I've have this dilemma. I am unsure when it is appropriate or necessary to send coins for certification. Just as an example, the coins at this link: http://s589.photobucket.com/user/trueshooter/library/Misc Coins I try and balance cost of certification with coin worth or scarcity. But sometimes it's a call almost too close to make. And sometimes (especially in the case of tokens or commemoratives), there is little or no information available. Ultimately they must all be sold as part of the estate (some thousand or so pieces). Is there an approach I'm not aware of which might facilitate my task of deciding which coin should be certified? Thanks.
Getting them (coins and tokens) certified will certainly make it easier to sell whatever it is you are trying to sell but you are the person who needs to determine if the cost factor involved is justifiable. Take, for instance, a raw 1892 Columbian Exposition half dollar. You can usually get a nice uncirculated example for between $30-$40. If you've got a good eye, and see that the potential of the piece in hand might grade out at ms-65 or '66 it would be justifiable to slab that piece as it would command more upon a re-sale and more than make up the costs of grading.
Lots of info on tokens out there. You just need to pay for it. So called dollars Tokens Both search terms can be used to find the books for sale.
And in point of fact grading is where I've actually found a great deal of discrepancy, especially when approaching dealers at coin shops for their expertise. They most often grade very conservatively when one seeks their opinion on a coin's condition. I recently brought in two coins which I was told one was most probably cleaned and the other at best an AU-58. They later came back certified MS-62 and MS-64 from NGC. And this is often my experience. When someone seeks their opinion it is most often because they are considering selling their coin. Therefore it is in the coin dealer's best interest to low grade your coin, thereby putting them in a better position in case of a potential purchase. In my opinion that is akin to larceny, and yet I've found it to be regularly practiced in today's numismatic circles. Needless to say, I'm becoming much better at relying on my own ability. But in the case of determining which coins deserve certification, aside from my Krause catalogs, utilizing auction archives, and networking on forums such as these which I have found very helpful, it seems there is no other method which actually simplifies the process. Although one bit of news I might share. I have found a bit of success using Google's image search. By uploading an image of the coin onto Google, it tries to match the actual image of the coin to other "like" images on the Internet. It's not perfect, but I can see where the technology is going. It's interesting to say the least.
What you mention regarding which side of the table you're standing on is quite common. All the more reason to hone your own grading skills........
Absolutely sage advice. There is no short-cut to being present and astute. The more diligent we are in our efforts, the better we can steward our numismatic responsibilities. I had assumed as much. I was just hoping against hope. Thanks.
While I will be first in line to tell you that there are some dealers who do exactly what you describe above and for those reasons, there are also plenty of others who would simply be giving you their honest, and accurate, opinion. For example, I am no dealer and never have been. But there have been a great many coins slabbed by NGC and PCGS both as MS64 that I would never grade any better than AU, especially those slabbed after 2003. And I'm not trying to buy the coin. You see, more than a few dealers are convinced of the same thing that I am - that the TPGs have been over-grading coins for some time now. As for your own ability, that is exactly what you should do. But at the same time you need to have a certain level of grading ability, and be accurate with it. And that is not always easy to do for it requires a good deal of expertise and experience. But if you have confidence in your own grading abilities then the first thing you should be questioning is not necessarily the opinions of others on the grade, but the opinion of the TPG. An experienced and discriminating collector will completely ignore any grade assigned by a TPG. That's because there is no other method. There are a great many coins that have been submitted to TPGs for grading that should never have been sent to them at all. Now there's a multitude of reasons for that, but one of the most common is that the person who sent the coin in over-graded the coin. In other words they look at the coin and see a 66 when the coin is actually no better than a 64. (Those numbers are arbitrary and only meant to illustrate the point.) I guess when it comes right down to it the only deciding criteria for having a coin graded is value, or making it easier to sell. And those are not the same things nor should they be confused as such. In regard to value, the deciding point will vary greatly by person. But to me, if the coin is not worth over $200 then don't even consider it for grading. As for making it easier to sell, it is an absolute fact that there are far, far, more plastic buyers out there than there are coin buyers. So having a coin slabbed greatly increases your pool of potential buyers. But, doing that, in my opinion anyway, lumps you into the same category as those larcenous dealers you described above. For all you are doing is taking advantage of gullible people in order to put money in your pocket. I wouldn't put much faith in this if I were you. Those "like" images you mention are based solely on the descriptive terms that identify the image, labels in other words. And that does not mean that those labels are accurate. If you want to use pictures to compare coins then use the pictures you find on Heritage of like graded coins. But I warn you, it takes a great deal of skill to interpret pictures for pictures can be greatly deceiving. But if nothing else viewing those pictures on Heritage will illustrate to you what I was talking about above, namely that you will see an enormous difference between coins of the same grade. Your best bet by far is to go to as many coin shows as you can go to so that you can view the coins in hand and gain the experience that will actually do you some good.
Grandpa with the number of plastic buyers out there it would be crazy to sell coins raw. aint worth it the world has changed.
Well spock that depends on what and who ya know. Knowledgeable collectors will buy a raw coin just as readily as they will buy a slabbed coin. And for the same price.
yes but isnt it more profitable to sell to gullible fools? slab the damn thing and put it on ebay and bob is your uncle why would anyone even bother to sell to a knowledgeable collector
