On an exceptionally average coin, too. That's clearly reflected in the 3/5's it got on strike and surfaces. I would still really appreciate it if they offered complete attribution: legends, full design descriptions, references. Even if they only provided it as a look-up, on their website. The price is gross, I wouldn't pay more than $100. http://cgi.ebay.com/Syria-Antioch-P...s=66:2|65:1|39:1|240:1318|301:0|293:10|294:50
Oh, man...I see it already. Now they're grading the strike and surface out of 5. In a year or two, they'll come up with a 20-point scale, and a couple of years after that, a 70 or 100 point scale. They're going to make a fortune out of regrades.
Here we go the end is nigh total lack of info on it so what are you paying for!! a bit of plastic :computer:
I would say someone should buy that nice little coin (and it is a nice coin) and break it free from its cheap plastic cage but it is so over priced I would never recommend it. This is just as I have said... The coin should not be that expensive but someone encapsulated it in plastic and now they are trying to sell it for well over what its worth...I swear, some people will not be happy until all coins are encased in plastic with a little sticker with subjective numbers....and twice (if not more) as expensive as it should be. I sure wish they would keep the slab crap in those areas I dont collect like American Coins where this practice seems to be the norm. <end rant>
NGC invention...they are trying to make more money off the hobby by grading and caging ancients and apparently at least a few people seem to be buying it....but why wouldnt a seller buy into it when it gives them an excuse to hike prices. Since they have started this I have already seen at least 2-3 misattributed coins in slabs (buy with confidence...we dont know what it is but we will grade it!!) A representative of NGC came to answer question on the ancients list. The best part of their new slabbing ancients deal is that they DO NOT guarentee authenticity. They refuse to put their neck out and declare an ancient authentic...but they will slab it and grade it all the same. So what in fact is the reason for the service if they will not authenticate a coin they slab? Off their website: no guarantee is made or implied about the authenticity of coins graded by NGC Ancients. Where do I sign up!!
LOL if they can not guarentee the coin is genuine then what are they doing in the market? Rip off pure and simple in my view
I like the NGC slabs. With a big name like NGC more people will get into collecting ancients. Then again that will bring the prices up.
Its not an authentication service, only attribution. There's the difference. I would expect that the dealer would give a full refund for it, as they would with any other ancient coin.
Thing been that most people will buy a slabbed coin because they are under the impression that it has to be a genuine coin to be in the slab. Not all people who buy slabbed coins are actualy coin collectors either, it is bad enough having forgeries on the market in a raw state without the possibility of them now been put in plastic with the name of a reputable company atached to them.
Exactly...its a false sense of security as many people will not go to the NGC site and read the little blurb about how they will not guarantee authenticity....so they will think that if its slabbed by a TPG that it must be real. This is a problem as a whole for collecting. For some reason, many people think plastic means its okay when half the coins being slabbed by this company could be fake. I have seen it a million times here on a forum 'I wouldnt buy a coin like that unless it was slabbed'....people, for some reason, often simply cannot buy a coin unslabbed...and those who slab them are doing so, I have no doubt, because they can buy a coin raw and hike the price up with plastic and a slip of paper. Not only will it make any REAL coins slabbed more expensive (just simply because its in plastic and for no other reason as we have seen in other areas where slabbing has become the rule and prices get jacked up)...one more coin out of reach for poor collectors looking for a reasonably priced coin. It also means that the collector doesnt even have to do a bit of research (unless its a false attribution, which doesnt seem overly rare) as all attribution has been done for them. IMO, thats one of the greatest things about ancients are the large amounts of varieties and the search for the right attribution. IMO, if all they are saying is they are going to attribute the coin and give it an arbitrary rating...the service is useless and shows that, in the end, its just an attempt to expand revenues for the company and suck just a little more money out of collectors...and collectors are fooled into think this is a GOOD thing...its like they WANT to pay more money!! It also allows flippers yet another excuse to hike the price of a new area of coinage....again...just about sucking more money out of an already expensive hobby. The end collector like myself is like a target to money grubbing scumbag vultures, any excuse to justify more and more money....they just want to make you part with more of your money. The only reason I would EVER send a coin in to a third party is if I had a question about authenticity...as they do not have enough confidence in their abilities to do anything more than slab it, attribute it, and rate it (fake or not) then it seems useless to me...and as orc said, it is also deceptive as any one of those coins could be fake, it will make people think that it being slabbed means its real and that NGC would stand behind any mistake they made...which they wont. Learn about your hobby...learn to do it yourself. Attribute it yourself and get good advice offered in many places for free about authenticity...I honestly dont care if people are too lazy to learn about the hobby they are a part of...I just dont want slabbing to become the norm and find coin prices across the board hiked by middlemen.
