Barry Murphy Off to NGC

Caught this on his Vcoins page, he's off to work with Vagi at NGC as well as closing shop.

Does this mean that NGC is going to get more serious...and maybe better at their slabbing of ancients?

https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/ba..._companies_have_in_common/667943/Default.aspx

On Sunday June 19th, I will be closing my VCoins store. As a charter member of VCoins, I've been here a long time (since 2003) and have met and dealt with 1000's of customers and dealers. Thank you to everyone. I would especially like to thank Bill Puetz. Without Bill, VCoins never would have been. He created the gold standard for numismatic websites. I wish Bill and all the VCoins team much success in the coming years.
As some of you have heard, any many probably not, I will be going to work for NGC starting on July 5. Yes I know, as I have been told by more than one person, I am going over to the dark side. I am looking forward to working with David Vagi and the guys and NGC.

I will still take orders through Sunday. Any order received will be shipped on Monday June 20. For those who would like to email me, I can be reached at my VCoins email for a little while longer, otherwise I can be emailed at barry@bpmurphy.com and I will have an NGC email address shortly.
Again thank you to everyone.
Sincerely,
Barry Murphy

 

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Graded ancient collectors for the win!

 

Even though I am anti-slab, at least for ancients, I can't really fault Barry for taking such a job.

Being a coin dealer, with its endless travel and setup, putting on "public face", and other necessities of salesmanship, sounds like a very tiresome life.

 

I wish Barry all the best. He was one of the good ones, and he'll be missed as a dealer.

 

Damn, I really liked his store. He will be missed!

 

I wonder if this means the end for the Triskeles Auctions that pop up every now and then as well?

 

NGC will be better with Barry Murphy; however, it just means slabs may become more prevalent for Ancients. It's a sad day all around (except for Mr. Murphy and Mr. Vagi).

 

The pay might be better, but the company dress code tells it all. I would suffocate working in an outfit like that.

 

The recently closed VAuction was a Triskles and was handled bu John Lavender. I was one of few winners who elected to pay by check rather than Paypal which led to a note from John saying that Barry had walked him through the process. I hope we all realize that removing a guy like Barry from any enterprise will not improve it. I trust John will make it work for future sales. As far as Barry and NGC goes, I hope his presence will turn it into the kind of business I could support but I once had extreme respect for David Vagi and that did not work out so well so all I can hope now is the hobby as I enjoy it will last long enough that I won't care what they do with it. NGC has several business practices that I can not support. I wish I could believe that adding what I consider one of the great people in the trade to their staff will help them move in the right direction. Keeping an open mind on this one will be a challenge.

BTW, I thought WE were the dark side. If Barry is going to adopt that term, I guess we will have to be black holes. I've been called worse.

 

There, I said it.

 

Give me 30 Siliquae and I'd betray just about anyone.

 

Like you said, I've been called worse. A letter from the alphabet in front seems familiar. Ok, ok. Black hole it is (maybe).

 

It appears that some of the collectors on this site may be personally acquainted with Barry Murphy (I don't know him, nor do I know of him). Why not invite him to start a thread here about his decision to work for NGC, and what he'll be doing for them? It might make for an insightful discussion.

 

Barry will be missed on Vcoins. I had the pleasure of buying a few coins from his Vcoins store over the years and found his pricing very fair. I wish him well in his new job.

 

I have a few Barry Murphy coins. I have always felt "safe" when buying from him. However, this new venture has me skeptical. Not because of Mr. Murphy, but because of NGC. We shall see as time will tell.

 

I think of the American side of the industry in terms of attendees at NYINC in January and we've lost some significant participants in the main hall in the last few of years. Freeman & Sear, Cederlind, Jancek, and now Murphy. I expect Kriendler won't be there either without Barry's table. Stacks is gone in all but name. Nobody that I have seen is filling the gaps. It seems new dealers in Europe are springing up like weeds though online.

It's got to be a tough business to make a living in, made much worse by the government oppression we've seen in recent years particularly against American collectors and dealers. I could go on and on about that...

 

Really? ... what a total drag

slabs blow (extra cash, for one man's opinion) .... well ummm, unless it's my hero's opinion, David Sear ...

... but yah, we've had many a discussion stating how different ancient coins are from minted coins (but *whatev*)

Congrats to him for collecting the cheque (I'm sure most of us would follow the money, if we needed it) ... but it's a dark, dark day in the ancient coin-world



Hey, Mentor => ummm, maybe he needs somebody to assist on the Sep-Sevs? (he may have already asked Martin, but just in case!!)

 

If I were a big money investment player I'd probably slab my coins. They aren't for every coin but I see their purpose. I think we'll see prices for high-end coins really skyrocket in the next few decades.

 

boooo