Are Slabbed Key Coins A Wise Idea?

You will get opinions all over the map on this one.

I don't buy slabs, but I also haven't purchased any high-grade key coins for my collections yet. I believe I would go for the slabbed route to validate key coins, particularly the higher-value ones.

Trying to be fair and looking into slabbing after re-entering the hobby a few years ago, I kept coming up with slabbing being a clever marketing, though highly unnecessary, service that was born of people desiring to somehow make a profit off of the coin hobby. They took the smart psychological route and played with human nature's innate desire to have an "expert's" stamp of approval.

After the internet, the self proclaimed experts' undeserved credibility grew due to the obvious presence slabs now had by being able to seen every day, in everyone's home, on the screen. In times before that, slabs were growing slowly in acceptance. However, a lot of the rest of the world would make (and a lot still do) statements of, "why would I be crazy enough to pay hard earned cash for someone else to tell me the grade of my coin when I can figure it out for myself?"

It will not be stopped. People will continue to give it undue credibility and resulting higher prices will be paid for pieces of plastic surrounding a coin - whether the printed grade is correct or not. And searching the interweb - its not difficult to find many problems - which is why we have CAC stickers!

The self proclaimed CAC "experts" are now "needed" to verify the lesser, original TPG "experts" can do their job correctly. In other words, there were other people (CAC) looking for a way to make profit from the slabbing industry. So they used the same psychology as the original snake oil salesmen.

Is it wise?

For selling, slabbing can make better profits. People flipping coins are smart to get the coin slabbed if the cost of the slabbing will not detract too much from the profits to be made from a buyer willing to pay more for the plastic. But break that same coin out and you are not guaranteed the coin would ever sell for the same profit again. You simply have no way of knowing if the "experts" will give it the same grade.

The other valid use I see is why I actually paid to get some slabbed. When I pass away, if its sudden, the plastic will mean my family will likely get online and question why these coins are in plastic. That way they will benefit by them not being dumped at the bank. I suppose I could have wrapped them in something special, but its hard to accidentally lose a coin amongst others when the coin is surrounded in a hard, official looking plastic shell

The other legit use I see for them is for people having money to burn, and who do not care to learn about grading for themselves. Certainly the vast majority of people are able to grade by reading/looking/studying. After all, the desperate "need" for these services was somehow never seen as very vital for most of the history of coin collecting.

One other very legitimate use I see for them is if someone simply likes the looks and likes to collect slabbed coins. They do look rather nice.

Just realize the system is based upon a lot of hype. See the recent thread of the newest gimmick to sell more slabs by having the label signed by one of the people from the TV show "Pawn Stars" ... oooooh! The slabbers have no accountability or scientific, repeatable means used to claim an accurate grade was made. Weigh your own personal preferences against all of this info.

Its a hobby. Enjoy it your own way. If you like the looks and you get a good feeling from certification, then get slabbed coins.

For now, people will pay more for the plastic (and more with sticker!). Will it always be that way? No way to tell.

But always, always fall back upon the wisdom chanted many times on this forum... buy the coin, not the slab.

Best answer I've heard Earle and reason for slabbing those $200 coins! My iddgit relatives would be the ones to take every coin out of 2x2's and albums then take them to a COINSTAR!

I need to make sure my intent is expressed here properly - no negative or ill intention is meant. I am being legit in wanting to understand this reply to learn what I don't understand.

Why would a re-confirmation be needed? Is it because the original standards of the original experts changed over the years? I don't understand how the very mention of re-confirmation does not already imply the TPGs are legitimate a.k.a. why would someone "waste" their money on slabbing in the first place? What am I missing?

I want to give POV from a novice collector.

As a kid few decades ago, I had many hobbies, including coins, stamps, cameras, stereo equipment, and making cassette tapes from LPs so that I can listen from my beat up, V8 Chevy Nova. It was mostly Morgans, Peace, silver halves & pennies. These hobbies took a back burner when schools and part time jobs took over my life.

Around 1997, I started back collecting coins from online, LCS, & local ads. I did not know squat about coins other than limited knowledge from magazines, red books, and LCS. Subsequently, I bought many over-priced, cleaned, and damaged coins. Since NO ONE around me collected coins, I decided to purchased slabbed Morgans, Peace, Franklins, & Walkers.

Fast forward 20 years, and I still can't tell when a coin is market acceptable after cleaning. So, TPG is an insurance that I would not mind paying for couple of assurances. Genuine & Original. Especially for early types.

If I had CCF 20 or 30 years ago, then I'm sure I probably would have used TPG on very rare occasions. As a part time, on and off coin collector, TPG was something that I needed since I got burned so many times.

I must say, it has been an incredible experience since I joined CCF few month back. Before, it was difficult to get any "non-biased" opinion from anywhere! Now I get this everyday from novice collectors, like myself, to some of the top experts in the field. It is just mind-boggling if you think about it.

Just my Two Cents..

Crazyb0....which Coinstar ?

I think slabs can be a very good idea for collecting some of the higher end coins if that is a goal for you collection.

Like Debrajc, I like albums for displaying my collection. But what I have found is that when you start getting into some of the more expensive items, it becomes very hard to find decent coins that are not slabbed. For example, in building my Lincoln collection, when I started looking for semi-keys like the 15-S or 24-D in uncirculated grades, raw coins were tough to find - even went to a few bigger coin shows with no luck. Even nice slabbed examples are fairly scarce if you are watching prices. So, I started buying slabs and cracking them. I was mostly ok with cracking the $200 range coins but it became harder and harder with the $300 one, or the $500 one. When I got to my 1909-S VDB, that was the point at which I said no, not going to crack this one.

The point being of this long post that at some point you want the certification when spending a certain amount of money AND you want to keep that certification in tact. In my case, there are different price points between the two (buy certified and crack vs. buy certified and keep slabbed), but it makes total sense to buy slabbed coins when you get to a certain point.

I am finding that many slabbed coins such as the 1939-D nickel look much better than the raw offerings. But there is a huge difference in the price tag!