Why do people crack open graded slabs??

Some people were dropped as babies and have a "cracked" syndrome. I used to be one of those until I sought counseling. Now I am a "slabber-mouthed" fool.

 

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Why do folks crack open slabs which contain graded coins?

Because they can?

Because its a rite of numismatic passage over ones agreement with the assigned grade?

I have no idea just like I have no idea why folks rob banks, or shoot other folks or "plank" or do any of the other dumb things that people seem to do.

They're just people doing people things.

 

I have a couple of slabs, just kinda nice more expensive ones, but not for any of my type or series collections.

Those slabs are just like they are almost not coins, more like looking at a painting, except these paintings have two sides. There's you another analogy besides tomb.

 

On a sad but kind of positive note for us slab holders is that With every slab that gets opened the possibility of damage to the slabbed coin inside increases therefore decreasing the amount of coons in that state and increasing the rarity and value of the coin. However we all have our own preferences on how we collect sometimes regardless of the cost. I would never think of breaking open any of my slabbed and especially my slabbed 70 coins.

 

I only buy slabbed coins for a number of reasons. But why would I keep a common year Morgan $1 in MS63/64 in the slab? Maybe I want to keep it in my “box of rainbow 15” or in a Dansco?

 

Cracking out a 70 would be pointless.

NGC and PCGS do registries and they now require that coins entered into your set can only be in "their" slabs to count for points.
For some coins, there aren't that many examples of in certain grades so somebody who has a NGC registry set going might see one they like in a PCGS slab and crack it to cross over. Or vice versa. Or they may just send it in for a cross over, leaving it in the slab. I like to challenge the graders to see how they cross. So far NGC has matched PCGS grades even in instances when they didn't know what the original grade was. Even on stuff that was cracked out years ago.

I haven't cracked one out in years. I personally wouldn't crack anything out for an album regardless of value. I know what it costs to get something shipped, graded, slabbed and shipped back to you. Not only that but the slab provides superior protection. Premium coins are not meant to be handled anyway. Some stuff, it really doesn't matter. You can crack out something common and tape the label in the album and it's no big deal.
I would NOT crack out an entire Morgan set to put in a Dansco. That's essentially throwing away thousands in grading fees that someone else paid, loosing the superior protection and authentication, losing the 3rd party's opinion of grade and making your set equivalent to an album full of Chinese counterfeits. And if you think that's being extreme, there's at least one dealer that was fooled and bought a complete set of Chinese fake Morgans out there because I read an article about it. Due to the risk, cracking out the set probably cut the value down by 40% at least. Somebody would have to spend a few grand to re-slab them.

Lighthouse makes great albums for storing slabs in if you need to look at an album but don't want to crack slabs.

 

I’ve cracked out two coins recently because of pvc residue. They were given an acetone bath and will not be re-slabbed.

 

Especially silver bullion. Sometimes after grading, they develop milk spots and/or other blemishes.

 

To get to the other side!

 

Sometimes you get a too positive Grading Note from PCGS or NGC with which you do not agree at all.
In the Case of selling your coin you crack the Slab because you are a good fellow, WHO not wants to fool another collector.

 

I needed an early half cent for my 7070 album and found a nice looking details graded coin that I cracked out.

 

Why do people crack open graded slabs??

Because I prefer to collect them that way. I would buy raw coins, but other people seem to want to put them in slabs before selling them.

 

I cracked a few peace dollars out of slabs for my dansco set, they were MS62s. My set criteria was problem free Mint state coins, and i got the slabbed ones at a good price, so into the album they went.

 

I once didn’t see the point of cracking slabs since, one way or another, the buyer pays for the grading/slabbing.

But with cleaned and altered coins, artificially toned coins and downright fakes contaminating the stocks of raw coins today, it makes perfectly good sense for album collections.

 

To ensure that the coin is authentic, because even a trusted source may miss a counterfeit, whizzed, or cleaned coin.