What Is Your Preference As A Collector....

I think graded is great

I like both raw and graded, though the majority of my currency collection is raw. Just picked up this 1928 experimental note from the LCS today.

I only buy graded material. If I ever want to upgrade the note or sell it outright it makes it 1 million times easier, there is much less haggling and it is much easier to agree upon a value. I'm not in this hobby to profit but my tastes change and sometimes I can't pass up a deal and have to sell something from my collection to make that happen. When selling raw material in the past I've ran into numerous problems with agreeing upon a value and have been unable to make any deals. Getting that exact same material graded made selling easy and I was able in some instances to get 100's more than I was being offered on the same note raw.

This isn't to say that buying material graded makes all your problems going away. Each note has to be carefully inspected. I've seen both PMG and PCGS miss major flaws including pinholes, tears, foxing, and in a couple instances even repairs have been missed. But buying a graded note that you agree with the TPGs opinion is IMO always a solid buy as you know exactly what you are buying and it is simple to ascertain a value of graded material as well, which is huge when in many large series notes a grading difference of as little as 5 points can mean the difference of hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.

I have a little over 200 notes in my collection, both Large and Small size. Only one has been graded, it's a 2003 DC printing $ 10.00 FRN, paid 15.00 for it on e bay and it had free shipping, it was graded Unc. 63, why anyone had such a common note graded I have no idea, they had to lose money on it buy selling it on e bay and paying the shipping. It's not really worth much of anything and the only reason I bought it was because I needed a 2003 $ 10. DC print run to fill a hole in the collection, I figured that all I have in it is $ 5.00 being I got $ 10. back and I wanted to fill that hole.

I've been at this a long time and I learned long ago how to grade my own currency. What makes you think that paying someone to tell you what they "think" a note grades out at is getting more bang for your buck ?. I would much sooner learn how to grade notes on my own and use the extra money the TPG's charge for there "opinion" and use that money to buy more notes.

And why would you be willing to "buy" a new $ 100.00 note, just go to your bank and ask for them. Most banks have more than enough of them and there all Unc. I went to my bank and ask if they had any of the new $ 100.00 and the teller looked surprised and said of course, how many do you want, told her 10 would do, so she counted out 10 of them and away I went with 10 new $ 100.00 notes. I picked out the one I wanted to keep for the collection and the rest got spent.
Bill Collector

I prefer ungraded notes, primarily because I like to put them in albums and the grading sleeves just don't fit. Also, until recently, most of my notes haven't been rare or valuable enough to really warrant the extra cost in my opinion. I now have a couple of notes in the $1000 range, however, and anticipate getting a few more in the foreseeable future, so I've given it a thought.

Although I do not collect currency I believe that
this philosophy applies:
By buying high quality coins which everyone who
sees them agrees to be outstanding, there will be
no problem eventually selling them.
Who among you would turn your nose up at a set
of three Educational Notes in XF just because
they were not in slabs?

Well said, Bill Collector.
Grading skills are not magic, but as everything worthwhile
it takes some effort. Those who are too lazy to learn are
keeping the TPGs in business.

When I asked a coin dealer why he had broken down and started to display
slabbed coins. He replied:
"So people know that I KNOW my business."
And when he sold me a slabbed coin he offered to crack
it open for me. "SURE!", I said.

To each his [or her!] own.

Why buy a 2009A $100? why not just go to the bank and get one for face? Plus the surprise of what the serial number might be entices me more so than paying $140 for a note that could be less than UNC