Would You Buy Coin With TPG Grade Unseen?

I would from someone I knew. From a stranger, no.

Personally, if I can't examine the coin in hand, I would expect to pay a significantly lower price. This is the entire premise behind the Grey Sheet (sight seen - slabbed or raw) and the Blue Sheet (sight unseen - slabbed only by accepted TPG's)as guides.

I would consider it but only at a discount.

Absolutely, preferably if there are decent images. It's done all the time. I'm limiting my answers to PCGS, NGC, and ANACS small holder coins only.

I would NEVER EVER purchase a coin without at least seeing quality pics just because it is in a TPG slab. I would especially NOT drink the PCGS/NGC/CAC kool aid either.

Now, having typed that, I DO have to amend it a slight bit. I DO buy things like ASEs or Kookaburras or Pandas etc slabbed site unseen. Or BU rolls of Franklins or silver Roosies, things like that. All of that stuff, sure. If it gets to me and the TPG has graded it 69 and it has gouges in it (which happens ALL THE TIME with PCGS) I can send it right back and get another until I get a good coin.

My original statement goes to things like the 16D I bought my wife. I do not care that ANACS graded it AG3. I would NOT drop hundreds of dollars on a single coin without seeing it. It may be technically an AG3 (maybe), but I might look at it and puke. And a Merc is NOT like an ASE. Its not like there are a zillion of them running around that you can jut go I dont like this one, send me another. Do you want to trust some ninny at NGC that the 09 S VDB you just dropped over a grand on is REALLY XF45 without seeing it? I sure dont.

Actually the whole idea of the TPG was exactly the OPPOSITE of that. The idea was that with certification the coins would be fungible. Any coin of a given date and mint in a specified grade would be assumed to be exactly the same as any other coin of the same date, mint, and grade. You would order the coin and as long as it was certified that grade it was NOT returnable for any reason. This was known as sight unseen buying.

As for would I buy a coin certified by a major service if I couldn't see the grade they gave it, (assuming I would buy a slabbed coin) sure why not? Show me the coin in hand and shoot me a price. I will look at the coin and decide if I think it is worth the price. What the TPG called it is of no importance. And since for all practical purposes no one buys sight unseen if you order a coin, raw or slabbed, once you see it in hand if you don't like it you send it back.

I would never purchase any coin sight unseen ... regardless of TPG opinion.

I collect coins that appeal to my personal aesthetic ... and as such demand that I am able to examine them in hand.

David