At what price level is a coin worth being graded?

I can think of only 2 cases in which I would choose to have a coin slabbed.

The first is if it is an expensive coin that I believe might not be authentic (although I still have doubts that US-based slabbing companies necessarily have any greater expertise authenticating [as opposed to grading] non-US coins than a knowledgeable collector or dealer).

The second is simply due to ease of selling into the US market. The advent of slabbing in the US has resulted in the proliferation of collectors who have never developed their own grading skills, having been conditioned to rely on what the slab says instead. For coins which are mostly collected in the US (like Morgan dollars), slabbing seems to be almost a requirement. For coins which are collected internationally, such as ancient Greek or Roman coins, this is less important because slabbing has not caught on in Europe the way that it has in the US. Go look at major European auctions listed on sixbid.com and you will find the vast majority of coins offered are sold raw, and when they are not, many lots will be listed with both the slabbed grade and the auctioneer's grade.

Others might disagree, but slabbing, in my opinion, should be regarded as a marketing tool and little more. Grading standards change over time, so it makes little sense to me to pay for slabbing now rather than just before you decide to sell, if you need to get the coins slabbed at all (depending upon what you are selling and into which market you are selling it).

 

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Double everything by 20.
Just joking, but someone I know said that once.
First establish a reasonable value for your coin. Check the sold prices on Ebay and others.
Know and understand the many fees involved in a sale.
Once you determine the base cost of a sale, use that as your guide.
I once sold a very nice set thru what I was told was a reputable auction house. MS 63 Red to MS64. The price realized was about 35% more than I paid, but I lost 16% overall, after all the fees.