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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Tom B, post: 1654815, member: 11854&quot;]I like coins and I collect coins both raw and certified.&nbsp; Being a full-time dealer, I also sell coins, but the market and my clients have dictated that most sales are of certified coins.&nbsp; There is nothing wrong with buying, selling and collecting raw coins; just as there is nothing wrong with buying, selling and collecting certified coins.&nbsp; Of course, there is nothing wrong with buying, selling and collecting a mix of raw and certified coins, too.</p><p><br /></p><p>In my opinion, the advent of the TPGs has done a lot more <i>positive </i> for the hobby-industry than it has done <i>negative. </i>&nbsp; Back in the good old days of the early 1980s and before it was <i>very common </i> to have cleaned, artificially toned, repaired and all manner of manipulated coins sold as entirely problem free or virgin.&nbsp; Many (most?) collectors did not know they were buying manipulated coins and, upon resale, they almost invariably learned a very expensive lesson.&nbsp; Counterfeit coins were also quite common and they fooled many dealers, too.&nbsp; Of course, what we call overgrading was rampant.&nbsp; If one were educated, disciplined and patient then these pitfalls were largely mitigated, but in the days before easy access to information via the internet this was a <i>much more difficult </i> goal to achieve than it is today.</p><p><br /></p><p>The TPGs now weed out the vast majority of counterfeit coins sent their way, refuse to certify as problem free boatloads of previously worked on coins and provide a disinterested grade assigned to each coin they certify that allows for much more liquid trading.&nbsp; These have all helped dealers sell more material, they have helped collectors save a significant percentage of their funds in the buying/selling experience and they have made the market function much more smoothly.</p><p><br /></p><p>In my own collection, virtually every coin worth more than $500 is certified and this has to do with increased liquidity, greater resale value, ease of obtaining proper levels of insurance and security for my wife and little girls if something were to happen to me.&nbsp; There is nothing wrong with collecting raw coins, just as there is nothing wrong with collecting certified coins.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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