This: As a noted numismatist says: If you have any questions, refer to the above if you are still a newbie to this. If you don't know if you are a newbie any more, answer this one question. "Have you been seriously collecting and learning about coins for 10 years Straight?" If the answer is no, you are still a beginner and it is not yet time. If you answer yes, then you may want to get your coins graded. No guarantees, but you will probably at least know which TPGs to use, and the dollar amount you should have for value of each coin, and other criteria you should have.
10 years is completely arbitrary and really not true. There’s people who’ve been doing it a lot longer than 10 years who are still clueless and on the other side there’s people who’ve been doing it a lot less than 10 years who are very good at grading in some areas. There’s also still plenty of instances where yes it is in the best interest of a brand new person to have an inheritance or parts of it graded before sales. Yes the chances are that it won’t be worth grading your pocket change you found or most cents, but these kind of catch all announcements really just end up being bad advice for a lot of people.
Not to defend new collectors, but they seek grading because they themselves don't know how to grade coins correctly and are constantly being corrected by experienced numismatists when it comes to grade. They then seek to have their coins professionally graded so as to remove the doubt. What I would recommend even more is that they seek out knowledge and experience grading by either discussing grade with more knowledgeable and experienced people, take a grading course, read books on grading, or any other activity that sharpens their tools and knowledge in this regard. To tell them to stop is like asking a deer in the headlights to get out of the way. it's just futile and not going to happen. Try being more patient. Try asking them questions about what they know and help them to understand. This is the best purpose of online coin forums, to share knowledge. In the end, if they don't/won't listen, let them learn from their own mistakes. It's not like the experienced numismatists haven't gotten where they are without making mistakes of their own. So, my message to the experienced numismatists on the forum is this: Be patient, listen and try as best you can and share what you know and help them grow. You might make a friend or two along the way.
Yes, all true, BUT, and this is VERY important, numismatics and especially new numismatists, got along rather fine for many decades before third party grading even EXISTED. When they got "scrod" is when they sold pieces. Nobody ever lost anything, or made anything, on a coin they didn't sell. Hold. Learn. Read. Take courses. THEN, and ONLY then, think about selling and grading.
Always the case, yes. It is the PROSPECT of SELLING that raises the need for third party grading. Using TPG slabs as a storage medium may be attractive, but it is an expensive method for merely that.
There's also the question of who are the "experts" on these coin forums? How would one know if the person telling them something about their coin is an "expert" ? How does one define an "expert" in a coin forum? I think of them as knowledgeable, not necessarily an expert. There's also a lot of sarcasm happening so it's hard to determine who are trolls or who are genuinely trying to help.
This is, to my way of thinking, one of the truly immutable problems with being dependent on the Internet in this hobby. You can't ever tell. I don't know how "'net newbs" do it, frankly. I honestly don't think I would have EVER become a coin collector if I had been dependent on the Internet for it. Not worth the risk to me, PERIOD! EVERYTHING I do online regarding coins is not only NOT the "meal", it's not even the cake for dessert, nor the frosting on the cake. It MIGHT be the broken sprinkles that missed the cake frosting and I scooped them up and popped them into my mouth because the trash can was too far away. I consider myself a deadly serious numismatist. It's the Internet that I have difficulty taking seriously.
I have a few guidelines that I use in deciding if a coin should be graded. In no order of importance; Minimum expected value of coin - $200 Unable to verify authenticity - or want to remove doubt of authenticity if/when selling (T$1's are a great example) Building a 'Slabbed Set', and bought a coin raw that will grade where I want the set Ride-a-longs for grading specials when the cost is cheap/negligible In today's world, the piece of plastic does have value, but often that value is unwarranted, and more then the value of the coin inside.
Do NOT fail to take advantage of this. I keep a short red box of "ride-a-long" coins ready to fly at a moment's notice if the opportunity arises. Guy says at a coin club meeting, "I have 8 coins I want to send in, but my discount tier requires 10." BOOM! He has two more the next day. All my coin club buddies know I go to big shows where the TPG's are. I shlep coins for them to save a little time and the hassle of preparing and insuring an inbound shipment.
I clicked on the link, thinking you were talking about sports themed coins, like the 1992 Nolan Ryan dollar. Graded by PSA-the sports card grading company. Those are cool imo
