Opinions on SEGS seated quarters?

Ouch !!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

How did you garner any of that from the words i wrote. I am a collector who has an interest in purchasing solid coins at reduced prices whenever I get the chance. Thats me being a frugal collector and stretching my money. Very little to do with investment.

If by investment you mean that I try to make wise purchases and take precaution to avoid a loss in this hobby, then i guess I am an investor by those definitions, because that is my goal, with the possibility of leaving a fine inheritance and legacy to my heirs (in that regard I do want my purchases to appreciate).

I think being fiscally responsible in this hobby is pretty important, and I try to approach my purchases as such.

That means asking myself if Larry Briggs' opinion on a coin series he wrote a book about are worthy of purchase and may be undervalued by the mass majority of the market.

It seems that the prevailing thought of if it isnt PCGS or NGC it isnt acceptable is the clear winner here. And yet again I have not observed any actual evidence on why these coins wouldnt be solid.

No one who has given an opinion (and that IS what i asked for), has been able to provide any follow up information to back up their logic.

I also keep getting the same answer over and over again, and basically that answer is irrelevant to the discussion I was trying to have.

I want to know WHY these coins arent held to a higher regard, especially this particular series, not that they arent PCGS or NGC. I have already said several times I acknowledge that, I understand how the market perceives SEGS overall, I just was wondering if any of the same people who point to Larry Briggs for knowledge also trusted his grades on that same series. To me its awful bad logic to say "use his book for everything you could want to know about seated quarters", and in the same breath say, "but dont buy any of the same coins that his company graded, because he doesnt work for XXX or XXXX, his seated quarters and opinion on them are no good".

I can accept those answers, if someone can SHOW me how that logic is supposed to work, cause right now I just dont see it.

 

I think you are wise to do so. I regularly cherry pick pieces from non-NGC and PCGS holders.

 

The majority of my collection is in old white ANACS holders, beauties all of them, and purchased at a discount to their PCGS and NGC counterparts.

I do buy the top 2 in certain series and as my overall rule of thumb, but I also seek out the opportunities, and that is usually against the current grain of the sheep.

 

I have no problem buying from segs if i like the coin. You can get nice coins cheap.

 

Several here have passed on their current opinions. Several smart, thoughtful individuals. You can choose to accept or ignore their opinions. You can even argue if it makes you feel better.

Your saying you don't agree and their saying it's worthless are both opinions and can't be proven. Until you go to sell your coins. The beauty is that the market doesn't care what you think. The market - when you go to sell your coins - will TELL you what SEGS grading is worth.

I am the acknowledged and provable expert in the state of the cat food dishes in this household. I have eyes and can see the actual level in the dish. I know each of the varieties of dishes that might be in use. I have thumbs and can weigh and measure - objectively - the amount of food in the dish. I can open the container and replenish the dish or not. No amount of statements about my level of expertise or provable technical criteria is going to change the CAT'S opinion about my woefully inadequate skills.

In this case, Larry is me and the putative buyers of the SEGS coins are my cats.

 

Again, I understand all of what you are saying. However that DOES NOT answer the question.

We all can see and accept that the market many times gets things wrong, or acts in a rash manner, or erratically, or any number of unpredictable things. Often times the 'market' is BEHIND the savvy collectors and dealers, they are the ones capitalizing on the event.

Case and point are all of the gimmicks the mint pushes out all of the time. The savvy, astute collectors and dealers all buy in and sell their products on ebay and television for enormous profits. Look at the market reacting to the N.A. Coin and Currency set. The winners were the savvy collectors and dealers who bought and can hold now and name their price, the market has to buy them and look at the increase in prices from the issue price already. That is simply the method I am looking to apply to this very particular and specific situation.

If I can capture great coins at reduced prices because of a SLAB perception and not the coin contained therein, then I am going to explore that as an option.

By the way, your analogy also works like this. Maybe your cats dont realize they are on the shorter end of the intelligence scale, and are simply doing things out of habit and need, rather than patience and understanding. Just like collectors who cant think for themselves and who have to be told what to collect for value (if thats an important factor in their purchasing decision), they never question the relevance of the other factors that may indeed help them, such as seeing good coins in perceived bottom tier slabs.

A part of my collecting strategy besides seeking out undervalued, eye appealing coins, is to offset my financial burden by potentially moving a good coin down the road at a profit. That requires spotting value where most people dont see it. Which goes back to being ahead of the market and seeing things before the masses to position yourself wisely.

By the way, you may want to run some numbers. If you can purchase a $400-$500 coin at 80% of its value in a lower tier slab, you can have it regraded and put in a top TPG for about half of the value you saved. Boom $30 to $50 gross profit (no ebay selling though) and thats assuming you dont mark it up or wait a couple years for the market to inflate a little more. Realistically that scenario would have you breaking even or just slightly under at current market levels (if selling on ebay), but thats when it pays to choose wisely and pick up coins that you can wait out for a bit and have already had a steady increase or have always been popular.

