2013 American Eagle West Point Two-Coin Silver Set

First Strike and Early Releases are no different than any of the rest of the coins released. It is an attempt to create a new grade of coins - for coins that already have grades.

talkcoin (Erik)...you are exactly the type of person I refer to as not caring about the integrity of this hobby. Using your "logic" any mislabeling is acceptable so long as some people will profit big from the deception. That's a frightening attitude indeed.

[quote] talkcoin (Erik)...you are exactly the type of person I refer to as not caring about the integrity of this hobby. Using your "logic" any mislabeling is acceptable so long as some people will profit big from the deception. That's a frightening attitude indeed./quote]

relax bro and worry about your own collection; mine is doing just fine

Erik

After all, hypothetically, you could have a coin graded as 60 "First Strike". The "FS" is not a new grade...it's a gimmick. Some people obviously like gimmicks. Others like me, don't.

PCGS and NGC were sued years ago over this, NGC was fined and changed their label to " early release " . Pcgs settled with the court , allowing them to continue to use the First Strike labels (and these labels are at the request of customers and dealers, PCGS does not self slab coins to deceive buyers) as long as they clearly state that they are coins released with in the first thirty days.




I am sorry that, as a new collector you bought, before doing your due diligence , but no one is deceiving anyone. These labels are issued by the TPG's at the request of customers, with the approval of the U.S. Justice System. Who exactly is your beef with ? The uninformed buyer ? The TPG's who do this at the request of customers ? Dealers who request this label? Or the U.S. court system who has given their approval of this ?

In fairness you cant say they werent either.

Generally we see theses on pf or ms 70 coins anyway and you cant get more perfect than 70. Yes its misleading at first and everyone falls for it but when your new to collecting like all of us were your probably going to find somewhere to overpay anyway for it anyway. One of the crappy parts of getting into collecting youll take a few hits at first. Most people just like the special labels they usually have from the bulk submission.




Early implies you got it before something else or if you want to be a smartass it was delivered at the crack of dawn

Really First release would be the more honest way of putting it, but like I said it is what it is and doesn't bother me personally since if no one wanted it they would stop it.

Man I keep getting all these threads mixed up lol!

In any case, this discussion kinda reminds me of star wars collecting, the vintage toys. You have folks who MUST have it cased and graded by a grading agency... and its not cheap to do so and it raises the prices of a vintage toy big time.

you have folks tho, who just want it MISB, mint in sealed box,,, kind of like buying it from the Mint in its box and never taking it out...

then you have folks who want it MIB,, like say getting your West point set, you open the package from the mint and display your set.

Now, there's a lot of fierce debate about grading destroys the hobby and adds no value at all. You have others who say it does, that its a good investment and helps preserve items for the future.

However, whats interesting is, despite the grading process, and its extra expense, it keeps on going, it hasn't stopped, people do pay up and they do want it.

I think the same is happening here with the grading agencies. It continues because there is a segment of the market that wants it and will pay up for it. Furthermore, grading does help stop fakes, forgeries and tampering... which are similar issues in say Star Wars vintage collecting.

What I do think, after all these discussions here, and watching ebay and researching missing pieces for my collection, is a savvy collector who is investing in coins would be smart and order even just one coin of a series, say this set being released,,, buying 1 set and leaving it in the box and later in the future selling it for a premium. At first I thought this was NUTS... and then I started watching ebay and it was so interesting how people do buy these boxed sets, as sent from the US Mint on ebay for way more than what they could have. I saw first hand how a dealer made a huge deal for a collector who had several of those 2011 sets, still sealed in the box from the US Mint, paid top dollar just to get them and send them in to get graded.

So I mean, clearly, if the agencies continue to offer First Strike, First Release and so on, it happens because the market does bear it, it does support it and there is a market for these type of coins with grading despite their heavy mark up.

basebal21 writes "In fairness you cant say they werent either."
Yes, agreed and I never made the argument that they weren't. You understand my point though....that calling a coin a "First Strike" when all they can assure is that a coin gets to them by a certain date is....anything but honest.

And yes, I also agree that as with any hobby, newbies are always going to get suckered by deceptive marketing like FS nonsense.

"First Release" may be better but the most honest and best way to indicate the status of a coin arriving to a TPG within a certain time frame might be "Early Graded" considering that the usual time frame for grading most coins has historically not been within the first 30 day period.