My first slab

No, I'm not being sarcastic. Yes I am "The slab guy" and I probably know more about the slabs and companies than most anyone around. I am also vehemently anti-slab and I am completely against the whole concept of the third party grading. I have not and will not support or encourage them. For that reason I will not buy slabbed coins for my collection and I will not even look at slabbed coins when I am looking for coins for my collection. I will not buy a slabbed coin and break it out for my collection. As far as I am concerned a coin in a slab does not exist.

Now I DO buy slabs for my slab reference collection. But when I do that then I don't give a dang what the coin is in the slab. All I care is to acquire an example of the slab as cheaply as possible. (Not always possible. Some slab varieties do not come with cheap coins in them.) And of course the vast majority of the slabs in my reference set are from fourth tier, fly-by-nights, or long extinct companies. I even have pieces in my reference set that have had the coins removed from them. I would rather have the slabs undamaged but sometimes that just isn't possible.

Being an anti-slab collector actually has a bit of an advantage as a slab researcher. I'm unbiased, I hate all TPG's.

 

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You have me interested. Why is it you hate PCGS and NGC slabs? (The rest, I can understand.)

 

Sometimes, when one purchases a membership to one of the slabbing companies, one gets "free" submissions. People will use their "free" submissions for anything.

Another scenario: Some companies have cost structures like "slab X-number of coins for $12" instead of $20 a coin.
What happens if you are two short of that X-number? You'll submit some lower quality coin to achieve the needed number for the discount rate and still save money.


g.

 

I've traded away two of three slabbed coins I owned and am trying to move the third. I actually found the TPG useful for authenticating my oft counterfeited coin. Other than that, I prefer to touch the edges of the old copper and imagine that my well circulated pieces have a much higher likelihood of touching hands of the founders than the MS70s which are so treasured among my high altitude EAC peers.

 

It isn't so much being against a particular company, it is an objection to the whole concept of third party grading. In the early years the third party services were not grading services, they were authentication services. I didn't have as much objection to that because authenticity is objective not subjective. Either it is real or it isn't. but when they got into grading now you were paying someone, you didn't know who, to tell you their opinion as to the grade of the coin. They said "it would protect the new people from overgrading". Does it? No not really. Instead the newbies get stuck with the overgrades, the misidentified, or the fourth tier slabs because everyone tells them to "only buy slabs" and they don't know yet about the different services and they drop a bundle on stuff they wouldn't have touched if they had taken the time to do some studying and LEARN about their series and learn to grade! They say the slabs will protect the newbies until they learn how to grade for themselves. The problem is a lot of them NEVER DO LEARN. Instead the TPG and the slab becomes a crutch and they become dependent on the grade on that label. Even most of the auction houses have now fallen to that point. It used to be their experts LOOKED at the coin, graded it and discussed the coin. Now they either insist coins be already slabbed or they send it out to be slabbed and then tell you what the TPG says it is and then some superlatives to try to get the bid up. Don't like it once it arrives? Check the terms of sale, slabbed coins are not returnable, take it up with the TPG. Someone posts a coins and one of the first few comments about it will be "What does the TPG call it?" WHO CARES WHAT THEY CALL IT!! The question is do YOU like it??

They say it stops dealers from buying at one grade and selling at another. Not really. You take a slabbed coin to a dealer and if he doesn't feel it comes up to grade on the holder (and he may tell you it doesn't even if it does) So he will try to buy it at the lower value. But once he gets it in his case and someone wants to see it it becomes "Well the TPG says it grades X so I need." And back before the slabs you might have lost $20 or $30, but today you may be out much more.

And I am also a "old time" collector who feels a connection with his coins and their history. I prefer to HOLD my coins. If you are buying a coin and you have to depend on somoenoe else to tell you what it is, and what it grades, and it is sealed away from you, why bother? I can get a picture of a better one, it will be prettier, I'll have just as much connection with it, it will be cheaper, and I don't have to worry about security.

 

lol my first slab was a 1945 d wheaty ms 65 rd ngc i bought off a ct member for 15 bucks

 

Well said Condor.....

 

Ah I understand. I especially agree with you on the quoted part. I could not have put it better myself. Go Dansco!

 

Won't argue with the rest of your points, but I do have questions on the last couple of points. First - how can you guarantee it will be cheaper? Granted I probably will never have your experience, but a lot of really nice raw coins are as much if not more than a graded example of equal quality. Yes - you probably have more sources than I do, but I can't see this as a fact. Second - how come you don't have to worry about security? Maybe I don't understand how you are using security here - is it the security of selling the coin after you are gone or is it just the security of the coin itself?

I have no problem with your dislike of slabs, but me I will take them either way I can get them. I will readily admit I like the security of the slab itself in most cases - both for the coin and hopefully for resell. It has not stopped me from cracking a few out for my albums. At the same time I like raw coins in albums.

 

Very few PICTURES of high grade coins cost more then actual examples of lower grade either raw or slabbed.

Because no one is likely to try and steal the PICTURES, an even if they do I would have very little in them and can always get more.

I think you missed the point of what you quoted. Having a coin that you have to depend on some one else to tell you what it is, and what it grades and which has to be kept sealed away from you is to me no more satisfying than having a PICTURE of it. And so why not just have a PICTURE of a much nicer one. I'd rather give up the physical security and have a lower grade raw piece that I can handle and study on my own.

 

The 93 proof set-clad is around $13-$18 depending on where you buy it from.

His coin is slabbed, NGC PR-69 UCAM, and he got if ro $5.

Ev, you got a great deal.

 

I agree with you 100%. Most people hung up on slabbing from a top TPG, are feeding the frenzy of over pricing coins, and therefore are seeing their coins as an investment, rather than a collection hobby.

 

DOH - Okay - I think I got it now. Still I do like some high grade coins that I would not handle and I do have a lower grade set to get my hands on.

 

You have to be joking! Where are you, I have a ton of coins to sell you! LOL
Seriously pick up some greysheets, even old ones. Much more real prices. You may not always purchase at greysheet but at least you will know the relative markup in an asking price from someone.
If our coins were really worth those redbook values/trends etc we could all retire.

BTW, congrats on your new coin. Good price and good fun.

 

Well since everyone is rejoicing your hatred for TPG's, I will cast my vote of dissent in this thread. I understand your reasons and you are welcome to your opinion but I couldn't disagree more. Do you really think that the TPG's are the reason collectors don't learn to grade. They didn't know how to grade before the TPG's and they don't know how to grade now. Even the more advanced collectors who have enough knowledge to be dangerous greatly overestimate their grading skills. You can't protect every idiot in the world but with very little effort any newbie will learn which TPG's to trust and which not to.

And it does stop dealers from buying at one grade and selling at another. They pay wholesale prices and sell at retail prices. The no longer get to pay BU and sell at GEM BU. I have no interest in returning to the wild west days of numismatics in the pre-TPG days. But don't let me stop you from reminiscing about what you consider better times.

BTW, as I was reading your post I was holding a $1K coin. Halfway through, my jaw dropped, and so did the coin onto my hardwood floor. Good thing it was slabbed, sealed away, for it's own protection from me, the elements, and all other forms of mishandling. Comparing a slabbed coin to a photograph is ludicrous, and I guarantee that I worry less about the security of my slabbed coins than you should about the security of your raw ones.

This post wasn't meant to be adversarial, it was only intended to present an opposing opinion to your rather extreme view of the subject.