Wishing Not To Over-TPG

The standard wisdom is that you should only TPG a coin/note if its worth over $150. But that is just someone's opinion. Heck I picked up a slabbed coin for $2, so someone slabbed a coin and lost a lot of money. You can read my thread on my first TPG experience:

http://goccf.com/t/378763

So its up to you how you want to spend the $15-$18.

Well unless you're a coin dealer, don't worry about the taxes. If you're a normal guy and sell a few coins here and there the IRS really doesn't care. Generally treat it the same as if you sold a bike or TV on craigslist.

But, back to the TPG question. It really depends. I've sold coins raw for $700 and coins slabbed for $25. It depends on what it is, and if it "needs" a holder to sell. I've sold 5 1909-S VDBs raw on ebay, and I've sold 1964 Lincoln Cents for $40 but had to get them slabbed. Generally it basically comes down to a few things for me. Is it easier to market in a slab? Will I make more by having it slabbed? What are the involved costs?

So I'll use that group of 1964 Lincolns. They were all nicely toned coins, but generally raw EOR toners sell pretty poorly (Under $5) so while I could make a few bucks by selling them raw, it doesn't make me a lot.

I paid $18 per coin for PCGS Economy plus $5 for a trueview photo. I sent in 15 coins and return shipping was $27. If we break up that return shipping and make it a cost per coin it's $1.80 each coin. Which means it costs me effectively $24.80 to get it graded and returned. I sold each of them for in between $35-$45, which means after costs I was making in between $10 and $20 profit per coin. Now that isn't a whole lot, but think of it this way. I paid $0.03 per coin initially, and had I sold them raw for $4 each I would have profited around $59.50, still good money. But by getting them slabbed I profited on average $15 per coin for a total profit of $225, or almost 4x as much.

This raises the obvious question on why someone would pay 10x as much for a coin just because it's slabbed. The answer is pretty simple, insurance. Especially with toned coins people want to make sure they're not buying Artificially Toned coins so it being straight graded in a PCGS holder helps with peace of mind. Plus, TrueViews show the color much, much better than I ever could which is very good from a marketing perspective.

So then, why would I get these slabbed but not an S-VDB? Because most people who are buying F-EF S-VDBs are planning to put them in an album anyway and therefor don't really care about the holder. I was able to get full market value (more or less) on each coin by just taking a pic of the MM position and relevant die markers to prove it's genuine, and while it took a bit more time to sell, I was able to cut costs in getting it graded.

@John1,

I begin to think there is a fine art to framing a question on CCF, and that I fall short of the practice needed. I'll try a few more before despairing.

I fail again in that art. I have, more than once, submitted quite a few coins to all three of the TPG's you list . Lots of slabs, and in the case of ANACS, they used to provide naught but a Polaroid photo as proof of certification. I've got slabs and those too. I do not (yet) sell coins. I'm not ready. Thats part of why I'm on CCF: to become ready. Meanwhile, I'm having a great deal of numismatic fun.

I think I know all the forces that need to go into weighing a decision as to where to send a coin to be graded, and which coins to send. That's a finished quest. I'm a once-was coin collector, with a large collection long ignored. As a collector I was spawned in the age before most of the present-day attributes were attributed. Are you saying, "Yes, always pay the added? Just decide to whom you send the money and here is my advice on how to weigh that (next) decision" (in case you don't know how)?

I don't think you'd say that to a lesser collector. I've no question you're trying to help. You'd be kind to try again.

Kevin

I'm with John, I have no idea what your question is?

Well, @suipakpaikungfu, that adds a great deal to my knowledge base on these matters. Maybe I can accrue more knowledge by explaining more?

Time has always been this life's great problem. Every coin I discuss here was collected half a century ago either by me (at a coin show under guidance) or by a collector far more savvy than I can ever be. I acquired neither coin nor collection I did not intend to keep.

