Raw Coin Only Dealers

Jbuck,

I agree mostly with you. What I am referring to is the general direction of the hobby where more and more slabbed coins are the standard. Someone with a loyal customer base can definitely make a living not doing that for now, but I think those buyers will become fewer and fewer as time goes on. Probably long enough from now that the old timers will make due.

Yes, with that I do agree. They will probably pass on or retire before it really affects them.

Raw coin only dealers: the best sort!
That's for me anyway.
I like to see the coin sitting in the palm of my hand before deciding to buy.

Museums know how to store and display coins.
In the British Museum, NONE of their coins are slabbed.
That's hundreds of millions (perhaps billions in total value) of Pounds in numismatic value.

I admit that my coins are in cardboard / Mylar 2x2's, (mainly for description and attribution purposes, in archival quality albums.

TPG slabbing best left for ebay sales of less than $100 by private sellers, mainly for fair grading and authenticity purposes.

Here is my issue. The local dealer is cool, fair grade and fair price. But after you buy the coin, and you want to sell, you need to convince someone that the coin is properly graded.

I thinks no big deal for inexpensive stuff, but for high dollar stuff, I don't want to put myself in that situation.

If the buyer is knowledgeable you still have to convince them it is properly graded. (although it is easier to do so) No smart buyer is just going to blindly accept the grade on the holder. they are going to look at the coin and decide for themselves. (Wow what a concept! Making your own decision.)

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As on of the people who was collecting before slabs, I have to say that a lot of the fun of the hobby was killed in the name of the almighty dollar when the self proclaimed experts told everyone they were not able to grade coins for themselves.

Remember this was before the incredible cyber market opened up.

It was a sham, and a lot of the old timers knew it.

No offense meant with the following - its just fact to what we said at the time:
We poked fun at the masses saying to watch out... someday someone will rip off even more money by saying people need to send in their slabs, and pay to have their slab's grade verified by yet "more experts."

Since the CAC came on the scene, I don't believe it will ever end.


Next will be computer scanning/grading. This was tech available in the 90s, but, IMO (note that), the TPGs wanted to milk the public for everything they could. TPGs will implement "impartial computer grading" when business slows from lack of coins to slab.

After re-slabbing and making a mint, they will claim to have made a better, more impartial algorithm with higher degree of accuracy, and it will start all over.

When I see slabs, the remind me of the damage the TPG-necessity mindset has done to the hobby. It has reduced everything not "key" to "junk silver (etc.)" Imagine when, after finding a coin in circulation, you anticipated looking up its mintage/scarcity/value b/c the concept of junk silver was mainly only used for the most common of dates or damaged coins.

In all fairness, I did have some coins slabbed. This way if something happens to me, my family will know the plastic cases mean the coins are worth looking into instead of dumping at the bank.

I really agree. Condition rarity on common coins is an invitation to go broke. With + and - , mint state coins 33 different possible grade levels. Crazy!