*this* Is Why "First Strike" Designation Is Deceptive.

This is why I don't perticularly care for slabbed coins. I read in an old book where at one time NGC wouldn't grade late year proofs as it created false hype on common coins. Seems like they let money crush that standard. I can understand graded coins from an investment perspective on rare or old coins, but they are essentially creating a "rare" variety just with a label. Pure garbage in my opinion.

the thing about it is, as long as people are paying extra for the TPG's to place that meaningless term on their label the TPG's will do it, and as long as customers pay more for the label with that term on it then the people submitting will keep paying the TPG's to do it. The only way to really stop it is to not buy the coins with it on their label. The only time the submitters will stop paying for the FS designation is when it becomes to be unprofitable to do so. If all of their material left over has FS on the label and the ones that have sold do not then they will stop having the FS put on there, so the customers is the blame for all of the FS stuff catching on like it has

Not so much deceptive as meaningless.

ive always since day 1 - the whole thing is such a "gimmick" reminds me of the days of the magazine wizard and all the chromium covers whereas wizard would be the TPG's telling everyone yes its rare and special you have to buy it now so lame

Bryan, you are not understanding what I am saying. Of course if the customer didn't buy it then it wouldn't sell, but the reason people are buying these in the first place is because of the unscrupulous marketing that goes along with them. Throw something in front of most people and tell them it is special and will increase in price and a lot of people will follow suit. The end users didn't call the TPGs and ask them for the labels, it is a window of opportunity they see and exploit at the customers expense.

Yes, the customer has the choice to simply not purchase the items, but the marketing that goes along with them is what compels the customers to "want" the item. To me it is a huge ripoff. People are just too busy, enamored with the items, too dumb, or too lazy to research for themselves.

I read this and think this reminds me of the Franklin Mint....*sigh*...this is like the water dowsing thread on the Practical Machinist website...

Prediction: This thread will go on and on and on and on....with no resolution!
There should be a "first strike" designation for posts!

The thing that annoys me the most about this gimmick and overpriced stuff is that when ppl go to sell it in 5-20 years and you offer them scrap price, it's always that you're the crook, not the guy that sold them a quarter with a dime's worth of gold plating for $29.95 times 50 in the set.

Quote:
"I defy anyone to tell the difference between the first strike off a die and the second strike, same at the end of the die life."


I would beg to differ, I believe there are plenty of people like myself, who have and do die state research that could place the EDS, MDS, LDS, VLDS coins in their correct coining/coined strike. Tell the difference between the 1st strike and the last, and most in between.

While I do know it is NOT an easily performed task, but it can be done........