I Have Read Several Times On This Forum It's Not Wise To Slab < 150$ Coins

Couple of thoughts -

First, ebay ask prices are not a good guide to value. Have you checked Heritage's extensive auction data base?

Second, my comment was based on your indication that you were aiming to acquire, in 66 or better, all cents from "1934 to the present". I was basically referring to issues from 1959 to 2021.

I got the bug for a slabbed set but I thought I may have tunnel vision and am counting on other members to look at different perspectives and run them by me. Thanks you guys wisdom helps

Whenever people ask about buying slabbed coins, I ask why. You've indicated that your interest is primarily because it will help your heirs get the most for the coins when you pass away. While it may help some, having a strategy for selling is far more important. When selling, one needs to be able to offer coins to a broad audience. ebay is one way to do this, but the selling fees are pretty high. The best way I've found is to go to a large coin show and take offers from multiple dealers. However, this requires effort. Reality is that most heirs will just take everything to a local coin shop or two at the most and take whatever they're offered.

A significant downside to slabbing lower value coins (<$150 or so) is that you end up spending a significant portion of your budget on slabbing. Do you want more raw coins or fewer slabbed coins? Do you like slabbed coins better because another person is affirming the grade? Do you care about presentation? When putting together my Lincoln wheat collection, I found that putting the whole set in two large Capital Plastic holders presented very well to people who know little about coins. I even cracked my EF 1909-S VDB out of its slab to put it in the Capital Plastic holder along with the rest of the set. One final suggestion that I'd make is to buy the whole series in the same condition to the extent possible. My Lincoln wheat set is in brown EF to AU condition and looks very uniform. People love looking at it. When a set is presented that have varying condition coins, people immediately think that you couldn't afford the rarer coins in nicer grades. While that's likely true, people just don't go to that thought when the coins are all close in grade.

$150 is a sort of 'rule of thumb' potential value limit.

For a number of different reasons, none of my coins are slabbed.

Thanks for the great information, I just learned a lot and probably saved some money too.

Have you thought about using ANACS for some of your lower value stuff? I use them for that. Gives me the slabbed and sealed protection I want. Gives me a grade that my heirs can use to narrow down value. Often half the cost of the big two if you catch one of their specials. Especially when you consider they have no submission fees or memberships to buy.

Will they sell for as much as a PCGS, NGC? Prob not. But I bet they sell for more than a raw coin would. Also, if some do come back lower than expected, or show a cleaning that you didn't catch, at least you haven't spent very much money to find out.

They have been running their buff nickel special for four months. Listed as ending Sept. 30. I would bet they have one of their better specials starting in Oct. Sometimes its a week into the new month before they get the new special up on their website. You can also sign up for email notifications of their specials.

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I actually have thought about sending some of the lower value early Lincolns to ICG AT half the cost but I will also wait to see if Anacs will run a special. I doubt PCGS will ever run a Lincoln special (since I am a member of PCGS). Your excellent reply will definitely be food for thought and looked into. thanks a bunch

A few months ago a rep from Heritage Auctions provided a presentations on the state of collectibles with an emphasis on coins to our coin club. One bit of information reiterates what has been written already: Heritage will assess a collection worth in total at least $5,000 with individual items worth at minimum $150. This is why most collectors suggest slabbing a coin worth $150 or more.

I think you should have a trusted professional assess your collection before slabbing anything. There may be a fee but as your acquisitions are Lincoln cents and are well-known among most auction houses and there doesn't seem to be anything that has an obvious worth well above $1,000, you are likely not to face a high fee for this service. Furthermore your posts suggest you are grading based on your own eye and experience. I would revisit your cents and compare the ones you think are high grade with those shown on online auctions, PCGS photograder site and ANA grading guides. Also anything with a strong strike even in a lower grade will do better on the market than a coin with a weak strike and high grade. However, this does not hold true if the coin with a weak strike is scarcer or rarer than the one with a strong strike. A good example of this is to compare a 1919S Walking Liberty with a !946 Philly Walking Liberty half dollar. The difference in strike is dramatic, but the 1919S will always be much more expensive than the 1946 due to the modest mintage and very low survival rate as well as this issue being notorious for weak strikes making it much scarcer/rare than the 46. Another comparison is a 1940S with a decent strike with a 1939 Walking Liberty half dollar at the same grade, the 1940S will be more expensive one. 1940S WLBs are notorious for having very weak strikes but the mintages and survival rate is only slightly lower than the 39. But 1940S with a decent strike are much scarcer than 39's with a good strike. The 1939 Philly was well struck and quite affordable except in the very highest grades.

Also interesting point about having a collection with a uniformity of grade. TO me this means if you can get the affordable ones in Mid MS while key or semi-key in high XF- Au then high XF to mid MS would be the broadest range recommended with a preference for Au 55 - MS66 best. Eye appeal (which includes the strength of the strike) play an important role in valuation would be the widest span recommended. I think they all should have some eye appeal --- even an XF coin can still have enough eye appeal to have it be attractive. THink of the difference between say a high AU Shield Reverse Lincoln Cent versus a Memorial Reverse cent from the early 1970's --- usually due to the higher relief and good strike they are more sought after than the very low relief Shield reverse cents which are prone to get covered in hairlines from use and even in MS state black spots from the minting process.

As for the slabs making it easier for your heirs to sell the coins, that is not guaranteed. One still has to understand the grading code and comments (for example before I got into numismatics, if I saw a slab with AU 55, Details that would have been a mystery).

Which brings me back to my suggestion to first have your collection assessed and, in my opinion, slab those cents that would be worth over $500 on the market if you feel thge need to do this.