I've been seeing that most recommend a slabbed coin if buying off the net. I've seen a few coins in slabs, some of them from second tier graders NAC and others. I know the grades aren't to be trusted, but can I trust the coin to be genuine and not a "problem" coin? Regards, PG
No. Absolutely not. In fact, your batting average is lower with these guys than raw ! Why do think people self-slab ? Because the coins won't pass at a real TPG.
Depends on what you mean by "trust". PCGS guarantees their work, but I've never had to call 'em on it so I don't know how good a deal that is. Moreover, there is a big difference between coins of a given grade. Evaluate the coin on its own merits. The TPG certificate is a safety net and lends market credibility when it's time for you to sell, but is no substitute for your own eyes - or those of a trusted friend.
My main concern is making sure I buy genuine coins. If the grading is off by a level or two, it's not that big of a deal. I'm not going to buy the 1k and up coins. However, I do want the real deal. This is also why I was considering the 2nd tier slabbers. I thought they where legit, just more generous than they should be with their grading. Mike
Stick with PCGS and NGC, or on the very low end, ANACS and ICG, other than that no exceptions. If you are looking for 100% legit, accurately* graded coins, stick with the four TPG I mentioned. And I think "just more generous than they should be" is an understatment, some companies find an AU58 and say hey lets give this a MS66. It happens. If you buy from those companies that are not recognizable and respectable, you will end up getting an over graded, possibly fake, cleaned coin. *Mostly Accurate, as all grading companies will eventually mess up every once in a while
For purposes of authenticity, NGC, PCGS, ANACS and ICG are all trustyworthy. That said, there have been isolated examples of even them slabbing fakes. They will of course stand behind it though and buy the coin back should that be proven to be the case. In terms of trusting the grade to at least be close, the best you can do is NGC and PCGS.
Just to reiterate what everyone else here has said, there is no way you should trust a "second tier" slab. I have been burned once, luckily with an inexpensive coin, and never again. I believe the comment that raw coins are more trustworthy than these types of slabs is very much correct. Additionally Panama you should care about the grades of your coins. That is if you don't want to be disappointed down the road when you find that your coins are worth so much less. Just look at the differences in price between an MS 63 and an MS 66 for just about any coin. These seemingly small grading difference bring rather large differences in pricing especially at the higher uncirculated grades.
If you go to Google and type in coin grading services, there are 158,000 entrees. No not all that many grading services, but close to 100 of them. There is also a grading service grading service listed that grades grading services. (I wonder who grades them?) Not long ago if a coin was in a PCGS or NGC slab, everyone thought you couldn't beat that for accuracy and authenticity. Today some countries are counterfeiting thoes slabs as well as the coins in them. As already noted here a coin sent to one grading service was noted as fake by another. That too happened to someone I know only in reverse. Originally claimed as fake then accepted by another. I've seen slabs opened and a completely different coin put in mostly as a joke and you could not tell it had been opened. The moral of this is that it still is safer to assume the top grading services are OK but then too, they are only companies made of people.
I agree that the better the grade coins will command higher premiums. Being that I'd rather have several lower graded coins, say AU58 examples rather than one MS69 coin, what matter to me is that I pay a fair price. I've seen the NAC coins with unreasonably high grades go for "cheap". My thought process was buy an MS66 at AU58 equivalent price and I shouldn't get ripped off. That was assuming the second tier slabbers were legit, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'll go ahead and stick with PCGS, but I don't see many of these available for sale in older gold coins. Mike
Just last week the was a write up in coin world about a Pcgs 1903-S. the coin was a very high grade counterfeit,they taken a gem 1903-P 1881 or 82-S cut them in half and sealed them up in a counterfeit Pcgs holder it was an MS65.the only way they that found out it was a fake coin# was not in Pcgs system. someone had been burned for $15,000.00
http://reviews.ebay.com/Guide-to-Third-Party-Grading-Services-for-coins_W0QQugidZ10000000004417463 Good site I came across months ago, lists all the slabbers on e-bay that were known at the time.
I wouldn't try to compare that list with the one mentioned in Google for that company that grades grading services. I wonder just how many there really are now. And too, who grades the individuals that make those grades of grading services? Eventually it will be just a guess as to what is real and what isn't.
