Third Party Grading Questions

A lot of that comes across since when people ask if its worth to have something graded people answer from a purely financial stanpoint. With the exception of some low balls series financially they wouldnt be worth it, but if they have sentimental value and someone wants to do it for other reasons that shouldnt be looked down upon imo.




Yes and no. Youre going to get a largely generational answer on that one. Older collectors spent most their lives without graded coins so understandably theyre more opposed to it. Younger collectors or people who started after the TPGs had made a name for themselves are much more open to it. It seems to be getting more popular as time go ones which is a trend that will likely continue with future generations.

For new collectors I think its a great way for them to be more confident in what they buy. Theyll still need to learn whats a good example of a grade and about eye appeal and all that, but its a lot harder to get taken advantage of on a graded coin with all the price history information available online. An ungraded coin you can have someone blow smoke about what it would grade, but I dont know a lot of people who would pay ms 67 money for something that says ms 65 on the label without some out of this world toning on it.

To me it doesn't. Like you said theyre doing their job and I like the fact that they arent snobby about what theyll grade. For me theyd look worse and come off as elitist if they would only grade things of significant value.

I personally have some world coins in PCGS slabs that arent worth the cost of the plastic, but they were brought to me by my dad during his time in the Navy so I couldnt care less about whether or not it made financial sense. Ironically theyre the only ones I own I've never thought about selling/upgrading.

The TPGs have kind of done it already with the modern tier, but in a perfect world I wish they would offer and even cheaper submission tier for the cheap coins. Basically the Sentimental tier, maybe its your first coin or was passed down or has a special story behind it ect.

To put it bluntly, anyone who looks down upon sentimental slabbing is just being snobby about coins. The TPGS freely admit theres a lot of things not worth paying to put in their slabs from a financial standpoint, but its not their job to turn something away because its not worth enough if someone wants it.

I think you need to look at coins vs. stamps. Both are seeing a huge drop off in popularity, but because of the TPGs there remains interest in coins as an investment which has propped up the hobby a bit.