First Strike, First Day Of Issue, Early Releases, First Releases And Designations Alike.

Now there's a word I haven't heard in awhile ""Staunch""

to the Community!

Your post was moved to the appropriate forum for the proper attention.

I take all of that as meta-collecting, and certainly not numismatics. If it brings you joy though, go for it. If it is for investment, I think it will not hold up over time. I do not care if it says first strike, I care what the coin looks like. Neither do I care if some person signed the slab. Perhaps we will soon be looking at coins that are kept only at high altitude, so that the lesser gravitational attraction from the earth causes less molecular strain on them :-)

Some collectors have an OCD like pokemon gotta catch em all mentality and this will extend to varieties of labels. There are certainly cases where a limited edition label might be worthwhile and hold/increase value over time such as its from a specific show, or has a signature etc. Some of the others such as early releases/first releases (and many others that are discussed here as one example) https://www.ngccoin.com/about/help-...st-releases/ are a bit more generic such as being received by the third party grader in first 30 days after release and these may not hold as much long term appreciation by collectors over the regular slab. I would suggest to first collect coins and not labels, and if you happen to have a big pocket that allows to go above & beyond when your satisfied with your collection, the labels are another way to do so.

I totally understand the classical side of grading and it is about the coin for sure. I just happen to like high graded early slabs because they are a little more rare and cannot be flooded beyond the cutoff dates, I think that alone, can add collectible appeal. I also like other designations such as +, PL, DPL, FS, and others.

At first, when I started buying graded coins I did a little research and stuck to the perfect grade ones. I steered away from the perfect grades in recent months and started to focus more on the coins and how many graded slabs were produced for those coins.

The question I have, if it's really about the coin and not the holder, why is there such a big value gap between the grading companies?

I appreciate the comments and insight.

The buy the coin not the label debate has been going on ever since the grading companies came into existence. Regardless of which side of the debate you fall on, the fact is that there are collectors out there for which the label matters and they will pay a premium for the label(s) they want.

Special labels cost the submitter more to obtain, so special label slabs generally have a higher asking price, at least initially, as the seller tries to recoup the cost of paying for the special label.

Whether or not a particular coin with a particular label is a "collectible investment" is a supply and demand issue. The supply is pretty much known from the TPG population reports, but the demand, both short and long term, is not. It's anyone's guess.

Grading is subjective. The price differences of coins with the same grade from different grading companies is because of this. Ignoring the fact that coins with the same grade are not the same, the coin market believes, either rightly or wrongly, that some grading company's subjective opinions are "better" than other grading company's opinions. The market prices reflect this.