coins are inherently well struck, weaknesses can be noted on many early proofs.
That's wrong. I can twist an NGC slab in my hands and completely compromise it. The PCGS slab takes a bit more effort. I will also say, the ICG slab falls apart if I look at it. I have cracked almost 100 slabs between the TPG's.
they have black slabs too boss... are you a slab-racist? you have such anger for that neutral white color....
Not a slab racist. I swear. I do like the look of the black slab better though. Still I don't like the rectangular-thick-antique looking design. I believe it would look better if it was more modern looking and had rounded sleek edges.
PCGS crack if dropped cuz of the hard plastic which I don't like.. stylistically I prefer ICG or NGC, but NGC would look good in all clear like pcgs. I wish they all would have started out with small square slabs with a smaller label than these rectangles that they do...Rattlers are the best looking PCGS slab, they should have just made em not rattle...
Those old pcgs labels tho.. Talk about something made in 5th grade shop class or in someone's basement NGC has much more professional looking labels on the other hand the old pcgs green label and rattler slabs often contain very nice coins and I feel they had tougher grading standerds then especially on unc Morgans
I lean towards PCGS holders over NGC, only because I don't like how NGC grades Canadian coins. I think there also has to be a very good reason why the finest Canadian coins (e.g., Belzberg, Canadiana, Pittman, etc.) are in PCGS holders. For registry sets, there are more Canadian coin participants on the PCGS sites, I feel you need a good critical mass of participants ... I tend to shuck Canadian coins out of NGC slabs much like an oyster... I either leave them raw or send them to PCGS.
NGC slabs are nicer but they seem fragile and some of my NGC holders also rattle. I like the older NGC ones without the edgeview.
Yea pretty much, lol. For the most part everyone realizes it's an opinion. That's all I was doing by starting this thread: stating MY opinion. Some folks seem to take it a little personal though (not saying you GDJMSP). I guess they have a lot of NGC slabbed coins and feel a bit insulted by my opinion. No one is right or wrong. Again, it's just an opinion.
The balance of my favor seems to go like this: PCGS OLG is better than NGC Old Fatty, NGC Edge View is better the new PCGS label. NGC Edge View=AWESOME!
Both companies have their fans, and there are several different reasons why a particular fan might like one over the other. The kind of slabs they use is only one of those reasons. You also have things like customer service, consistency in grading, quality (or accuracy if you prefer) in grading, strictness or lack thereof in grading, turn around time, costs, attributions they will or won't do, special designations offered, and types of coins they will or won't slab. In other words there's a whole lot of different flavors of ice cream
Only thing uglier than a NGC white slab is a NGC white slab with a 1980 SBA in it.... I do like the black NGC holder that Dwhiz has.