Featured My experience with one of the Top 4 TPG's

No not at all. The majority of them will only buy slabbed coins because are afraid to buy raw coins. They know their own limitations, they know they aren't qualified to judge coins themselves.

Are there some who just want to collect coins but don't want to do the all the work or don't have the time to study and do the work it takes to learn how grade themselves ? I have no doubt there are some like that.

When I was quite young yes. But then I learned how tell the difference between the two and how identify a weak strike. And do so with certainty.

 

No it's not. To the contrary, in most forum discussions it's greatly underestimated.

Look, I'm not an elitist, far from it in fact. For my entire life I have done nothing but promote the hobby, and do everything I could to help people learn about coins. And that includes all areas of the hobby, moderns, classic, world coins, even bullion coins. The only area I never delve into is ancients - I know less than nothing about ancients. And I'm not a variety or error guy - never have been. I know the very basics of that area but that's it. Those things have just never been of any interest to me.

What I have done is spend my entire life studying coins, in depth. Assembling a numismatic library that was bigger and more comprehensive than you could find in most libraries. And yet you'll still find where I've said it a thousand times on this forum that I am not an expert. And do ya know why ? Because I'm not, and I know it - know it for a fact ! I've spent way too much time with people who really are experts to even remotely think that I'm one. Spending time, real time with them studying, is a humbling experience. But at the same time I also know that I know far more than most collectors do.

There's maybe several dozen people on this forum who know ten times what I know about a given type of coin. And they know this because they specialize in them. I specialize in things too, have for many years. I probably know more about ducats than all but a handful of people in the world. But my knowledge of them pales beside the knowledge of that handful.

I guess what I'm trying to tell you baseball is that one has to know a lot, a whole lot, before one can even realize how much you don't know ! And most collectors, they just haven't got to that point yet. And most of them would be the first ones to tell you so. But I'm not belittling them, I'm not calling them names, I'm just stating the truth.

The thing that you don't like is that a lot of what I say is quite contrary to what you say. Well, you are welcome to believe whatever ya want. But don't fault me because I'm trying to help people, to actually tell them the truth about things. They don't have to believe me, they can believe what they want too. All I'm trying to do is to at least make them aware that there is a choice. And then they can choose on their own.

Do you know why most real experts don't post on coin forums much ? I do, because I've asked them. Over the years I've all but begged lots of them to participate on the forum, but they won't. The single primary reason is because they don't want to try and deal with people who "think" they know what they are talking about - and who refuse to listen to somebody who actually does !

That said, there are maybe 5 real honest to God experts who are members of this forum. One of them posts all the time. Another, pretty much a daily basis. Another just once in a while, at least from what I've noticed. The other 2, rarely but they do once in a while. (edit - there may be more, but those are the ones I am aware of)

And then there are quite a few members who are fairly knowledgeable in their areas, people you should listen to when they have something to say. I wouldn't even hazard a guess at the actual number, but it's not a real big number. And that's out of over 40,000. And as has been said, this forum is but a tiny part of the hobby. And no, I'm not just using this forum as my sole source of info for what I say. I've been a member of pretty much every coin forum there is, and a lot that don't exist any longer. And a lifetime of going to coin shows and participating, interacting, and learning there. All of that has taught me what I know.

 

Pretty sure he's not. I've run across a lot of dealers that if you judged their knowledge of coins you'd have to wonder how they managed to stay in business.

Selling slabs is the answer of course.