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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ian, post: 120132, member: 283&quot;]I can&#039;t argue with your experience selling coins. I can argue with your assertion that i&#039;m wrong. </p><p><br /></p><p>For years American dealers have been hoovering up talers and crowns from foreign auctions to satisfy the collector demand for them in the US. That&#039;s supplyb and demand in action. Over the past ten years or so the improving exchange rates have meant that the US has faced stronger competition from european buyers and collectors. So it should not come as any surprise that coins also&nbsp; flow out of the US these days. Especially if they are cheaper than can be bought locally. Even i&#039;ve bought slabbed coins. Why? Certainly not because of the plastic, the name on the plastic, the description...or indeed anything remotely to do with the plastic. Simply because they were cheaper in the US than I could find the equivalent elsewhere. </p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ve had over 1,200 different coin purchasing transactions ranging from a few dollars to a few thousand with sellers / dealers in the US over the past five years. Buying coins that i&#039;d have to pay significantly more for if they were being sold over here.&nbsp; The exchange rates have shifted quite considerably in my favour in comparison to the five years previous. Sure, some of my purchases have been slabs. However, to me the plastic serves more as an obstacle to the appreciation of the coin than it does as a means of preservation IMHO.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Tell me something. How old was that coin before you slabbed it? Now...are you trying to say that you are incapable of acting as curator of that coin and preserving it in a condition it has had for centuries without sticking it in a lump of plastic? ...or is it an `insurance&#039; thing?</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>You point out the wonderful colour that centuries of cabinet toning has achieved on that coin. If the technology had been around a century or so ago and had been slabbed. I wonder if the properties it possesses would be the same. The downsides you point out above seem to be an `insurance&#039; kind of thing again.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Oh I can fully appreciate the market in the US for slabbing. It is an industry in its own right. Big busines, and one that plays on `insurance&#039;, `preserving your valuables&#039; and `resale values&#039;. However you must be aware it is an industry that simply doesn&#039;t exist outside of its borders excepting to a small extent in Canada.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>??? But surely you already know all that, why would you need the opinion of somebody who claims expertise (but probably has never seen more than two or three similar examples in their life)? What you have just said in point 4 is hardly a reason for slabbing. You need the `insurance&#039; of an `expert&#039; other than yourself?</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m sorry, but just as you have experience, I too have experience and of the few slabs that have made it into my possession a VERY high percentage of them have been real howlers! Like one grading company proclaiming a coin to be a rotated die. Oh sure it was a rotated die, but MECHANICALLY rotated (as in `fake&#039;). Like one company grading a Matt proof Edward VII shilling as a business strike MS. Like not getting the German State for a 5 mark piece right. Like simply spelling the name of a commemorative 1/2 dollar wrong. Like getting grades of coins out by sometimes more than a full grade. I can&#039;t say I like the error margins or the consistency of error. I&#039;ve even seen ancients mis-attributed (to the extent of seeing a fake in a slab).</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><br /></p><p>Again, I can&#039;t argue with your experience. All I know is that here in Europe slabbed coins really do sell for less than their raw equivalents. As I said, I generally only buy slabbed `world&#039; coins when they are better priced than I can obtain them elsewhere.</p><p><br /></p><p>The market is changing. The US market has been insulated over the years and the `slabbing&#039; market is very much a US thing. The www has changed all that and continues to do so. However while the market for coins is&nbsp; now global, the demand for `slabbing&#039; certainly isn&#039;t, and I for one hope that that remains to be the case.</p><p><br /></p><p>The coin that you have will sell for its perceived value irrespective of whether it is slabbed or not. If a foreign buyer is buying your items I am fairly confident it is not because the coins are `slabbed&#039; but because of the item and the fact that it is available from you for less than an equivalent coin locally.</p><p><br /></p><p>Stunning coin, but the slabbing is definitely a downside for me.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ian[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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