Hello I am New here i am a novice coin collector but i have decided to start collecting Graded coins (PGCS) (NGC) (ANACS) (IGC) since these are the only 4 company's that E Bay recognizes My question is that most of these company's charge 15 - 25 dollars each to grade coins but i can buy lots of these graded coins in high grades on ebay for 12 dollars and below each how is this possible when the cost of grading is so high? one more question. is this a good investment as an example i just bought this coin for 6 dollars good buy?
I can't say if it is a good buy or not, but personally I would stick to NGC and PCGS. Dealers get discounts by doing a mass submission - hoping for the high grade coins that will make them money. The rest they just sell to get as much as they can get. The new ANACs and ICG (while both have some good coins) NGC and PCGS are better. Now depending on what you are going to collect - then I might have a preference for one over the other. All is just my personal opinion and I am sure other opinions will differ. I any case learn about what you are going to collect first - study as many of them as you can. Learn to grade as best as possible. It will help in the long run.
If you are a novice collector, I might question your reasons for collecting. TPG's (Third Party Graders) were started, in my extimation, to have a reliable source so that coins could be traded like other comodities. That being the intent, there are a lot of them including the big 3 (NGC, PCGS and ANACS) with ICG coming in just behind in some estimations. That being said, if you have 12 MS67 2009-P Native American Dollars from any one of the three (or four) top TPG's, they still might all sell for different prices since eye-appeal is all for most collectors. If you join certain associationa, you get a certain number of free submitions, and this can explain why there are some unlikely slabbed coins. In general you will pay more for slabbed coins than for "raw" coins, and I sincerely question if this makes them any more valuable. BTW, welcome to CoinTalk.
Welcome to the forums. I wouldn't really consider coins to be a good investment, if that's your reason for starting I might consider something different.
If you like it and will get $6 worth of enjoyment out of it, then it could be viewed as a "good investment'. If you don't care for the coin itself and are only concerned with what you could sell it for sometime down the road, then no… this was not a particularly good investment, even at $6. Since you are new to coins, if you want to "invest", I highly suggest that you invest in knowledge because that is what will make or break you in this hobby/business.
ok i agree with this i guess what you are saying is keep this as your hobby do not expect to get rich doing this because few do.I know that knowledge is king in any business and personally i do not plan on getting rich doing this but i will have something to leave for my kids... I want to thank everyone for your reply's i guess there is no better place to gain knowledge than here in Coin Talk I will learn. reading some of these threads about dumb things people buy on ebay well i was one of them that's why i am here to try and stop these kind of mistakes
I do not believe anyone said it was a mistake unless purchased for future profit; if you enjoy the coin then $6 is nothing. I also understand your desire to save for your children, but may I suggest that the greatest potential value in a coin collection for children is actually collecting with children. Spend time together as a family, let the kids make decisions, and someday you very well may give them something more precious than money.
