Just had an alert from Ampex regarding a new offering for 2021. Looks like they partnered with PCGS to Preslab as eligible for First Strike coins which can then be submitted for the label at any time thereafter. Now I know the First Strike thing is a marketing play so no need to go there. What are your opinions on this new partnership?
Buy the coin not the holder thats all I have to say.The first strike thing has aways been a gimmick they just get more money and ruin some people in the process. I can care less about this so called partnership.
Surprises me a bit for Apmex. I have done a fair amount of bullion business with those folks over the years. I would suspect that the TV hawksters have made these fancy labeled bullion coins a hot ticket and Apmex wants a slice of that pie.
Short answer: Longer answer: At least you're allowed to look at the coin before deciding on whether you really want to spend all that money grading it and putting a fancy label on it. I suppose PCGS wins because the coins might not be eligible for NGC's fancy label after the cutoff date. APMEX wins because they get to add value to their packaging this way. Note that this is all predicated on the end user of the coin putting any value at all on special labels.
My thoughts are seems there's a lot of unknowns giving a third party authorization to determine eligibility and if anyone's going to screen them before they go in. I could foresee the potential for stuffing 69's or lower in those slabs.
I didn't get the memo from APMEX and didn't see anything on their site, but I assume this has nothing to do with screening for a grade, only establishing eligibility for a more expensive label.
Yea there's no grading or review at all. Apmex just sends them sealed boxes and they slab labels on the boxes or open them and seal up the tubes saying if you submitted the whole thing it would be FS eligible at anytime