 

Heres some more food for thought, the main reason touted for even having a TPG in the first place was because of the lack of knowledge the collector base had as a whole. It was to even the playing field so everyone could basically look at a number and correlate a price guide and then hand over money without much thought or effort into the ART of collecting. Seeing the beauty for what it is, and being savvy enough to be ahead of the 'popular' curve is a crucial factor in selecting solid coins for any potential returns, today or in the future.

So if the market is why we have TPGs today, and it was basically because the market at large was woefully ignorant and seeking an easier method to obtain coins while bypassing earned knowledge, then I dont put a whole lot of faith in what that market believes in. Especially when I see the fad reactions.

What I do know as a truth is that just by the amount of coins that have been preserved in a pristine, gem condition, going all the way back to our country's founding and even back to the most ancient of coins, is that there have been savvy collectors who have appreciated and preserved these little jewels, and I dont think that sect of hardcore collectors is going to die anytime soon. So as long as I am pulling out eye appealing coins, that are well preserved specimens for their respective series, then I will do fine. I will find a ready collecting base that will appreciate the coin beyond any holder it is contained in, and if all else fails and the market just refuse to cooperate, well, I can always change the plastic case its in to whatever current king of the realm is certifying coins.

 

So either you are smarter than everyone else, and will eventually reap the extraordinary gains that implies, or you are not and will not.

Time will tell.

Bye!

 

Dude where is your reading comprehension skills. Ive been patient and avoided calling you out directly on this, but seriously im tired of tip toeing around it.

Go back and read my written words. Do you not understand the term COLLECTING GOAL?

1) Goal as defined my Merriam-Webster: something that you are trying to do or achieve

2) Goal as defined by Dictionary.Resource.Com: the result or achievement toward which effort is directed

3) Goal as defined by businessdictionary.com: An observable and measurable end result having one or more objectives to be achieved within a more or less fixed timeframe.

4) Goal as defined by Google: the object of a person's ambition or effort; an aim or desired result

So, I dont claim to KNOW EVERYTHING, YAR!

I am merely a student seeking answers and choosing to be active and engaging and understanding of a hobby that I enjoy. Knowledge is king in all aspects of this hobby, and I make sure to study up, even acknowledging that I must go against whats popular sometimes if I want to reap a certain type of reward along my journey.

 

I also never claimed to be 'Smarter than everyone else'.

Now recognizing the market is reactionary and that the savvy collectors and dealers are the ones reaping the rewards is just simple observation.

Thats where my goal comes into play.

To replicate what I am seeing and to be on the winning side of the equation more often than the losing side. There are plenty of people throughout recent history who have made fortunes and names for themselves by being astute students of numismatics. All it took for them was a dream to be the best, and the followup effort to ensure that it happened, all while appreciating these coins for the immense treasures that they are.

 

Just FYI, I can't find any current reference to Larry Briggs being a finalizer for SEGS. The best I could find was a 3-year-old reference to him being "a finalizer," (not the finalizer, emphasis added), and a current reference to him being a "senior grader." Thus, I'd think it might be safer to assume that even if a seated quarter is graded by SEGS, Mr. Briggs probably never saw it.

 

Does Larry Briggs even still work for SEGS? I know that he is a dealer, and I've seen him set up at FUN several times (including last month). Have you ever seen his table? The inventory is considerably less than impressive.... a lot of cleaned stuff, and not very attractive. He's well known for his knowledge of the series - but that is for his attribution and variety skills.

 

He's listed here as "Senior Grader and Authenticator @ SEGS Grading."

 

Trey,

I think in answer to your question: can you find good coins at a discount in holders from lower level grading companies? Yes (value proposition is implied).

My understanding of SEGS is they lack grading consistency, they have a reputation of overgrading coins and grading problem coins (cleaned) with a straight grade. Are there coins graded that you can wade through and find good deals? I would imagine so. Some of the responses indicated that very thing. I believe they stated they would want to see the coin in hand before buying.

Too me, it's a matter of how much time and energy you want to expend finding these diamonds in the rough. I don't own any SEGS coins.

 

I think this portion was a bit optimistic.

 

Really?

Heres a list that I would consider 'plenty' enough to realize its not an impossible feat:

Q. David Bowers
Eric P. Newman
David Lange
Mike Mezak
Harvey Stack
Gene Gardner
Louis Eliasberg
John Feigenbaum
Colonel Edward Green

These are guys on the extreme end of the fortune scale, but plenty of dealers and collectors make it out there, and this was just off the top of my head.

Sure these guys are all legends now, but they had to start SOMEWHERE right?

 

I think if you are knowledgeable enough in a certain series, you can cherrypick anyone's slabs.

 

This is the correct answer actually, and sort of makes my specific point moot. It goes back to being educated and confident in your skill set to not need reassuring opinions to pick the 'right' coins if youve studied up properly.