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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 3024965, member: 19463&quot;]I see one major difference between ancient and modern coins that makes slabbing much more appealing for moderns.&nbsp; The difference between two similar specimens of modern coins is very little and may not be obvious to all who see the coin.&nbsp; Sealed slabs are necessary to prevent coins from being swapped out.&nbsp; Ancients of the same type and grade can look nothing like each other.&nbsp; It is unusual to find two coins that could be mistaken for one another due to minor differences in strike, centering, color pattern and a dozen other things that make each coin unique.&nbsp; Slabbed coins can be bought from whoever holds them whether or not the seller has any idea what they have.&nbsp; The only thing of importance is the price.&nbsp; If you bought whizzed, recolored, filled, altered, faked or otherwise &#039;bad&#039; coins the problem was not the coins but the people you bought them from.&nbsp; That is why we say you should but ancient coins from people you trust and avoid shady looking characters on street corners who also deal in anything of perceived value.&nbsp; If you bought modern coins from honest and knowledgeable sellers, you would not have that problem either.&nbsp; If you insist on exercising your right to making bad choices when selecting people to trust, you might be better off buying slabbed coins although you have to realize that there are fake slabs, too. </p><p><br /></p><p>The idea that everything you buy will go up in value and you can expect to make a quick profit on every item assumes the continued inflation of prices and decreasing value of the dollar that has been the case for much of all our lives.&nbsp; To insure constant increase in prices, we have seen something very close to a pyramid scheme where all buyers feel it is their right to make a profit while bringing to the table no study, no work and no experience in the field.&nbsp; Certainly I can afford to pay twice what something is worth as long as I can find someone else dumb enough to pay me three times the value.&nbsp; Knowing what you need to know to make a good profit on ancient coins is a big job.&nbsp; Most of us collect because we like the coins and hope we are not losing every cent we spend.&nbsp; If what you want is investment grade securities, this is not the place for you.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I would say I agree with red spork but I see nothing unfortunate about it.&nbsp; If we put the necessary work into it, <i>perhaps </i>we can profit more or lose less cash.&nbsp; We also can pay a full service dealer (my choice) or a TPG slabber (your choice?) for services which we have no rightful expectation to recover when we sell the coins.&nbsp; On the other hand, if we enjoy the hobby and consider the money spent in the same category and what we spent on dinner and a movie, perhaps the system as it is now is exactly the way it should be.&nbsp; If we buy slabs or raw coins without knowing more than how to find someone we can fool into giving us a profit, we are part of the pyramid that will crash on someone someday, maybe not fortunately but certainly not unexpectedly.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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