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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;mrbrklyn, post: 546024, member: 4381&quot;]OK - maybe I&#039;ll step a toe into this budding controversy.&nbsp; You make a valid point that is worth exploring and which I&#039;m inclined to agree with, although I think your missing a valid, non-fraudulent market dynamic.&nbsp; Coins that are slabbed can at first be viewed as being overpriced in the market.&nbsp; And this argument is much stronger as we discuss MS and PF 70 coins.&nbsp; And as the stars bare witness, we&#039;ve had this argument, sometimes for weeks at a time.&nbsp; I threw almost 15 people into my ignore box once in a string of discussions involving this very point.&nbsp; But here is where you are not making a good analysis.</p><p><br /></p><p>It is entirely irrelevant that you can have a 1000 coins or even a billion raw coins of equal grade and quality as slabbed coins with less market value, and if your good enough, maybe even more tightly graded.&nbsp; There is a legitimate market value to the slabs themselves and that value is tethered to the degree of accuracy and trust that the collecting community puts on the outcomes of the grading process that the TPGs earn over time.</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m a huge critic of the TPG&#039;s system of grading.&nbsp; I think they are too arbitrary, and despite the enormous, and I mean enormous, amount of expertise, education, and fair mindedness that the TPGs might have about grading coins, that their processes are still not verifiable enough, nor well documented, or well engineered enough for my complete satisifaction.&nbsp; I would rather have less expertise and a validated process in place where the companies can tell me that through rigorous testing that their grades have been shown, when proper quality control is enforced, to produce reliable grades within plus and minus X% of the grade given 9X% or the time.&nbsp; That would be then a complete and full description of the grade.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, and this is a HUGE HUGE HUGE however, even with 1 billion raw coins equal to TPGed coins, there is a trillion more that are defective or misgradable, or otherwise being capable of being manipulated by sellers to be overstated specimens, and&nbsp; that a vast vast majority of even educated collectors would be mislead against their own interests in their bargaining in the market.&nbsp; The degree to which the TPGs, that is PCGS, and NCG, and at times MAYBE ANACS or PCI, add market information about a coin and then effectively encapsulate that coin in such as way that the information is likely to remain valid for a long period of time, is an important, if not critical,&nbsp; additional value that the TPGers provide in the market and for which people rightfully pay.&nbsp; There is nothing fraudulent about this, and the service has genuine value which is worth real money.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, despite what everyone says, and its is a valid statement, that one must buy the coin and not the slab, your still buying the slab with the coin.&nbsp; And expect to pay for it.</p><p><br /></p><p>Furthermore, if your looking at a reasonably valuable coin that is raw, say a 1916-D Mercury Dime, or even my MS66 SLQ Type I quarter, you better darn well have Bowers&#039; and Pratter&#039;s level of advanced education on that coin, and 10x Hobos ability to spot counterfeits and tampered or cleaned coins before you drop a cool 2 grand on the darn coin.&nbsp; Because I find that even unslabbed mid-priced raw Peace Dollars at this point are a highly risky proposition and three times I&#039;ve brought what I thought were exceptional Peace Dollars at premium prices from a reputable dealer like Stacks and all three times the coins were body bag material.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now, I&#039;m not talking about CAC.&nbsp; That is a whole different business model that I don&#039;t want to get into here.&nbsp; And you are now welcome to flame away at me as per normal.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>This messages has now been sealed with my CEO of Brooklyn Stamp</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/images/ceo_label.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>and I&#039;m sure Spock is somewhere in the background about now snickering at me <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Ruben[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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