Do You Collect Coins Or Plastic Slabs?

I understand the dislike of slabs, but I think the TPGs have done some good things for the hobby in general. Coins in slabs are generally easier to sell, and have a wider audience of collectors than raw coins. They're also good for tracking a coins pedigree. If I'm buying a coin in my series of focus, I don't care whether it's raw, slabbed, messed with, etc. I feel that I can make a good decision regardless. But if I'm starting a new series, I like the third-party opinion.

After I buy a coin I'll often get it slabbed, even though I usually know exactly how it'll grade. Slabs offer good protection from staples, "cabinet friction", and clumsy fingers. They also allow me to sell duplicates more easily.

That said, I'm not a fan of registry competition, or squeezing every last "+" out of a coin's grade. But there's a lot of subtle, messed-with junk out there, and the TPGs have done a lot to move it to the back of the dealer case, where it belongs.

Matt (scubafuel)

I prefer all of my coins raw! I have bought around 8 coins in slabs, but only due to getting them underpriced.





I have bought several key-date coins un-slabbed, though definitely NOT for that dollar amount. Not that I want one, but I could pick up a raw 1889CC Morgan for around $500, so paying $5,000 - $25,000 for a slabbed copy doesn't make much sense to me.

I do appreciate that there is less chance (not 100% though)to buy a fake slabbed coin than buying it raw. My mane dislike of slabbed coins is the added prices.

The TPG's have done a tremendous lot of good, and we can trace much of the bad to ourselves.

Part and parcel of numismatics is becoming knowledgeable about what you're collecting. This is so fundamental as to go unmentioned, the Machine Language of numismatics defining basic collector actions. The advent of TPG's and slabs does not change this truth, that you must be able to handle and evaluate your coins intelligently. What it's done for some, though, is allowed them to become lazy as people will do. For others, they've created the mistaken initial impression that slabs are an infallible indicator of quality.

Both are numismatic behaviors requiring correction.

You know why typesets are so popular, across all boundaries of specialty? Because they're the toughest goal in coin collecting. You have to learn about everything to do one right.

A slab to me is a suggestion. Nothing else.

Thank you BadToTheBone!! I don't post often because I don't want to get bashed for what I collect and how. I just try to learn from people and respect them for collecting coins.

I like raw and slabbed coins, but most of my coins are raw. Slabbed coins are a pain to photograph, at least for me they are. I haven't found a satisfactory lighting setup for slabs. . . . yet.

scott-

You started this thread, presumably to start an intelligent conversation as to the place of slabs in today's collecting paradigm. Yet you seem to relish in not adding anything constructive to the conversation save derisive remarks in answer to all that don't agree with " I hate slabs " Why exactly did you start the thread ?

My point was not to be an elitist, but to point out, when I started collecting, the Sheldon scale was not used, coins were graded, gem, choice, BU and combinations thereof. When the Sheldon scale as we know it now, became widely accepted in the 70's, it was the "downfall" of collecting. The presumption that anyone could tell the difference between a MS65 and a MS66 WLH was beyond what true collectors were willing to accept. After all, AU, UNC, Choice UNC, BU, GEM UNC pretty much covered it all.

The Sheldon scale was adopted and even though we all considered the Sheldon scale the lazy man's way to collect, only for those that need someone else to tell them the exact, to the number,condition of their coin. But we all adapted, as we will all have to adapted to the TPG's in the natural evolution of the hobby. You don't have to like it, you don't have to accept it,(you can still find 2X@'s with choice,gem,BU ,UNC on them), you don't have to possess them but they are here and they are becoming widely accepted as a must have among upper echelon coins.

That's about it from me

See? That's one of the good things the TPG's brought about - the requirement to understand grading with sufficient granularity to make their differentiations worthwhile. The creation of the accompanying more-granular pricing structures brought better coins for lesser prices in common grades, making collecting more financially accessible. Like it or not, the post-TPG world will never be like the one before.