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 Replies: 29 / Views: 2,849 |
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New Member
United States
11 Posts |
I find myself writing to you hoping you can understand? I need someone to understand and I figured the only ones who could would be those with the love of coins my father has. My parents recently moved into an assisted living facility. I am handling their financial affairs. As part of that I gathered up my Pop's coin collection. I live in another state so I flew down, rented the biggest car I could, Chevy Tahoe, loaded up his collection (it barely fit) and drove 1100 miles home. I was excited to get it home and start going through it remembering all of the wonderful times my father and I spent working on his coin collection. After the long trip I only brought in two white boxes in. The cardboard boxes are about 3" X 10", white and have an "abon.com" sticker on the side. The sticker says they are an "Authorized Dealer for: SGS". I opened the boxes and was amazed to find 1964 D Quarters in MS70 condition. There were 44 of them! Remembering back to what my Pop had taught me, MS70 was perfect and extremely rare! I knew my father had kept collecting after I married and moved away and I was so excited to see how well he had done finding coins in such good condition. I was hoping they were worth a lot because the money from selling them is a big part of financing their remaining years. I looked up the value of the coin and saw an estimate of $3K. I was over the moon with excitement because, doing the math in my head that was $132K and that was just a tiny portion of my fathers collection! He had done well and provided everything he and my mom needed to live out their golden years well. Wait, what's this? I see an article about SGS which claims them to be a third tier appraiser and rates their credibility as "unreliable". What? This can't be! I search for more information. Article after article after article. My Pop had been scammed! Abon, the ebay seller who sold my Pop these coins was owned by Larry Pence, the same person who owns Star Grading Services. I checked the BBB and it confirmed it! My excitement immediately turned into ... well... a whole host of emotions were running through me at that time and questions began rushing into my head... Would my Pop's collection be able to fund their golden years? How much did my father pay for those coins which were graded higher than they should be? How much could my Pop had made if he had just put that money into bonds, gold, or even the stock market? How could my Pop not know those weren't actually MS70 coins? The questions were swirling around in my head like a F5 tornado. But one question stood out in my mind more than any other. I kept coming back to it. How much of his collection did he buy from Abon? I had know idea. I took a look at his collection... My heart sank. My father had put much of his collection in banana boxes. They are strongly reinforced and handle the weight of coins well. I am guessing each of these banana boxes holds about 50 of those little white boxes which holds up to 24 coins. Pop's collection has about 9 of these banana boxes. From a quick glance, most, if not all of those, are filled with little white boxes from Abon. I am overwhelmed with emotion right now. My father doesn't deserve this!!! I won't go into all of the reasons my Pop doesn't deserve it because it would make this already verbose post much, much, much longer. If you really want to know about my Pop and why he doesn't deserve it, just ask. I would love to tell you about this amazing man! I sincerely apologize. I know this post doesn't provide any "new" information about SGS. As I said earlier, I am overwhelmed with emotion right now. I desperately need someone to understand how horrible this situation is! That is why I haven't slept, it is 5:45am, and I am writing this post. As I look deeply within, tears come to my eyes as I realize... I just need someone to understand how bad I feel for my parents right now. Edited by PopsCollection
05/27/2025 07:42 am
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Moderator
 United States
187446 Posts |
 to the Community. I wish it were under better circumstances.  Unfortunately, you are not alone.  |
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Moderator
Australia
16804 Posts |
We can relate. It was to attempt to prevent exactly this kind of scenario from happening that many of us collectors fought tooth and nail against Abon/SGS and their deceptive sales tactics, which were mainly perpetuated on ebay. Eventually, ebay was persuaded to enact stricter regulations regarding the sale of "basement tier" slabbed coins pretending to be genuinely third-party graded, of which SGS and NNC were the chief culprits. Once their coins were banned from ebay, their business model collapsed and both SGS and NNC no longer exist today. But it took years for ebay to reach that point, and as your father's collection demonstrates, the damage had already been done. Now, what we don't know is, as you said, how much your father actually paid for the coins. He wouldn't have actually paid MS-70 money for them (that wasn't abon's marketing tactic), but he almost certainly would have overpaid for what was essentially packaged-up pocket change, if he bought them off abon via ebay. But it's possible that he bought the entire lot at some kind of fire sale once SGS was shut down. Still not a "good investment", but not a disaster in terms of expected returns. Unfortunately, any slab with the SGS sticker on it is just a waste of plastic, so it doesn't help you in your situation with desiring to obtain any kind of funds for these coins. Is your dad in any state to answer questions about the coins? He might offer some insights into how and when they were obtained. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
6448 Posts |
 My best advice would be to not take any action while you are upset. It's possible that many of those coins still have some value, even if the slabs are deceptive. You should check through your dad's papers, and see if he kept invoices for those coins. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10470 Posts |
That's too bad to hear. Just hope all his business wasn't through Abon!
Questionable Credibility:
SGS is a lesser-known grading service, and its credibility and the reliability of its grades are often questioned.
