The following coin is on Teletrade's auction today. Link to auction (Mods: I hope it is OK to post the above pic from Teletrade's site. If not feel free to delete it.) This coin is a common 1900 Indian Head Cent that has been graded ANACS GD-6 Details Cleaned. A 1900 IHC Grey Sheets $1.20/$1.35 in Good. You can buy rolls of these coins all day long for $60 or $70, less for cleaned coins. Someone paid at least $12 to have this coin slabbed. Assuming someone buys the coin on Teletrade the minimum seller's fee will be $5. So the seller has at least $17 in fees to slab and sell a coin that I would not pay more than $1 for. (Don't forget he also has shipping costs in shipping the coin to and from ANACS and to Teletrade.) If someone buys this coin on Teletrade the minimum buyer's fee is $8. Add to that $4.75 shipping for a total of $12.75 over and above his winning bid. Does $29.75 in fees (seller and buyer) to slab, sell, buy and ship a $1 coin make any sense to anyone? I don't get it. Why do people waste good money on such low value coins?
It would only make sense if he submitted 5+ coins to get graded. The money is already out there. So, he submits his good batch to Teletrade and figures it's worth a shot. Maybe he didn't see all the wear. (confused) It's totally pointless and not worth the money to have low coins graded. I've yet to send anything off to get graded but I doubt I would do it if I thought the coin was less then $30 unless it was for some kind of authentication.
Some people might send in a low value coin to test their grading skills, or to verify authenticity of a key date coin. In this case though, it remains a mystery why someone would waste money on such a low value coin as this.
I thought there was like a bunch of die-hard collectors trying to assemble "Poor-Grade Certified" type coins? Why bother going for the best when getting the bottom of the barrel is much easier?
Gotta bid! Gotta bid! Gotta bid! Gotta bid! Gotta bid! Gotta bid! Phew, got that out of my system, thanks, Hobo!
I'll never understand it. I have a few 38-D Buffaloes that I bought locally years ago. VERY nice MS65-66 coins no problem. Paid $15 each for them. At the time a 65 was retailing about $40-50. Figured they'd look nice in a PCGS holder but never did as I would have paid more for slabbing than the coin. Still got em and they're still raw. They're not even low end but common so why bother? Slabbing a low end common is just silly IMHO.
I certainly agree, Hobo. Slabbing this coin makes little sense IMHO. Sometimes folks are overly optimistic about what they have, and hope it will come back with some stellar grade. Maybe he thought it was some rare variety and was hoping to have it attributed. Also... a while back, ANACS gave free grading coupons when they failed to meet promised turnaround times. Maybe that explains this one.
Your point is also well-made about auction fees. Maybe the guy is just testing the waters using teletrade, and wants to experiment with a low-value coin. All those fees are "tuition".
i agree, unless its a key date, the only reason i can see to slab a coin is to test your grading skills. as a new collector, it will take me a while to learn how to grade a coin properly. i may take 5 or 6 coins and have them graded as a learning experience. i would write down my grade first then mail them in and see if i graded them properly.
Yes, that's true. One of our club members does exactly that. We've been treated to some absolutely hilarious stories about how disappointing it was to get a "pocket Morgan" back as Good-4, so it was resubmitted... Still waiting to see that elusive "NG-Zero" though! :smile
I don't know why someone would slab a low valued coin, but I've purchased a few of them over the years when the premium for the slab was only a dollar or two more than the raw coin. It's a novelty item and a good learning tool for grading.
