Slabbed coins for prosperity sake.

Hello all, I wanted to get a few opinions here as to the new direction of my collecting.

I have been collecting Morgan dollars for a few years now, it is by far my favorite U.S. coin and I just like the way she looks! Having said that I have amassed a fairly decent amount of unslabbed ladies of different conditions. I got to thinking that I am not going to be selling these off and will want to leave them to my kids when I go, I then got to thinking about the return to them on my "investment"(in quotations because I collect for the joy of it with little concern about the return right now). After much thought on the matter I decided that I am going to start collecting only slabbed Morgans for two reasons-

1. They can't take a slabbed coin into the local bank and exchange it for a nice new dollar
2. They will be able to assign better values to the slabbed coin.

What do you experts think? I am ok buying the slabbed coins because I myself enjoy the Morgans in slabs. Having said that, what's the best way to go about acquiring them? I really don't like fleabay and would like to get them someplace else.

So to put an end to my rambling, I ask you all if you think this is a good idea? Or is there a better idea, keeping in mind these would be passed on?

Thanks for your input and help!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

EBay is pretty much the only place I buy from. There is just so much selection and there are always new coins being added. I'm not sure what your beef, or anyone's really, is with eBay. I can see how people may not like eBay as sellers, but as buyers it just doesn't make any sense.

As for your question, I would say shops and shows are the way to go.

 

Sign up for Heritage auctions. Registration is free, their photos are outstanding, all of your purchases are automatically archived and placed in their collection management software, and they have weekly internet auctions as well as a monthly signature sale. This week's Sunday Internet auction has 57 slabbed Morgan Dollars.

The disadvantage to Heritage auctions is that there is no return policy. I don't know why you don't like fleabay as it is by far the most "buyer friendly" place to purchase coins. Because of E-Bay's policies, many sellers offer 14 day unconditional return policies as well as free shipping. This helps combat the fact that many sellers offer what I consider substandard photos of their coins.

My personal philosophy is that I buy coins based on the coin. I rarely pass on a coin I want because I don't personally like the venue. That said, there are sellers on E-Bay who I don't trust and would not buy from even if they had a coin that interested me.

If you are going to buy only slabbed coins from now on, you should stick to NGC and PCGS graded coins IMO.

 

I agree with bsowa on eBay being good for buyers. You get prices that are generally below market (which I still don't quite understand, but it is what it is), and eBay has the stellar return policy.

 

I am buying 90% of my coins on eBay and almost all of them in slabs from NGC/PCGS & ANACS. Just yesterday I bought an 1883-CC Morgan in an NGC slab. Knowing about all the counterfeits, I wouldn't have bought it as a raw coin. Also I am not so experienced when it comes to grading and bought some cleaned/damaged coins in the past... now that won't happen again. Go for the slabbed coins!

 

Ok, let me "qualify" my beef with Ebay- Up until now I have bought mainly unslabbed Morgans and I have gotten burned by some being cleaned. I guess since I am now sticking to slabbed, only PCGS or NGC for me, I guess Ebay would be the place to go because I can check the authenticity on either TPG's website.

 

...and that's exactly the reason why I am only buying slabbed coins now It's not ebay's fault when sellers don't tell us that a coin has been cleaned or when they don't even know about it.
Do you consider sending in some of your favorite Morgans for grading?

 

I have sent a couple CC's in to NGC already and have been pleased with the result. I fear, though, that I am still not intelligent enough on grading to send in some for grading.

 

I prefer slabbed coins on more expensive purchases. For bullion, loose Morgans are fine, and in fact fun to handle and collect. BUs are fun, but I have bought a few off eBay that I found out later were cleaned or even tooled (hair line for example). This should not happen if the coin is properly graded.

For graded coins I purchase exclusively NGC. In my opinion, PCGS tends to over-grade their coins (give higher grades) if its on the fence. Again, just my opinion, but I have been collecting Morgans for a long time, and have seen coins graded by PCGS for example as MS64 that I thought was more of a 62 or 63 at best. But again, you should look at each coin individually, and you can always submit a coin for re-grading (if you think it should be higher, not lower!).

What worries me about graded coins is consistency of the grading over time. I have some Morgans in the old style NGC holders (maybe mid 1990s?) and wonder if the same coin were submitted for grading today would it not get a better grade. Always a risk I guess.

Well, not sure if my post was particularly helpful, but I am generally in favor of buying graded/slabbed coins. Good luck and have fun. And remember Hotpocket loves you.

 

I am on a low budget but I still stick with PCGS and NGC when buying online, because on Ebay even coins under $50 are easy to find slabbed, so why even consider coins that are raw? Cleaning is what worries me most as I see a lot of cleaned coins in "details" holders where the cleaning isn't readily obvious. If a coin passes at PCGS or NGC I can be reasonably confident that its surfaces are acceptable to the market. I have some coins that are raw and in lower tier slabs that I am not sure about which makes it harder to enjoy the coins. A coin may seem like a good deal for its supposed grade, but if it turns out to be cleaned the value just drops like a rock. This is easy to see when comparing completed auction results on Ebay.

 

That's so true, sometimes the label says "genuine - not gradable" and I have no clue why. So even if a raw coin looks good on the pictures sth might still be wrong with it.

 

I admit a lot of my Ebay purchases have been "snipes" where someone who obviously has no idea about Morgans posts one and I simply shoot them an email asking if they have more which I then buy in a bulk purchase and I usually don't get very good pictures. So some of the dumb purchases have been all my fault.

I bought a 99 from a little old lady(didn't know she was at the time) and when the coin came it was harshly cleaned. I sent her an email expressing my displeasure and then afterwards had to feel bad about it for yelling at a little old lady!

 

Where?

 

Whenever PCGS grades a coin "GENUINE" they place a two digit code on the label. You can determine the reason for the no grade by visiting their website and looking up the meaning of the code.

http://www.pcgs.com/nogrades.html



The code for cleaning is 92 and is the most common IMO. That said, just because a TPG says a coin is cleaned does not always mean that it is. TPG's can and do make mistakes.

 

ebay is fine.

Maybe this topic will be helpful... http://www.cointalk.com/threads/the-cheap-slab-store.30545/

 

Thanks for the information!

I will hopefully be hitting an auction this weekend, I guess I'll see how I do in relation to what Ebay has to offer.