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Message:: [QUOTE="Paul M., post: 2405082, member: 73165"]One thing nobody's mentioned yet is that slabbed coins are a great teaching tool.  Looking at a lot of properly graded coins is the best way to learn to grade, and PCGS and NGC definitely have a vast majority of correctly graded coins in their holders.  They don't whiff very often.  The same goes for learning to recognize market acceptable toning.  I'll buy slabbed bullion, but I won't pay for plastic.  I agree this is ridiculous, especially the premiums for 70s.  You do have a point, but those "inconsequential differences" really only happen in the upper ends of MS, past 65.  Yes, absolutely!   This is what slabs are for, IMO.  I would add that they should make liquidating your collection easier when the time comes.  It's one case in which the very human tendency to look things up in a price guide actually works reasonably well. That said, of course, the idea of price guides for a collectible, for which the quality can vary extremely from piece to piece, is nearly laughable. That is literally ridiculous.  So ridiculous, in fact, I don't want to waste a lot of words on it.  Needless to say, there's a difference between buying and paying a premium for the plastic and buying the coin without paying a huge premium for the plastic. I think the holder is worth a small premium.  Call it $5 for the excellent protection, and possibly a few bucks for the authenticity opinion, but that's about it.[/QUOTE]