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.
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Posted 08/26/2016 10:57 am
