Why ancient collectors hate slabs

Don't you feel sorry for them? They can only touch plastic. Why collect anything at all that you cannot touch?

Its not about grades though. I do have spectacularly graded coins, like some xf+ early sassanians, but i collect COINS, not sad plastic tombs.

Btw, xf+ for non ancient collectors means nice AU/BU in us grading parlance. Our grading scale is different, again a major po factor in NGC slabs.

 

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For sure. I mean comics are to be read. Even comics nearly 70 years old can still be read.

Only time I could see a comic book tossed in hard plastic is something like a high grade first appearance of superman, batman, or even regular superheros that arent household names but are expensive.

I cant see buying a latest stephan king novel and encasing it in plastic. Comics are meant to read and coins are mean to be handled.

 

I still enjoy collecting modern coins and I don't see myself giving that up. Its just different than ancients as I'm learning. And as far as collecting anything goes, there are always two sides. Collecting as a hobby and collecting as an investment. It doesn't matter what it is, baseball cards, comics, coins even action figures gets graded now.

The thing is you can handle comics just like an ancient coin. Carefully and with clean hands, as far as investment goes, the logic is the same as coins. You grade them when you want to sell them, it increases the profit. I could go on and on about other collectibles but the logic is all the same.

 

A little OT but thats just not true. Modern comic books are getting graded too. It may sound silly to you but there are people out there paying high prices for them. And the recent comic book hobby has taken off into new heights in the past few years.

 

Now that is new. I have never seen a graded action figure. Googled it and sure enough.

Wonder if I could start a business of encapsulating computers or cell phones?

Surely 50 years from now they may be collectable

 

So did sports cards take off. Then, all of the fun got sucked out of the hobby and prices crashed spectacularly.

Always remember investment in collectables is illusory. A collectable is only ever as valuable as a collector who coloects for pleasure values it. Take away collectors and "investments" plummet to zero.

 

Ive seen moderns graded, even some as a few years old. I have seen the prices of some key issues in plastic actually sell for on ebay. I myself think it's silly. I dont play the plastic game in any of the hobbies I have. Some of my u.s. coins are in slabs and they stay in slabs.

But I am not gonna take my X-men 141 & 142 that are in about VF condition and worth about $30 each and spend $25 each to CGC grading, plus shipping and insurance to toss them in hard plastic. The grading cost outweighs the value of the comics themselves, thats the point I am trying to make. Plus its fun to re-read the stories.

 

To tell you the truth, both comics and baseball cards are still healthy as far as collectibility and investment / profit. I do understand the point you guys (Medoraman and Mat) is making. But try to understand as I'm sure you both know already. There are always people out there looking to make money of collectibles. Sometimes a hobby just doesn't make sense, sometimes a comic book jumps in price significantly many years later just because they re-introduce a character.

Anyway back to coins, I do want to stay on topic.

I will now be looking to get more un-slabbed ancient coins for my collection. :smile

 

Probably, given that this is already a thing:

 

lmao, really? Video games too?, damn...

I still have all my Atari, nes and snes boxes too :/

 

when are you guys going to realise that these grading companies are taking you for a ride? literally a license to print money.............

 

LOL, dang, that is about the funniest thing I have seen. I wonder if you encapsulate the packaging for video games like that when they first come out you can get a "First Day of Issue" on the slab?

Seriously, does the game have to be in there too? If it does, how does someone play the game? If not, you are simply paying for the video game BOX?

Whatever the circumstances, that is stinkin' hilarious.

Man.........that picture really does bring into sharp focus the entire "slabbing" idea all around, no?

 

Well when icerain mentioned Action Figures are slabbed that threw me for a loop but video games/boxes? Wow...

This thread will make good proof at how silly slabbing can be under various circumstances.

 

That coin looks like its in a fake NFC case. Anyone else get that?

 

If anyone's curious about them, here's the site of that video game grading company. It used to be that this was only for new, shrink wrapped games, but it seems that they've started doing it for opened games in new condition as well. And it does seem that some people send in games as soon as they come out. For what it's worth, most game collectors think that this is ridiculous as well, but there's always been a small segment that wants sealed copies of their games rather than something they can actually play, and this service seems to be aimed entirely at them and those who are trying to get into game collecting for investment purposes.

 

Wow.

That link. On the top. They slab everything. It's a fad.

 

Classic. Besides video games, they also slab action figures, die cast vehicles, and collectible dolls!

What is funny about this is I bet you a noncollector views collectible dolls in a slab as not much difference than a coin in a slab. We are sitting here laughing at people having video games and dolls slabbed, everyone elses laughs at coin collecting as a hobby doing the same.

Kind of seems to me like we are geeks laughing at other geeks. I know many of us do not slab, but as a hobby slabbing is a large business.

 

Let me weigh in on plastobolsaphobia (fear of plastic containers):

Some coin collectors feel that when any ancient coin is slabbed, they lose the tactile joy of holding a two thousand year piece of history in their hands. Also, some ancient coin collectors fear that once their cherished ancient coins are slabbed, they become a commodity which is no longer admired and treasured, but is flipped like some stock in the heartless coin market. Finally, to the surprise of many novice collectors, most ancient coins are relatively inexpensive, making any added fee for authentication an unnecessary expense. And I understand and agree with all these points.

Personally, I view slabs as akin to a menu translated into English at a foreign restaurant. It is sometimes helpful, but it can also be an unnecessary and incomplete added expense. For someone more experienced, it can either be a help or a hindrance.

(Remember, it is not hard to "free" these coins from their plastic tomb.)

That said, I appreciate the work by David Vagi and the folks at NGC. I respect his integrity, experience, and knowledge. If I were to buy an expensive ancient, I would want someone like a Vagi to render his opinion on a coin's authenticity.

I enjoyed this article's discussion about the difficulties involving authentification:

[Moderator edit @Bart9349, this link led to spam, please check links before posting]

As mentioned previously, buy the coin and not the slab. Buy from reputable dealers. And if buying from an unknown dealer, either know your stuff or have a respected authentication (like NGC's).


guy

 

I hate slabbed coins I would much rather buy from a trusted dealer but then again is in the UK tend to prefer "raw" specimens !

 

LMAO!! Now that is funny. Is it bad that when I first saw it, for a brief moment I kind of wanted it!? lol Brings back memories of childhood that seem like 100 years ago now. The bad part is, there's got to be a warehouse or a storage unit with boxes and boxes of those games if you ever wanted one again. But guess what? Functionally, they sucked back then and that means they still do now. If I wanted to actually play any of the classics, I would order them up on my Wii off the internet.

Getting back to the topic at hand, this thread has somewhat swayed me on ancients and slabs. I'm a slab guy and always will be for moderns. I can see the points for not slabbing ancients. They've made it this long and most are crude. I do like the labels with the info. To me that's worth something. I don't think they're a bad storage medium. They may not offer authenticity guarantees but you really have nothing if they're raw. Most of them I want are pricey. I want a Greek owl tetradrachm. Does everyone here feel comfortable slapping down a grand for a raw one? How do you know it isn't a Chinese counterfeit? They're more crude. They've got to be easier to fake.