To slab, or not to slab...

I have some semi-hypothetical questions about sending coins to TPGs for slabbing. I'm not talking about a specific coin today, so no pictures. I'm interested in your opinions, and general Rules of Thumb.

My main question is: When is it appropriate, or maybe even desirable, to send your coins to a TPG service for slabbing?

My assumption, right now, is that if you're not planning on selling, you wouldn't bother getting them slabbed. Is that true? Although, I do sometimes think about "what if I die? My family might get screwed out of a lot of money if none of my better coins are slabbed."

So, let's make up some coins:
* Let's say, one has some Uncirculated Morgan Dollars that they know they want to sell (maybe they're AU sliders, but for this exercise let's assume they're actually Uncirculated). Maybe they were purchased 20-25 years ago.
* What if some of them were listed as MS-62 at that time, and were purchased at around $25-$50 each. Maybe they're MS-62 (PCGS currently lists at $90). Maybe they could make MS-63 (PCGS currently lists at $120).
* What if you have some that are close to the cutoff for higher dollar amounts? Let's say, they're MS-64 and you paid $50 back then (PCGS currently lists at $160), but could maybe make MS-65 (PCGS currently lists at $525) on a good day.
* What if you had some coins in old holders (PCGS rattlers, ANACS Photo Certs, NGC fatty's, PCI OGH's)? Many of those coins were graded rather conservatively compared to today.

What would entice you to send to TPG?
* Are there any industry standard Rules of Thumb that I'm not aware of?
* Is there a certain dollar amount (assuming you can sell for PCGS online prices) above purchase cost that you shoot for?
* Is there a certain grade that you would want to get, and anything under that isn't worth sending?
* Would you send in a lower grade coin if it's very nicely toned?
* Would you make sure you get the VAM number attribution on the slab?
* Would you send in old slabs for re-grading?
* If so, would you send as-is, or crack out?
* Why?

Ok, this is long enough. Thanks for reading, and TIA for your helpful suggestions!!!

 

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Definitely keeping an eye on this post as I was thinking of similar questions earlier on, especially with my liberty nickels (I.E. would it be easier/better to just buy them graded or could do i just as well sending them in bulk to be graded because I plan on holding onto these for a long, long time.)

 

I faced a similar question last year but my goal was to eliminate, as much as was financially sane, all the unslabbed coins in my collections. In some cases that meant sending raw coins to GC for grading and sale. In others, where I thought the raw coin might grade OK and if so I might keep them in my collection and if not, sell them. My purpose for this goal was to:

1) Make things easier for my heirs to dispose of my collections.
2) Get rid of my earlier mistakes, even if selling them resulted in a loss. This freed up funds to acquire better coins.
3) Upgrade my remaining collections from the earlier coins that don't cut the mustard today.

Now, what did I mean by "financially sane"? If I thought a raw coin might grade at a wholesale bid value over $300, it was submitted. If under $150 and I liked the coin, it was submitted. If under $150 and it was "outta here", then I sent it raw to GC for grading and sale.

After this culling, I'm still left with quite a few raw coins that aren't worth taking any of the above actions. The heirs will just have to sell them off to a LCS and get whatever they can for them. My written instructions will say just that.

 

Grading is risky and usually you don’t get the results you want. Generally if the coin is worth less than $300 it’s not worth grading.

 

Have you taken any to PCGS for grading? I'd LIKE to send in a bulk grading order, but I've never personally had any of my coins graded myself. The only coins I'd consider doing so (for now at least) are my Liberty Nickels, 1943 Steel Penny and maybe my 1732 Colonial Dime, so I'm questioning if it's even worth it.

 

Ughhhh that sucks. I'll probably just encapsulate what I have currently at this point.

 

My goal is slightly different. I think I might want to get some slabbed: some for more near-future sales to get funds to buy other things; some for when I die and my family goes to sell. However, I don't mind having nice raw coins in my collections. I don't feel the need to have slabbed coins at all, though I do currently have some.

As for culling - as I work on inventorying my collection, I'm trying to figure out what I really want to keep, long-term. Most of my collection is low-value - much of it would have been found in pocket change, I'm sure, and would be on the list of many people here to just sell for melt value. There are a lot of coins that I have, that mean nothing to me. So, they will get sold or given away. But, I do have to figure out what I really want to keep, and if they stay unslabbed, I'm fine with that.

 

So, is that your only guiding rule - the Rule of $300? I mean, it's as good as any, I guess.

Do others have the same thought on value?

 

Yeah, it isn't cheap to send to the TPG's. So, there's a cutoff as to whether it's worth the effort and money. That's why I was asking in the first place. If you have relatively low-value coins, like most of mine, it's probably better to just buy either the 2x2 cardboard or 2x2 flips and put them into a binder.

 

I'm kind of more in the same boat with you in the aspect of only grading the very select coins I fully plan on keeping long term, such as this V Nickel i just bought. I'm feeling pretty confident in the condition and having a graded coin like that, I'm just as confident in it's value, knowing that it has been graded. Anything else I just bought fitted capsules for.

 

That's a pretty one!

 

For me, I'm sticking with these airtight capsules, unless I'm lucky enough to snag something like a Carson City Morgan for a good deal. They do also have albums for specific coins like Buffalo/Liberty nickels, etc which I like as well.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2815658750...ar=580581771457&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

Thanks! I've been seeing some pretty sweet deals on these.

 

Pretty much. Just to use rough generic numbers, it’s $50 to grade a coin and under $300 the math doesn’t work.

 

It wasn't long ago that we were talking 20-25 to grade and a $100 or so was profitable.

 

I don’t have any fast and hard rules for slabbing. I say whatever floats your boat, go for it! Some people will slab low dollar stuff just to preserve and protect.

 

I am a collector that has used the TPG's for my collection but has never needed to send a coin to them for a minor profit. If I had to sell. I would consign them to an Auction house., let them submit them.

 

You can still get to around a $30 average if submitting multiple coins on an economy tier (but at a place like PCGS, that means the coins need to be valued at under $300; higher values bump you up to the tier where the average is closer to $45).

In most cases it is not worth it to slab a $100 coin and pay $30 to do so as you can probably get close enough to the $70 you would net by selling it raw and not spending the time and money to grade.

There are also coins that are worth hundreds or thousands that still don't make sense grading. For example, a common date low MS Carson City Morgan in the GSA holder sells "raw" for about the same as MS 60-62 graded examples. Similarly common date pre-33 gold $20s sell around melt value raw or graded up to about MS 62/63.

If someone wants to grade a handful of inexpensive coins to test their grading skills and get the experience, Anacs and ICG are good options at lower prices levels (especially if they have specials going).

 

How about NGC? If it really comes down to it, I'll go to ICG for my inexpensive but better condition (Above Fine+) coins to tinker with that kind of thing.

 

they are fairly close to each other...
PCGS: $23 (economy) / $40 (regular)
NGC: $25 (economy) / $40 (standard)
...economy has a $300 max value while regular can be $3k (2.5k at PCGS)
....there are other tiers and restrictions but those are probably the most commonly used
...also my averages quoted were higher because there are handling/invoice fees plus shipping both ways....some of those are flat rates so the cost per coin goes down as you submit more