Questionable Practice

Could be, and why wouldn't they take it off then?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I agree with you (and @Lehigh96). Unfortunately, some high volume dealers just throw things online. They don’t have the time to meddle around with each one. It’s not a good reason...but it happens.

Again. Without seeing the ad it’s really hard to know.

 

Am I missing something here? This is clearly a sticker, does not mimic the PCGS label, makes no attempt to mimic the PCGS label, and is a practice I see by several reputable dealers that want to add information to the front of a slab without obscuring the label. The motivation for using a clear label is to make it not look ugly. Treat it as you would any other sticker that's not see-through. Verify by looking at the coin that it is correct. Getting a grading service involved? Anyone want to make book on which one laughs the hardest? There is nothing to report here.

 

Exactly! You guys are talking about a non-issue.

 

some of us would disagree here. It looks like it was trying to mimic the slab label. I have no issue with stickers at all nor the service and how you do it on your slabs, this picture was to close to the grey area for my taste though

The threshold I usually try and use to judge things is if some random person did this how would it be perceived. I have a feeling the conversation would be very different if some random seller just posted something like this

 

+1

Additionally, I factor in “what would E-Bay think?” In this case, the seller would lose 100% of the time. For those who say “who cares, E-Bay always sides with buyers” I would like to remind you that the Top Rated Seller status carries with it financial rewards. Both negative feedback and returns for “not as described” jeopardize that status by raising your seller defect rate.

 

I honestly do think the dealer should remove it and just state what it is. My only point has been that if I owned this coin and I wanted it on the slab...the OCD person in my would try and make it as "natural" looking as possible which is what this is. That being said, removing it before sale would probably be best.

 

Just as a side point, the font used doesn't even come close to the PCGS font.
I'm an ex-cartographer and even though I never did manual map-making I at least learned the basics.

The added label uses a font without serifs (sans-serif).
The most frequently used sans-serif font used to be Helvetica.
Nowadays it's appears to be Arial.

PCGS uses a font with serifs on their labels.

Whether the seller knows that or not is unknown.
If "yes" then "intent to deceive" is unlikely.
If "no" then it's a poor fake.
But I see it as very difficult to miss the fact that the attribute is an add-on and not originally done by PCGS.
And since I see it as the correct attribution I deem it as poor judgment rather than "intent to deceive".

 

So there is no issue with someone putting a sticker on a slab noting the variety, however, this sticker is clearly designed to not look out of place on the slab.

The question is was this done with the intent to be deceptive, or not?

If the attribution is correct, then the auction is not being deceptive stating the variety, and the label is also not meant to be deceptive about the variety. So the only thing it could aim to deceive about is having paid the cost of the attribution fee (assuming PCGS attributes this variety), which is negligible.

I just don't see someone having done that with ill intent. I think it's just a nice-looking sticker. You could always just buy it and send it in for variety attribution if it bothers you, but I wouldn't report it.

 

I agree with what you are saying 100%. I don't think this was done to deceive and I don't really see anything wrong with it. I also think it looks nicely done.

That being said...if I was the seller I would be worried this would cause me headaches. I could easily see a buyer (and @Lehigh96 made this point) not liking it and being the cause for a return. It would also be an easy "excuse" for a buyer to come up with if they decided they didn't like the coin to claim the "item was not as described." If it were me...as a seller...just to avoid this headache I would either state clearly that it was a sticker added to the slab (but correctly attributed) or I would remove the sticker.

 

I'm in the "remove the sticker" group.
Then there would be no reason for this whole discussion that I started.

 

I think there are two reasons to look at this...one as a buyer and one as a seller.

As a buyer, personally I want as much info as possible about the coin on the slab. As long as I know that this was not done by PCGS and am confident that it is attributed correctly (and my faith in PCGS attributing something correctly is not that high anyway) I'm OK with it. But that's OCD me. If I bought this coin thinking that it was attributed by PCGS I'd probably be mad when I got it. That being said, it's pretty obvious what it is from the photo and if that was the issue then it's at least 50% on me.

As a seller, I feel like there is really little upside to this. I feel that it will only cause confusion and anger a buyer. Best case is they say nothing...so there is no upside. So, as a seller, I would remove it.

As an informed owner/buyer...I'd leave it as is.

I don't really see much deception here personally.

 

@kanga, don't we have enough regrets at our age?

I see this as mostly a non-issue since it is apparent there was no intent to deceive. But, the seller of this coin has created for him/her/xir self an "optics" issue as evidenced by the many different opinions on this thread. Given the lack of social forgiveness that exists in our contemporary society, anyone in the public realm who does not project how his/her/xir actions can possibly be perceived is doing him/her/xir self a disservice.

 

As an owner I'd remove it. The problem with these conversations is the source of the seller can often determine peoples positions. I try and look at it the same whether it's Mark from Hell Gate, Montana or a notionally recognized dealer. In this case the dealer could easily say it's XYZ attribution and no one would argue sticker or not.

The issue is that in general stickers such as that trying to mimic the slab writing would get many forum posters up in arms if it was a random no name selling it. That puts the collector in a hard spot. Just because a well known dealer can do something doesn't mean a no name won't get attacked or ignored for doing the same.

There are a lot of professional ways to put a sticker on a slab and the coin isn't bullion (where it would be who cares) but has a significant numismatic premium. I don't think it's to much to ask of any seller take off random stickers which takes a minute or so or to use more professional stickers in such cases.

 

OK...that's fine. My only point was that if I owned this coin as part of my collection or was buying it I would leave it. It provides information that I would want to have and I know that it was added after the fact.

I was pretty clear that as a seller...it would only cause a headache so I would remove it.

I feel like you missed the point of my post.

FWIW, the font is totally different and doesn't mimic the PCGS font that well. If this honestly confused someone, they aren't looking that close.

 

And you probably missed mine. I would take it off as the longer it's on the harder it can be to take off. There's better ways and easier ways to note something with it that wouldn't get you yelled at if you tried to resell it. Auction houses wouldn't want that on there, LCS may or may not care probably not care, and you might even end up with a thread on a coin forum about it if you tried to sell it on eBay.

 

That's fine. I'm sure I could get it off easily if I decided too.

I think this is just an example of a group of people making a big deal about nothing. People put stickers on slabs all the time...this is no different.

 

Like I mentioned earlier if this was a nobody that was selling I doubt the conversation would be the same.

 

I don't know. We see ads on eBay posted here all the time with questionable things from random nobody sellers. I think it just takes someone seeing it and asking the question.

 

Thank you for heading off my likely threadjack. That font is Optima, or a knockoff -- sans serif, but with flared strokes to give a feel similar to serifs. The font PCGS uses looks like crusty, fusty Times New Roman, or one of its dozens of knockoffs.

It still amazes me that fake slabs (and, for that matter, fake coins) so often get fonts so wrong. I'm terrible with faces, and not great with general visual detail, but font defects howl at me.