I have spent about half an hour searching through Ebay to see how the market is going. Seems as if the low grading slabs are really making a strong move these days. A quick search for NTC showed many less than desirable coins marked as high grades. Here is my favorite: Anyone actually believe that this is a MS-67 coin? Of course most of the sellers are power sellers which tends to make people believe that they are selling quality material. It does make me feel better that most of the members here know better than to buy subpar slabs. Maybe we are making a slight difference afterall
I think NTC will slab a coin as anything you say, for a fee. Not all slabbing companies are equal... CDB
You are making a difference. Being fairly new to the hobby, ya'll have given me many good ideas and have recommeded good books to read for additional information on this wonderful hobby. Oh, and in my humble opinion, that is NOT an MS67 Morgan. Buyer beware, and of course, the first lesson I learned on this forum is: buy the coin, not the slab.
Yikes - I wouldn't own that coin. Give it a few years, and most of these lower end grading services are going to be taken down by the legal system. When enough people get burned and enough dollars are gained cases of misrepresentation tend to slide into the realm of fraud... How many people were burned by poor condition used cars before the lemon laws were adopted? When people have are held accountable for representing themselves as 'experts', a lot less people call themselves 'experts'.
Members who left a positive: 102 Members who left a negative: 0 All positive feedback received: 316 so weird that the average customer has bought 3 coins for this person. i mean, what a coincidence.
p.s. i am a generally suspicious person and maybe i'm wrong in thinking that the feedback has been padded. just sayin'.
It is rather disheartening to see the mismarketing of coins through these ridiculously liberal grading services (that's liberal in the coin grading sense, not the political sense). Of course, anyone who tries to do something about it may face a lawsuit...
I wouldn't necessarily be quick to judge the feedback. We have a total feedback of 2278 with only 1677 unique buyers. If people are buying the coin and not the slab, they might be very happy with their purchases. Just because the seller wants to get the same money as a Big Four graded coin, doesn't mean that he's getting it.
Perhaps he/she is selling in a particular category and drawing from a limited number of satisfied buyers. At least 20% of my 400+ EBay/Yahoo purchases have been from 5 or 6 sellers of Japanese coins and books.
I've never been overly impressed with NTC although I think I've read several times on this board that they are one of the best/most consistent? Seems like I've heard a lot of dealers talking about how good they are. Personally I prefer NGC and ANACS but that's just me. Nick
Most consistent doesn't really mean anything. They can be consistently wrong. There is a huge difference between accuracy and precision that most don't understand. Precision - If I shot 10 arrows and all 10 were in a group touching each other that would be precise. Accuracy - If all 10 of the above arrows were a foot from the center of the target, I still would have been precise, but not accurate. That may or may not be the case with NTC but be wary of "Most consistent" claims.
Actually now that I think about it, maybe NTC isnt' the service that I've heard mentioned positively here. Perhaps it was ICG? I remember some threads that mentioned a "newcomer" that had garnered respect and acceptance among dealers. I thought it was NTC but perhaps not. You can see how "tuned in" I am to the world of slabs, eh? Actually I feel sort of sorry for collectors and dealers that only deal in slabs. It's probably getting harder every year with all the new 3rd world services that are popping up.
Actually, it's pretty simple. Any coin not in a big 4 slab (PCGS, NGC, ANACS, ICG) should be looked at as a raw coin, and priced as if it were a raw coin. These "third world" slabs (i.e. NTC, ACG) should be looked upon as no different than a 2x2 with a hand written grade on it. And of course, even with a big 4 slab, you still need to "buy the coin, and not the slab". A silver dollar can be graded MS-65 by PCGS and still be BU ("butt-ugly")!
Yeah ICG. If you're including that one with the big 3 that's definately the one I was thinking about. Personally I haven't had more than a couple of their coins so I can't really vocalize an opinion about them. But dealers are sure singing their praise. Sorry about misquoting that thing on NTC...they don't really seem to be well liked. I've used a few 3rd tier services over the years for low value coins but my preference is still NGC and ANACS. And rbm86 you're exactly right...BUY THE COIN...regardless of the certification company.