Inflated Grades:
There are reports and opinions that SGS tends to over-grade coins, meaning they assign higher grades than a more established and reputable company would.
Lack of Market Acceptance:
Coins graded by SGS typically do not command the same market value as those graded by reputable companies like PCGS or NGC, as the market doesn't have the same trust in SGS grading.
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Moderator
United States
34393 Posts |
@pops, sorry to hear of this. I'm hoping that there is still at least bullion value in most of this collection. SGS and abon.com have long had a speckled history here on CCF. Here is a link to one of their first mentions--19 years and 4 days ago! https://goccf.com/t/5651"If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
Although I will almost always accept the opinions of top tier graders, (they almost always provide a useful guide),
I must admit:
I always prefer to grade for myself. No slabs.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10982 Posts |
Thank you for handling your father's collection. Don't fret over the coins at this point. Yes the grades are inflated but there is still a lot of value there and it is likely to still be a very nice collection. If you can give us a breakdown of some of what you have in the collection with the few representative pictures We may be able to help you with a price estimate and possibly even help you get the collection sold. Best of luck to you and yours. Brad  |
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Moderator
United States
15381 Posts |
to the CCF I wish it were under better circumstances. Take a look at my other hobby ... http://www.jk-dk.art |
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New Member
 United States
11 Posts |
Thank you so much for all of your kind words and offers to help. I greatly appreciate all of your kindness. My dad, he goes by Pop, is a retired Navy veteran who spent 27 years in the Navy. He started out enlisted (E1) at age 18 and retired as a Lt. Commander (O4). He is an amazing man! So when I found out he had been duped, I was devastated. Unfortunately, Pop has dementia and his lucid moments are getting fewer and further between. His ebay days were after I was married and out of the house so I don't have a lot of information about it. I do know at that point he was basically converting stock investments into coins. He is a very smart man and knows A LOT about coins. So, I can only come up with one scenario that makes sense. He most likely bought the coins and put them up without looking at them. He taught me everything I know about coins. I know only a tiny bit about coins than he does and I was able to tell some of the grades were wrong. I still don't have a good sense of the amount of coins he has from SGS/Abon but it is what I would consider to be a lot. I am going to start cataloging his collection soon and I will have a better idea. I am going to start with the coins that are graded by companies other than SGS. Pop has a lot of coins! Literally thousands. His collection filled the back of a 2025 Chevy Tahoe floor to ceiling with all the back seats folded down. There are a lot of Abon coins in his collection, however, his collection was sizable before Abon, so I am still excited to go through it and share it with all of you! Any suggestions on the best software to help me catalog them? |
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Moderator
Australia
16804 Posts |
Quote:
I am going to start with the coins that are graded by companies other than SGS. I am glad there are at least some of those in there. And do not dismiss any "raw" or un-slabbed coins too, these may have been acquired long ago, before slabbing was a thing, and may even be worth sending in to get slabbed yourself before they are sold. Quote:
Any suggestions on the best software to help me catalog them? There are dedicated coin collection databases out there, and there are online collection management tools as well, it's probably easier just to make up your own tabulation in a spreadsheet like Excel or Google Sheets. That way you can decide for yourself which bits of information are important. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10982 Posts |
E1 to O4 is impressive! I am sure you are proud of your father. I agree with Sap, a simple spreadsheet works well if you have some experience with them. It does sound like a huge collection. I like https://en.numista.com/ and PCGS' https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts for help with research. Here's another site that I haven't used much but could help you: https://www.mycollect.com/Best of luck to you! |
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Valued Member
Canada
402 Posts |
At the least 1964 quarters are silver alloy aren't they ?....and if bulk graded likely some are bound to be high grade ; no ?
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New Member
United States
11 Posts |
I believe 1964 is the year the quarter became plated and all the ones before were silver. If I understand what I read correctly. I did a quick estimation and Pop's collection has approximately 15K coins of various denominations from Abon and graded by SGS. The good news is some of those are silver. Yes, the collection has many thousands of coins which are not graded. It also has those blue books from the mint that you put coins into to build a collection. A lot of tubes filled with coins and so on and so forth. I don't know how big collections usually are but I would say Pop's collection would be considered a big one. Here are a few images of the collection. I know the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time but if you have any ideas, tips or tricks on how to tackle this, I am all ears!    |
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New Member
United States
11 Posts |
I am using Numista and am going to catalog some Morgan silver dollars from the collection tonight. I thought you guys might like to see one of them. :) Please let me know what you think the grade of this one would be.    |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10982 Posts |
Quote:
I believe 1964 is the year the quarter became plated and all the ones before were silver. If I understand what I read correctly. All 1964 quarters are 90% silver, the same as prior years. Starting in 1965 they went to clad coins with base metal alloys. Half Dollars from 1965 to 1970 were 40% silver. |
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Replies: 29 / Views: 2,849 |
Posted 05/27/2025 10:46 am
