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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Midas, post: 113500, member: 2761&quot;]Welcome to the forum!</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>There are 2 items in the Coin Talk forums that really get me going...well actually three if you count the political threads, but that is a whole another discussion that you have to &quot;opt in&quot; for. :whistle: </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>One is fighting to return a depiction of liberty to our coins, especially for the dollar coins in lieu of the presidential dollar series that our elected officials forced down the numismatic community and the other is the pseudo-grading companies like Star Grading Service (SGS) who is owned and operated by Aboncom, the eBay powerseller that markets and packages his own coins.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Please note that they are NOT a grading service or company. They are nothing more than a dealer that packages and markets their own coins with &quot;gold tape&quot; and bogus C.O.A&#039;s. It is just like that commerical depicting unethical stock traders:</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><i><b>&quot;You know what to do...put some lipstick on that pig and sell it!&quot;</b></i></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I really want to keep the lawyers out of the mix. What I have been doing is blowing my horn in a number of coin forums about the likes of SGS. :loud: </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>My goal is that if anybody &quot;googles&quot; SGS, they would find these forums so collectors can LEARN about what is happening in the marketplace. It is not just SGS, but you will find and entire alphabet of &quot;grading&quot; companies putting lipstick on coins in order to sell them.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I will not confirm nor deny I have done this, but the thought of sending emails to recent buyers of SGS coins had this type of message:</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><i>&quot;FYI...SGS is owned and operated by the eBay powerseller Aboncom. In other words, you may think you are getting an independent third party graded/authenticated coin, but for 99% of these coins, this is NOT the case. Don&#039;t believe me? Google SGS and see what some of the coin forums say about this company. Pass the word.&quot;</i></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>It is rewarding to receive emails from other collectors with a statement like, &quot;Thanks...you saved my butt, I had no idea!!&quot;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>By coming to Coin Talk, you have taken a huge step in educating yourself on everything coin related (plus some). Education and word of mouth is the key.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Pass it on...</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>BTW...Why do I have it in for SGS? Well, back in 2003, I bought $50 worth of 2003 PR70 faded &quot;3&quot; Lincolns and spent over $50. Everything looked great just like all of Aboncom&#039;s listings. I showed these coins at a coin meeting and was laughed out of the place...especially paying over $50 for these two coins. Upon investigation, I found forums like this who confirmed my mistake. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I have been on the war path since. <img src="http://bestsmileys.com/shooting1/12.gif" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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