To save you time and money, the following essay is worth your time to read:
Here is a reality check about grading companies vs. what people coming into the hobby just assume about them b/c of seeing so many slabbed coins being sold. Reading this will help you make better educated decisions concerning these companies and your hard earned cash.
Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for life. Here is some beginners fishing tackle. Its worth your time to read.
Thinking of Slabbing? Make sure you understand the Facts...or You Could Lose Money.
Popular Mistaken Mindset:1. The grading companies are not a way that the majority of people, even collectors/dealers with a great deal of experience who know what they are doing, are going to be able to use in order to make huge personal profits. Many people start using grading companies thinking they will find a way to finance their hobby, but they learn a hard lesson quickly.
Professional Predicting Not Possible: 2. Watch videos of experienced dealers getting back slabbed coins from the grading companies. Note even people who live, eat, breath, and deal coins for a living can accurately predict what grade the companies will give. The "fault" (not really a
fault) is in a widespread
mistaken perception the masses get from being exposed to all the slabs being sold nowadays:
a. Coin grading companies are a
business wanting to make a profit - this is why they exist. The companies use a system where allegedly three, but in reality its normally two, graders look at each coin and give an
opinion. The company videos showing the process make you believe this is a relaxed and paced process of studying each coin. In fact one PCGS video shows a number of guys sitting around a table discussing what they think a specific coin should be graded as (on youtube somewhere - sorry no link). Uh uh.
b. If you take, for example, a PCGS graded coin slabbed as MS64, break it out, and resubmit it to PCGS,
you are never guaranteed the same grade again. The slabbed coin might come back MS62 (extreme and a bad day for graders), 63, 64, 65, 66 (extreme and a great day for you!). This is b/c the process is all subjective:
No scientific/verifiable standards or methods are used by the companies to grade coins. This subjectivity makes for greater company profits since people resubmit the same coin trying to get a higher (better price when selling) grade. In the 90s the companies, at great expense, created better (their own words) scientific methods not relying upon human opinion. No doubt the large profit from the re-slabbing game fell off since the companies now claimed they no were able to give the coin a verifiable grade. The companies abandoned the science and went back to their (as they had called them to push the new system they were abandoning) less accurate systems.
But..this is all hearsay without proof. So...
http://goccf.com/t/346174#2967242Here is another good read from someone there at the start of the grading companies:
http://goccf.com/t/130186Error on errors:3. People also seem to think grading companies will examine a coin to see if they can find an error and then slab it as such. But again, the companies ONLY GRADE coins (unless paid and instructed to do more). The companies will NOT try to find and ID an error for you. You must FIRST ID the error yourself, CHECK to see if the company you want to use recognizes that specific error, PAY them to verify the error on the label, and then you may or may not actually get what you pay for! The companies have a bad reputation for attributing errors incorrectly.
Link to and read (download if you want) the pdf link in my signature (Costly
TPG Ineptitude and No FG
Kennedy halves) as an eye opening example. Sadly, the reader-verifiable data presented from the PCGS website shows trusting people have spent
thousands of dollars on many
slabbed coins that are not what the companies claims/slabbed the coins to be.
Cost Concerns:4. B/c people do not understand the businesses, so way too many people end up with spending far more money to slab a coin than the coin is worth. The companies profit greatly with membership fees, submission fees, insurance fees, shipping fees and extra (chosen) fees. ANACs does not have all these fees though.
[b][blue]You don't have to throw in the towel over these companies[/color]]/b]...but education about the reality of them will put you on the right pathway to dealing with them in a legit way without losing money in the process.
And.
If you just like to collect slabbed coins for what they are, which makes losing/making money from slabs irrelevant, then of course enjoy them!"
Posted 07/12/2022 2:26 pm
, coin has zero luster ,chafing from bottom of chin down to lower neck . 
