Will we outgrow slabs in the future?

airplanenut

Think about it- only 20 years ago, there were no slabs on the market... now the plastic business is booming...

In the future, will the demand for slabs drop enough for services to shut down? Will we live in a society of Dorks???

Your opinions?

Jeremy

kieferscoins

We would be dorks without slabs?

The hobby is always changing. It is hard to say, but I think they will still be around and in business, but the goals and grading, holders etc. may be different. I can't wait to see. I will TTT this thread in 20 years (if the internet is still around).

Cameron Kiefer

cladking

So long as the collector base continues to expand the grading services will
be busy. New collectors will drive up the price of many US coins from key-
date two digit buffalo nickels and very low grade large cents to AU moderns.
When such coins attain sufficient value they will be graded. Concurrently
many collectors will be branching out to other numismatic and exonumismatic
pursuits. They will bring to these fields a desire to obtain third party opinions,
which does not currently exist to a large degree. There are trillions of "coins"
that can be slabbed of millions of types. The services will be busy for the fore-
seeable future. Their fortunes will wax and wane with the fortunes of the hobby.

dorkkarl

<< <i>Will we live in a society of Dorks??? >>

hey, man!

i dunno, is the plastic business really booming?

i do think slabs have a limited future. if you think about it, it is not really very sophisticated technology.

K S

nwcs

Slabs right now are the ultimate holder, the ultimate 2x2 that has a nice label and makes it easier to trade/sell. What I think may happen is a specialization, a further fragmentation of the industry. You'll have a whole slew of coinworld-inspired do-it-yourself slabs, specialized company holders, and other types of holders. And people will generally stick to one segment or two of the market.

I don't think you'll ever see a consolidation of all these holders and things. The natural trend in a market economy is specialization and market segmentation.

Neil

mbbiker

I don't think that we will outgrow slabs, remember there will always be new moderns to be sent in every year

paigowjohnny

I think it will evolve into something different. I believe 3rd party grading will always be available in some form.....especially since most of the really problem free quality big ticket stuff is already slabbed.

I also believe that collectors will eventually evolve away from "plastic obsession"...the registry thing will run it's course, and maybe we'll see a slow down/end of folks resubmitting coins 10 times until they get a grade.

dorkkarl

<< <i>I believe 3rd party grading will always be available >>

paigowjohnny makes an excellent distinction:

"slabs" does not equal "3d party grading"

i agree that 3d party grading WILL always be available. in a sense it has been around a lot longer than slabs have. i just think the physical manifestation of the grading (a plastic slab) will become extinct, replaced by superior technology.

K S

paigowjohnny

bump

truthteller

Slabs will be around for many years. The companies that slab the coins will not. If you buy a coin with a company guarantee, be aware the guarantee expires with the expired grading service. I'm sure when CU stock reaches .70 again, we just may see some company buyouts.

TRUTH

Gristlebeard

I see a future where we will have really good imaging capabilities and metal coins now an extreme rarity would be kept in cryogenic storage. You would only be able to buy and sell images of these coins. Think about it, you already have a registry with a bunch of pictures of coins and right now a lot of us buy coins based on pictures alone.

Cheers
G

Twowood

I think we'll all agree that Graders are here to stay. The question is,how long will it take them to introduce an innovation that will prompt all of us to have all of or slabbed collections restructured...like going from 78's to LP's to Tapes to CD's or going from Video tapes to DVD's...which I did only last week.
Twowood

tracker

IMHO... slabs are here to stay. I would imagine the top services are nervous in their comfortable positions. Along comes "XXX Grading Service" with better consistancy and lower fees (ouch). Computerized grading seems to be the ticket, but how can a computer judge "Eye Appeal" without human intervention? In the evolution of computerized grading, we are still in the "Atari" stage as compared to "Playstation2" (pardon my video game analogy).

truthteller

Here's an idea. When the grading services return a coin, they should accompany it with a couple of Prozac pills. Now it won't matter what the grade is, because they will all look good.

cladking

<< <i>I think we'll all agree that Graders are here to stay. The question is,how long will it take them to introduce an innovation that will prompt all of us to have all of or slabbed collections restructured...like going from 78's to LP's to Tapes to CD's or going from Video tapes to DVD's...which I did only last week.
Twowood >>



Excellent point. Eventually the services will bow to the "pressure" to grade
coins on multiple parameters. Of course the net grade will be equivalent to
the old grading so people don't have to get their coins regraded. ...But, of
course they will anyway since it's human nature and within a relatively short
time net grades will be obsolete. Such is progress.