No. If the scratches really bother me, it is cheap to get them reholdered. With the coins I buy, I really only have one shot to buy it. If I avoided it because of a scratchy holder, I'd never get another chance.
It depends. If the holder is so scuffed up that you can't see the coin, I'm not paying full boat for it. If the dealer isn't proud enough to have the coin in his or her stock to clean up a trashed holder, I'm probably going to pass. Also, a scuffy holder could be a sign that a coin has been "endlessly whored around the bourse," to quote a certain bombastic high end dealer, and there may be a reason for that which becomes apparent with closer look that you otherwise might not have given. That said, I have no problem buying a scratched holder if I like the coin and want it. They're easily polished or reholdered.
I don't care about the plastic, but if I can't tell what the entire coin looks like by rotating the holder, I'll almost certainly pass.
If the coin is one that should be in a slab and the slab is not presentable due to excessive scratches, I would take into account the time and money it would cost to have the coin reholdered when making an offer. This is especially true if your intent is to cross the coin; a scuffed up slab can matter a lot in that case.
Why would it matter? Once I decide that the coin is going to be mine it is not going to be in the slab--scratched or pristine--any longer than it takes for me to get out my shears.
Hi Jaelus, Thank you for your thoughts. When you said "especially true if your intent is to cross the coin". Does "cross the coin" mean re-sell it? I'm not familiar with that term. Thanks!
Crossing is when you send a slabbed coin from one service to another service for grading, i.e. sending a PCGS coin to NGC. With crossing, you specify a minimum grade with the coin. The TPG you send it to grades the coin in the slab and if it doesn't grade your minimum or higher they return it to you in the slab you submitted it in. If the slab is scuffed up considerably it can really hinder your chances of the coin crossing well. If they can't see the coin well in the holder it's only going to hurt the grade. It's better to either crack the coin out and submit it raw, or pay to reholder the coin and then try to cross it, which just adds a lot of extra time and money. If a coin is going to cost you extra money to fix a problem with the slab itself, then the coin isn't worth as much as if it had a pristine slab.
