Are Slabbed Key Coins A Wise Idea?

That is the truth.

I have only recently warmed up to the idea of slabs for keeping rather than cracking. Yes, I would still crack them to fill those last holes in my Dansco albums, but I have grown fond of the slabs in my secondary Ike set that I am building.

As long as you are just paying for the coin, slabs are fine. I doubt I would ever submit a coin to be slabbed because I prefer that someone else foot that expense.

Good and valid point. I had totally forgotten the idea of slab authenticity when posting. Thanks for the reminder.

Also, anyone who googles "how to detect a fake coin slab," or something similar, can get oodles of info and pics off the internet (from many sites) for themselves. Its a lot less expensive than paying someone else mucho dinero to do it.

One of our own members (trying to remember who) has just such a sight to help us learn how to detect fakes.

It is a slab. What were you expecting?

Aren't all ICGs from Canada in flips normally?

How does that work with ICCS? What's to stop someone from replacing the graded coin with a different one if it's only in a plastic flip?

To answer the original question - I think buying key dates slabbed is the only way to go if buying online (and even then there are fake slabs). Many key dates are way overpriced though IMO. For example the 1909-s vdb. They made half a million and many were saved. There's more than enough to go around.

I collect for fun to fill up my Dansco Albums, but I also collect as an investment.
Fun is filling up the albums, investment is buying slabbed and storing them away for years.

The flip is sealed with a custom embossed heatsealer. And yes you could go to the trouble of having a fake ICCS embosser made for a heatseler and counterfeiting ICCS flips, but so far their niche market has been small enough that it hasn't been done.

Buying key dates slabbed? Good idea. Buying key dates? Bad idea.