I was at the shop last Saturday and in walked this young lady. 25ish.. Dragging along beside her was a young boy, maybe 5. She said her husband is a coin collector and he had picked up a really nice Morgan on.... Yep EBAY. Wanted us to look at it. She handed me the Morgan in a slab mind you. I looked at the coin, VF harshly cleaned, 1885. I said what would you like me to tell you about this coin? Obvious answer followed, I want to know what its worth... I hesitated because I knew before I started where this was going. I said $12-15 bucks, its a common date and basically worth silver yada yada. This is where things got kinda nasty. My husband has been collecting coins now for over 5 years and he says this is an uncirculated coin because......... THE SLAB says it is. Now keep in mind I have been around the block I think once maybe twice in my 40 years of collecting. Well I pulled out a the ANA grading book and started educating this lady. Her next question was.. Am I gonna get in trouble for killing my husband and this person who is self slabbing these things and ripping people off.. I told her I am pretty sure that its against the law here and I would recommend not doing that. How many times does this have to happen before people start listening? I didnt mention the slabber of this coin but it starts with a G I am not trying to start a war. Just make it a personal practice as a collector to try and educate at least one person this week on the whole slabbing issue.
5 years of buying coins and he hasn't figured out the difference between uncirculated and circulated/harshly cleaned :rolling:. I feel bad for her, him - not so much - and as far as the slabber - they live on the saying Ignorance is bliss. I have bought two people (who were ask me for advice) books on coins in the last month - so I feel I am doin good . I also gave them general grading rules which I pulled off of one of the links on this site. I explained to them how to use the book and what to look for when sorting through their collection of coins that have come their way.
lol.. I love when a person comes to me with a slabbed coin marked MS grade and i tell them its at best AU, but in many cases less then that. I tell them shoulda talked to me first. But oh no... the slab said it was uber WORTH MONEY,, so they beleive the slab. Even if its slabbed by Burger King or Hasbro.lol But with that said .. NEVER TRUST A SLAB.. LOOK AT THE COIN. Some times the junk slabbers get it right. Or even better you find a goodie for much less.. Please note hasbro is a toy company and have nothing to do with coins..
Please note hasbro is a toy company and have nothing to do with coins..[/QUOTE] and here i am with a whole album filled with these slabs. hmmm
Yes but you have to be somewhat discreet. Her husband could have paid hundreds if not thousands on a coin like that thinking that it is genuinely a strong UNC coin. You have to be delicate in a matter like this and honestly show her the light. Everyone has probably gotten ripped once or twice or in my case 50 - 100 but as long as you make the other coins count and learn from your mistakes you will be on the right path of sucess. Just my 2 cents so to speak. =)
WHAT? Now you're going to tell me I shouldn't buy coins graded by Wal-Mart? I can see it now "Wal-Mart Coin Grading Company" WMCGC. Kind of rolls of the tongue, doesn't it though? Phoenix
Yes, after 5 years of collecting you would think this person would know about some of these scammer slabbers. Even if he didn't you would think he'd know the difference between vf and ms and send the coin back.
Why would you think 5 years someone would learn something? He may not have any books to read, he may not surf a forum like this, he may not do anything but buy the cheapest slabbed coin he can find. So how or where would he learn. Its obvious he does not visit any coin stores and his wife probably knows more than him now. So why think he learned anything over 5 years? I know a guy just like that that made out like a bandit because he was plain lucky. He knew nothing about coins and he bought out of the local paper. He bought a bunch of common date morgans in the 90's graded by NGC, plus a couple of gold coins. He held them for 5 or 6 years when he found out I collected. One of his first questions was - who is NGC. When he sold he doubled his money. He planned on surfing ebay to look for more gold and silver coins.
From what you've said this guy has been collectiing for five years and basically never bothered to go to a COIN shop. Wife should make him do the dishes for the rest of his natural life and beyond.