In two short decades, if I'm here, I'll be in my mid-nineties. I hope to be broke, free of regret, able to view a lifetime of responsibility in the rear view mirror. In my lifetime so far, I've sold one coin. In 2017, I sold a raw 1916 Walking Liberty for $30.00 at the request of a local dealer. I owed him gratitude. He'd spent hours over several visits guiding me and teaching me things.

A short while ago, on the advice of Paul Hanan at CONECA, I contacted Richard Snow in Tucson. I sent him my NGC slabbed '55 LWC DDO. I needed his opinion on the assigned grade (MS-64 BN). He opined it was under-graded before returning it. Discussion led me to purchase his newly revised two volumes on Indian Head cent varieties. The '55's been home long since - also the USPS tracking no. The books? Not so. Having tearfully parted with $125.00, I took advantage of the $5.00 shipping option on his website. Meanwhile, heck froze over and I don't expect to see my purchase 'til after the thaw. Chomping at the bit to begin, I turned to the folks at CCF.

My coin addiction re-entry took place in anno 2017. My initiation involved taking my Indian Head /Flying Eagle album to the aforementioned local dealer. I needed the help. I had quit the hobby before slabbed coins came on scene. The closest relative to a slab I then had was a stash of Merc. Dimes in 2x2's stapled to ANACS Polaroids. He culled 14 Indians for my submission to PCGS.

I next gathered my remaining outside-the-album Indians and set about to catalog, to examine, to self-grade (using PCGS PHOTOGRADE), to assign ballpark values (Using both PCGS and NGC price guides), to notate oddities , to fill 2x2's. I then placed each in three ring binders held by BCW sheets. I can now easily view any and all my Indians preserved in binders and also the data on any and all preserved on the spreadsheet. At one coin per line, the spreadsheet ends just short of 1400. I put the album with fourteen empty slots out of mind -- a dilemma for another day.

When Rick Snow's volumes arrive, current plans are to add columns to the spreadsheet to hold Snow numbers (ergo the sudden interest in the nature and consequence of attribution) and whatever else Rick's info tells me about the coin. I'm thinking a bit of time here. Note, please, I shunned the temptation to call it a lot of work. If the project devolves to become work, I'll stop. That all said, let me again try to explain my quest.

I'm guaranteed more fun. Still, as anyone who's ever watched a TV gameshow knows, economics enhance fun - even when the payoff stays fanciful in the viewer's world. To stave off the onset of coin collecting addiction, I derive 95% of my numismatic pleasure from collecting spreadsheet data on the coins I already have. I wish, before I begin, to gauge whether or not to spend time in to pair Rick's info with economic info. Is it even anywhere to be found? That decision is very difficult for someone who knows diddlysquat about the matter to be decided.

When I'm satisfied with the spreadsheet, I'll employ it (and a few records of CCF interchanges) to begin liquidating my holdings in ways responsible to the hobby and to the long dead friends whose collections I now pretend are mine.

Kevin

Dear Zurie,

Forgive me, please, for my failure to frame a coherent question.

You write, "I would only pay the additional fees for attribution if it would increase the selling price of the coin or make it easier to sell...,"

I ask again -- not just to you -- HOW? by what means? do you make your way to your (always dubious) conclusion that --- [buying attribution from a TPG] --- would "increase the selling price of the coin or make it easier to sell...,"? THAT is my question here.

Kevin

Zurie,

Please may I dissect your response? First gem: "Having experience buying and selling coins helps, too." My experience buying coins has been dormant for five decades. It is stale, obsolete, worthless to me and a danger to my collection. My experience selling coins is non-existent. The help you've substituted for my deficits is deeply appreciated.

Next:" There is no simple way to get the information you seek." I deem that a direct, unambiguous extremely informative answer to my main path of enquiry. It frees me to stop looking for simplicity and bothering folks when I don't find it. (Note to hfjacinto and John1: Sorry mine came across as more of a swamp than a path. That's often the case with me.)

Finally: the remainder of the gem (just pretend I copied it and used quotes): I'll make maximal use of your (new to me and now trusted) advice. I love it when ways can be found to use my time more productively than I have been using it. Thank you again.

Kevin