My suggestion is to stick with things the way you now have them. Purchasing slabbed coins will cost you more and for just plastic. You will end up with a massive pile of plastic and very little coins. To see what you have will take a long time since all those plastic hunks take up a lot of space. If you've been collecting coins in Albums, you'll most likely be unhappy with a pile of plastic that is difficult to know what you have. You can show people an entire Album but to show them the same amount of piles of plastic would take up lots of time and space.
As I mentioned, you can make up your own albums with sheets that hold 9 slabs each. They display nicely and are as presentable to others as regular "slotted" albums, IMO. If price or whatever fofrces you to a raw one you can just slab it yourself in a Coin World slab - tho they do cost over a buck each - so not cheap.
I prefer the flexibility of "building my own" album with whatever years/mintmarks/runs I feel like. You do tend to pay more for slabbed coins, but they should also pay more whenever you go to sell them for the same reasons. I like that I can just stop at 9 coins if I like. No "10s" of holes staring at you if you just stop at some point.
I adore my GEM BUFF cert slab album, for instance. It is wicked kewl! LOL
Quote: My suggestion is to stick with things the way you now have them. Purchasing slabbed coins will cost you more and for just plastic. You will end up with a massive pile of plastic and very little coins. To see what you have will take a long time since all those plastic hunks take up a lot of space. If you've been collecting coins in Albums, you'll most likely be unhappy with a pile of plastic that is difficult to know what you have. You can show people an entire Album but to show them the same amount of piles of plastic would take up lots of time and space.
I'll back up what SmokedIron said. ICG isn't a bad one to look at.
Now, when you're "buying the coin, not the holder", be cognoscente of the fact that slabs CAN and DO effect the value of a coin. I turned down buying a coin that was priced fairly but under-graded because I want to protect my investment. It was a Morgan that was clearly 64-65 DPL, but it was slabbed 63. Now, had it been priced at $100, it would have been a no-brainer, but it was priced $300, as a 64 DPL would be priced. I could have taken the chance, I certainly thought the coin was beautiful and fairly priced. But I realize that when I go to sell it, not being a big time dealer (at the time) that a buyer wasn't nearly so likely to pay more than the slab said the coin is worth.
I've never submitted a coin for grading so this may be a bit hypocritical to say, but if you wanted it and were very confident that it was undergraded and fairly priced at one grade more, why wouldn't you consider that you could re-submit it yourself( and get the proper grading ) before selling? Doesn't seem you should pass if you can "fix the undergrading" when ready to sell it later.
Saying that, of the >200 certified coins I've purchased, I only paid "above retail for the grading" once. I was just soooo certain it is undergraded - as you appear to be on your example.
I guess that my slant is that the grading on PGCS and NGC coins is more a "max" than what I'd consider TRUE. IMO, many more coins are graded higher than I would grade them so I won't overpay ( on speculation that what I think is a slightly undergraded coin would get a higher grade on re-sub ). Maybe I don't trust that their graders and I would agree that much. I don't claim to be a great grader at this point - so I err on the conservative side. I do think a number of my buys were undergraded, but I paid closer to wholesale for their marked grade than retail for the next one up! I may eventually re-sub some of them - but I am amassing more than turning over at this stage.
I will pay "closer to retail" on coins with great eye appeal - compared to others I feel are all fairly graded. But that is because I feel if I am that dazzled by the coin - then a buyer down the road should/would likely be as well.
Good Luck all!
Quote: Now, when you're "buying the coin, not the holder", be cognoscente of the fact that slabs CAN and DO effect the value of a coin. I turned down buying a coin that was priced fairly but under-graded because I want to protect my investment. It was a Morgan that was clearly 64-65 DPL, but it was slabbed 63. Now, had it been priced at $100, it would have been a no-brainer, but it was priced $300, as a 64 DPL would be priced. I could have taken the chance, I certainly thought the coin was beautiful and fairly priced. But I realize that when I go to sell it, not being a big time dealer (at the time) that a buyer wasn't nearly so likely to pay more than the slab said the coin is worth.
Having all your coins in slabs may well be nice, BUT, imagine if you had many thousands of coins. For example I have well over 3,000 Mercury dimes. Some are in 12 completed Whitman Albums. My 10 completed Lincoln Albums alone if all in slabs would fill my house with plastic. Not even sure how many 1943 Lincoln Cents I have in plastic rolls. It scares me to imagine how many houses I would need to have room for all my coins if all in slabs.
pretty much most coins I stick to buying slabbed. Only things I don't buy slabbed are normal 90% junk silver. With the chinese making good fakes, I don't ever want to be in a situation or my family put in a situation were most of the coins are fakes and losing money, etc.
Having a slab collection would more likely be a type versus series thing, like my 7070 slab collection. According to the (older, not revised) 7070 album, there are 76 (or 85 if you count the GOLD) coins. Surely, a manageable number of slabs. If you are an accumulator of coins, then slabs would be certainly a daunting feat, unless you only had slabbed keys. To each their own, enjoy!
I just started collecting a Registry Type Set last year, so I considered all of the above options, but decided on something quite different.
I decided to collect only PCGS coins, and I get all of them TrueViewed (photographed) by PCGS. That also results in them putting the coins in a nice new slab. Then I just put the slabs away in my safety deposit box and put the pictures on my iPhone & iPad. Then whenever I want to look at my coins or show them to someone, I just show the pictures.
I also use the same TrueView pictures for my registry set. I'm doing the "Complete US Type Set, Circulation Strikes", which has 133 coins. I figure it will take my lifetime to ever come close to completing this set as it includes all the pre-1800 coins as well as the early rare gold coins. But there is only one complete set listed in the registry, so even if I get half way there I will be among a select few.
Take a look at my thread where I posted my TrueView pics:
If you collect coins in BULK or like to fill many albums then obviously slabs are not condusive to that type of collector.
But I am interested in quality over quantity predominantly so for most coins I like slabs and don't feel they are that "big" comparatively. I dumped a bunch of rolled junk silver and wheats etc. to get rid of the bulk items I had inherited. I prefer a collection that I can fit mostly in my safe.
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Posted 03/28/2012 11:53 pm
