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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Earle42, post: 2624625, member: 78261&quot;]A quote from the author:</p><p>&quot;I have been a collector for virtually my entire life and I care deeply about our hobby. I think it would be irresponsible for me to remain silent about the damage that I think is being done.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>If this is truly the case, then let&#039;s address the damage to the hobby done by slabbing in general.&nbsp; Before slabbing, every coin by date and mint mark had its own value&nbsp; - which is why prices (although we know they have always been inflated) in the red book would list down to even the lower grades.&nbsp; Mintages, date, and MM drove the values.&nbsp; It used to be fun looking in the Red Book for each coin to see what it was you had found.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>That fun is forever gone b/c slabbing altered the focus of the hobby onto key coins so now everything in circulated condition is relegated to junk silver if its not a key.&nbsp; And then there came the designations of FSB, FBL, etc. that made the coins people recognized as &quot;top examples&quot; become second best and not so special anymore.&nbsp; Granted, I understand these coins are better strike, but I cannot help but feel people&#039;s perceived value of BU coins are lowered.</p><p><br /></p><p>I think a more comprehensive statement form the author should be that he cares about the money made off of collectors from the slabbing mills.&nbsp; After all - the drop in value from PCGS he is claiming occurred also affects NGC slabbed coin values.</p><p><br /></p><p>From the start, and like collectors outside the US used to say, I never saw a need to pay someone to grade my coin for me as most anyone reading the guidelines is/was capable.&nbsp; These companies knew the psychological and emotional &quot;need&quot; of humans to have an &quot;expert&#039;s&quot; stamp of approval, played on that, and made a business.</p><p><br /></p><p>Admittedly I see two actual reasons for slabbing though.</p><p>1.&nbsp; It allows people who are not coin collectors to know the coin in hand is not just something to be dumped at the bank.</p><p>2.&nbsp; It will bring more profit to a person selling it b/c of the perceived value the plastic/label brings.</p><p><br /></p><p>For reason 1, I have had around 6 total coins slabbed in case something happens to me and my family is wondering what to do with the coins.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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