Album Or Slabs?

My own feeling is to leave them in the slabs if the slabber is one of the top TPGs (ANACS, PCGS, NGC, ICG). In the slab, they retain and appreciate their value but as a raw coin, they lose anywhere from 25% to 50% or more of their value upon resale. Granted, they can be reslabbed, but that costs bucks and for certain mid-MS grade relatively common slabbed coins (say, an MS-63 1883 Carson City Morgan), they wouldn't regain their purchase cost plus reslab cost for many years.

That said, I use a Dremel with an itty bitty round saw blade to crack out slabbed coins. It's far less risky than the hacksaw and screwdriver method. Dremels are relatively inexpensive at Walmart, but I prefer the 110vac Dremel to the rechargeable battery type: more power; the blade bogs down and freezes with batteries.

Fred

Not an album, per se, but a loose leaf binder with plastic sleeves for photos does very nicely for holding slabs. Given my druthers, I prefer to keep my slabbed coins in a plastic PCGS slab box (NGC will work just as well). Anytime I want to show off my collection, I just pull them out of the box and hand them over to the viewer without having to worry about damage to the coins.

I'm not a real big fan of coin albums (as you may have deduced), at least of the type in which raw coins are pressed into slots. Although I have a few of these with mostly common date cents, nickels, dimes, and quarters, the fingerprints of those who have leafed through the albums (and of he who put them in) are evident and any coin which was BU when I put it in is no longer bright and shiny due to toning/oxidation over the years. I like the protection of plastic.

I'm the type of person that will say I collect coins, not plastic. Every time I purchase a slabbed coin I cut it out and put it in an album. That way I can see all my coins in one place and I don't have to acquire a hernia lifting a pile of plastic. I use a saber saw. Fine toothed blade but not a metal cutter. Place in a vice, cut off the top and sides and the thing just falls apart. NGC is a little thicker so you have to move at a rather fast pase or the metal blade gets hot and the plastic reseals itself. I then take the little stickers and tape them to the inside of the album as a reminder of what the coin was or is.

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How can the same coin outside the slab retain, gain, or "lose anywhere from 25% to 50% or more of (it's)their value upon resale?" Are you not talking about the same coin?

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I shuddent have written so fast; I'll try to make myself more clear.

A coin in a slab from one of the top TPGs is worth considerably more upon resale than if the coin is cracked out of the slab, then resold as a raw coin. For example, a PCGS-slabbed MS-63 1890-CC Morgan can be sold for $1K (book says $1200, but that's highest market value). Crack that 90CC out of the slab, try to resell it, and it most likely won't go for more than $500 (about $400 is more likely). It'll cost $30 to $50 to have it regraded by PCGS (presuming it retains its MS-63 grade, not always a guarantee with PCGS or the other top TPGs), so might as well leave it in the original slab.

There's also the protective value of a professionally sealed encapsulation. We are only caretakers of these coins; thus, we should do our utmost to preserve these coins for future generations, especially for the less common and older coins. Cracking them out of slabs and putting them into cardboard albums puts them into a state of vulnerability.

True, there are commercial plastic holders and slabs ( Coin World holders, for example) which would do the same thing as commercial TPG slabs, but these don't have the element of permanence since the coins usually may be easily removed thus making them vulnerable once again. My best coins are all in TPG slabs.

Well. I checked out the Eagle Certified Coin Albums.

Cake.

And I get to eat it too.


Thanks for the heads up, AnemicOak.

As others have said, I think a slabbed coin is worth far more than an unslabbed. Why remove authenticity guarantees & protectiveness? I you were about to spend your cash on an expensive coin, wouldn't you feel more secure if it was slabbed by one of the top grading companies?

Benji said, "BTW, contrary to popular belief, the the top 3 have put counterfeit coins into their slabs on many occasions...I have an entire collection of PCGS slabs with either counterfeit contents or grossly mislabeled designations."

That's scary. I'm somewhat new to numismatics,but I've been reading lots of reliable texts. (Buy the book before you buy the coin.) I thought slabs by the top 3 were the best guarantee of authenticity. As I said, it's scary when you can't count on the experts who are supposed to be the most skilled in detecting counterfeits.

Back to the original question. Note that most answers are based on value for resale. If that is your main purpose in coin collecting, then what has been noted about keeping coins slabbed is true. You can easily see that most of the reasons for leaving a coin in a slab is to note it's professionally graded state and to hold it's value. However, I am a coin collector, not a plastic collector. I am rather on the older side, have been collecting coins for well over 60 years and not really worried about resale value of my collections in the distant future. Not sure if there is a distant future. Not even interested in what someone else will think of my methods that inherits this mess. If that individual wants slabs, let them take care of that. I am to old, weak and tired to want to lift mountains of plastic slabs to look at my coins. I really like opening one of many albums and looking at ALL the coins in the set at one time. Almost to old to cut the slabs open so at times I ask the dealers at coin shows to do it for me and usually no problem with that either.