How much does a coin worth if it's graded

I beg to differ with you...I have talked to numerous respectable dealers who believe, as I do, that they are more likely to sell a slabbed coin to most buyers because it gives them (the buyer) a more secure feeling of quality/authenticity. A recent case in point, I purchased a 1922 No D Strong in a PCGS slab that I would never have brought if it was raw. Best to all.

 

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If I look at coin and in my opinion it is real and in such and such a grade it is worth X. If the coin is in a TPG slab and I agree it is in the same such and such a grade it is still worth X. (I still have to see the coin because I may not agree with the TPG's grade. If I think it is LESS than the such and such a grade then it is worth LESS then X even though the TPG says otherwise.) The coin is the coin whether it is slabbed or not.

 

This whole "value" idea is all pretty subjective, you realize.

 

If graded coins have more potential buyers, then in general there will be more competition for them, and they'll sell for higher prices.

If something makes an item sell for a higher price, that's a pretty compelling argument that it "adds value".

 

That's just it. The COIN doesn't sell for any more. It still sells for the same X amount that it would have sold for raw. Any amount over X is a premium payment for the TPC supplied insurance.

 

Right before I understand why these people are even buying coins, there will be plagues of locusts and fire from the sky. IOW, if someone doesn't KNOW coins, I am utterly amazed they would want to BUY coins.

 

Yup, and here's why - take that same coin, crack it OUT OF the slab and EVEN KEEP THE SLAB LABEL WITH IT, and its market value decreases. Why? One word - "trust", or maybe "idiocy". You decide.

 

If that is a goose It just got cooked!

 

How then about USMINT.GOV offerings in the fuzzy blue boxes? These seem to add cost just for the sake of adding profit for the mint. Admittedly, they are pretty and desirable for the casual collector or the collector of fuzzy blue boxed coins, but one of the first things serious collectors do when they have a good looking one is put aside the mint box, display case and COA and submit it to the TPG in hopes of getting the blessing of a 70 back. The COAs sort of amaze me in their worthlessness to begin with, you could just as well glue them to a cat, "It says it's authentic, Ralph, but it sure doesn't look like Mark Twain to me..."

Meanwhile, the boxes, cases, capsules and COAs enjoy a healthy used aftermarket on eBay for people to take other things unrelated to the COA and increase THEIR value, not coins that misrepresent their origin's certificate, but maybe a picture of their cat?

Also funny, the TPGs will take care of the unpackaging from original USMINT box, fuzzy case and capsule, and at least one, I forget which, charges you to return them, along with the potential cat pedigree, otherwise I assume they sell them in bulk to POWER eBay sellers. Waste not want not.

Which leaves us with the COIN! Remember the coin? It's what we supposedly bought in the first place. And if it comes back as a 69 or shudder, worse, its value might start to fall a bit. TPGs are nice to warn us though that this might be our own fault as we uneducated non-professionals might damage the coin while popping it out of the original mint capsule, but fear not, they have a fee to doing that for you as well, also to send it back to you, otherwise I imagine it stays with the original cardboard and fuzzy boxes and the COA, to retain the integrity of the original product, whatever the future owner of that might stick in it.

Sadly, some folks get discouraged by this and just sell it on eBay, RAW, described as a "NICE COIN..." which someone will buy eventually we hope. Or on the high mintage issues, in other words the popular ones that everyone bought like crazy the year they were issued, your local coin shop will give you melt for them, so my rule is on the modern commemoratives is to just buy the obscurely themed ones, as the fewer there are down the road the more they'll be worth of course.

The hobby has changed since I started, finding silver coins in circulation, digging through bank rolls, and examining every coin that I got paid with when I had a paper route. You know, I was a newspaper delivery boy, an after school job when I was a kid. A newspaper, oh... that's something people would read everyday, oh, never mind...

Of course, some people just hang on to it as received from Uncle Sam and look at them now and then and admire the nice shiny thing. I Still do that sometimes. It's fun.

 

Ha. A Sneetch my dear fellow. Oh, man I feel old.

 

And some people (ME! Ooh, ooh, ME!) don't give a rip if a modern blue or black velour box issue would be a 69 or a 70 if graded, and so we religiously keep them in the original government packaging or OGP for short. Why don't we care? Because we deny there is a repeatable difference between a 69 and a 70.

 

Velour, there's the proper word. Hmm... I just realized that my 1/10 ounce Proof 2016 W American Gold Eagle came in a Velour Box the SAME color as Capt. Kirk's shirt in STAR TREK! Perhaps that's why they were struck at the Academy?

 

Don't keep the red velour boxes. They always die as part of the "away team" that goes down to the planet.

"Save the velours", the endangered species being relentlessly hunted down and killed for their rare hides by the henchmen from the United States Mint. What can you do? Support the "capsule only" movement by wholesalers who only want the coins in TPG tombs. Remember, this message is brought to you by your good friends at the Wholesale Coin Dealers Association - sucking value out of numismatics for several decades.

 

+1.

And remember that all coins aren't worth grading, including some in those price guides that have been. Spend time just exploring the guides to get a feel.

 

And if looks like a Chia pet or Cousin It, beware. Might be a Tribble inside.

 

/Thread.

 

Price Guides are written by the sellers and meant to lead you to the cash register, of course, not unlike History by the Victors.

 

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