Coins are a subject near and dear to my heart. Been involved in collecting since I was a little kid and now sell as well.
In recent years there has been an influx of third party "professional" graders. Although coin grading is a matter of opinion most of the newer services are borderline fraud and are utilised to rip off the newer collectors big time.
It's like buying a coin from the loudmouth on TV. HE IS ripping you off and most people realize this if they are forced to sell what they've bought.
My wife has the pleasure of hearing me rant about this with stunning regularity. It was HER idea for me to start a blog. Trying to tell me something dear?
That in mind here's my blog. It will not ALWAYS be coins. I rant about a LOT of things so why not share them with the rest of the world? Ain't technology grand!
Signing off for now but expect more. Hopefully I WILL offend a few people by letting others know what they truly are.
just call me
Clembo
2 comments:
Being a friend of Clembo & one who has enjoyed numerous talks about unethical grading services, I thought I'd chime in.
First of all, I'm a staunch believer of professionally graded coins. When I say professional I mean PCGS, NGC & ANACS. I can accept some coins from PCI or ICG but reliabilty is not the same as the first three.
Secondly, I would never ever buy a raw rare coin. To me it's not worth the gamble or risk of getting a counterfeit, altered or cleaned coin. I buy & sell very rare Morgan dollars worth well into the tens of thousands of dollars. Those pure of heart may question pro grading services and might prefer raw coins. That's fine and we all have opinions!
Third point, I buy & sell coins as an investment. I want no hassles when the coin changes hands. Though coin grading is VERY SUBJECTIVE, overall I am extremely pleased with my PCGS Morgans. Are some overgraded & undergraded? - sure some are. My point here is that the grading is extremely close to what it should be. What guarantees come with any rare raw coin???
Correct grading gives me great peace of mind as well as all the people I deal with. Correct grading gives my coins a real value, not a fictional value like ALL the home made services with bull s--- values.
Personally, I've bought raw coins & a few coins from inferior services. Better pray for a return policy or have superior persoanl grading skills.
For a novice collector spending a few dollars on coins, buying pro grade coins is not necessary if you are doing it for fun. For an investor or serious collector, pro grading is the only way.
I do most of my business on Ebay. Virtually all my transactions go smoothly. Watch out for scammers out there that sell crap so called certified coins while trying to compare their junk to quality coins. They'll use key words to creep into PCGS or NGC listed stuff. They also love to mention "PCGS valued at $1,000,000 in ms70". Comments like this one is so irrelevent since there are absolutely no ms70 Morgans & I believe PCGS has only graded about 5 coins is ms69! Also if their coin is as great as they say, send it to pcgs & watch the grade inflation disappear or get body bagged.
Bottom line, you get what you pay for! When someone buys a crap service graded coin you can be certain that your ms70 coin is pure crap and worth pennies on the dollar!
Regards,
JMC
I recently attended the ANA Show in Milwaukee & saw a wonderful example of a non quality graded coin. A prominent dealer in the middle of the bourse was offering an 1886 o Morgan in a INB holder graded as ms65. Certified & slabbed. The funny thing about this coin is that the dealer knew it was crap & had it priced at"2% of bid or best offer." Currently bid is $160000. He was basically asking for around $3200 which is about what a ms63 coin goes for. How's that for respect of this hi quality grading service! Only problem with this coin is that this coin was actually closer to an au58 coin.
I think he kept the coin in the glass case as a joke to the other real quality coins he was truly selling.
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