In looking thru price guides they really only specify grade and don’t give any weight to a CAC certification, in my book depending on the coin that is it’s worth at least 15 - 20 % as a matter of fact I have several “green beans” my latest will be here by Saturday
CDN's Greysheet lists some CAC pricing. CDN also publishes a quarterly retail price guide for CAC coins.
To answer your question, and of my own opinion, absolutely not worth the premium over an identical coin of the same grade without. First, and foremost, as a collector each purchase is based on my eye appeal, not what someone else sees or thinks. That said, I have many PCGS and NGC's with at least a few of which would come back stickered. But again, why would I need anyone's confirmation on what I see? So I use what I save buying non-CAC towards others I'm lacking or interested in. What I'd like an answer to is this. Explain how accurate the grading is when viewed through hard plastic? Can you say with certainty that a rejected submission was only due to minute scratches on the encapsulation impeding such grading? Or glare? Afterall, they do not open the encapsulation for assessing the "grade".
I'd say 10/15%, people really like to see the green bean. It adds a little something, but ultimately it's up to the buyer.
By that logic, why do we need slabs? Why do we need grading? Why do we ask an auction house rep to pull a lot for review? Answer- Because the vast majority of collectors dont have top notch grading abilities, and to simply use their own judgement is probably not a good idea. Opinions are opinions, but some opinions mean more than others and CAC's opinion means a whole lot to alot of people. I fully support buying the coin and not the holder, but to dismiss every CAC example, without even looking at them, simply because of the "premium" is a very myopic viewpoint in my opinion. How do you know your "saving money" buying non-cac? What if the coin you bought for $1000 hammers for $700 when you send it to auction, when the $1150 CAC example you passed would have made you whole. Your "savings" are merely psychological, and many times the "premium" is because its just a flat out nicer coin to begin with. If we're talking about Morgan dollars, thats one thing, but old gold and seated material is whole different ball game and CAC can be very helpful. Not all of my coins are stickered, but I pay up when I know I need to. "The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten"
Do yourself a favor and download the greysheet app, which will show you the retail spread between cac and non cac. Most times its 10-20%, other times it can be up to 50-75%. All depends on the coin and the sticker rate of that date/grade. I find that often times, PCGS price guide reflects what a top tier CAC example of that issue would bring. Marginal examples might only bring 60% of price guide, but CDN/CPG (greysheet) tends to be much more accurate for coins that trade semi-frequently.
An awful lot of cac coins are original and often eye appealing. Why the premium. Usually 10-30% not to say they're some absolute duds with beans. But when there's a gold sticker it's anything goes and at auction people can go plain stupid. I would estimate about 50% of the coins in my collection stickered and 30% of my inventory. Not because I need the bean. But I like quality and eye appeal. And it helps in resale
Last night I bought my first coin with a sticker. It wasn’t a large factor in the purchase but I did consider it as one of factors. I’ll post pics when I have it in hand.
If you start buying bean coins and start sending coins in for beans. Then start to see what passes and what don't you'll see why people that collect them do it. It isn't easy to get coins that pass. And after you see a lot you'll see why the ones that pass pass and the failures fail.
Confirmation bias is a real thing. You like it, I like it, almost everyone does. If one is collecting as an investment and it increases "net value" over the cost of the extra outlay, it's 100% worth it. For those who don't care about it's monetary value, then it is a waste of their money and aggravation sending things through shipping and worrying about it ever returning to them safely. (I am agreeing with you 100%, but there are others that this just doesn't work for).
The value of a "Green Bean" has been debated here multiple times, and generally it is only good as the TPG when the coin was graded. I've a "sight seen" collection of CACed coins, where the value of the coin could be increased many fold because of the "bean". I've posted examples of the TPG grading discrepancies with a "bean". What's this worth without the "bean"? https://www.ebay.com/itm/134898085242?hash=item1f688d6d7a:g:xSMAAOSwp9NlqpDH&amdata=enc:AQAIAAAA4N0ZFB5Jb9fzfB2ouCcbdYZ9o0BU/JCX1aidlQkUKZ6ca4PMCbOYRXRHfCALS+W4alzUi5mid75Ag3UC/pVT9MjBnVZ0YuM7frSnqvcQ4FVK69wC4gsQea3A8R8aW9ViTZNthNZ3LMLX5xLKVEHpKi84cBxWY81pDXKiAt4+P18XlYvm8xpnyJcbTZYnjFl2zJR0hE7GIAPMHU7c0oZgzCiug5CtI0s+gkCXUjigIrUhx0l+POoKYJEG3PBjdg7MBZY6KTkBd8vmliSeXmTCqnI4ycQXr8GNYWzGrZHmmTWg|tkp:Bk9SR8zvoP-lYw CPG Greysheet interprets a value less than $20,000, if graded correctly, as I believe!
I think realistic premium is there and validated time and time again for me I am willing to pay a bit more with the little green bean, if your talking slab on slab grading you will pay more for a PCGS graded coin then one in NGC holder coin for coin. Additionally it’s a further validation of the coming grade basically two experts evaluating the coin.
I was putting the green stickers on a lot of my coins, but then one of the guys at the coin club explained they needed to go on the outside of the slab and that CAC actually needed to do it for me for it to make a difference to other collectors. Pretty disappointing news for me!
