what are these slabs, and how loose do they grade?

sinin1

I'v got pictures of a couple slabs - wondering who made them, and about the grading tightness of the company.

dragon

IMO, treat them as raw coins and look very closely in person before purchasing.

Johnscoin

INS slabs are notoriously overgraded. Typically 2-3 points or possibly more. It just depends on the coin...
I have no idea what the other is...
Goodluck!

MadMarty

INS is was right up there with ACG. 2 to 3 points overgraded.

Conder101

Those are both old companies, INS was the second third party authentication service beginning in 1975. that slab dates much later though dating some time between 1989 and 1992.

The other one is NCI. that was a grading firm owned by Heritage. It started up in late 1984 and they used that slab in conjunction with their last two certificates and then for a short time by itself. It dates to the 1987- late 89? period.

wayneherndon

These days, many people have not heard of NCI and INS and I rarely see them on the bourse floor. Yet, every month, in the first issue of the month, the Bluesheet publishes prices for these two services (and ANACS and PCI). I can understand ANACS and PCI. I wonder, however, why they don't drop INS and NCI and pick up ICG and perhaps SEGS or some other more-often-seen service. This coverage would be far more useful than what they provide now. Alternatively, they could pick up another series or two and run it once a month in the space currently devoted to INS and NCI.

The Greysheet publishes a little statistic each week which they call the "Market Indicator." This shows what dealers bid for coins in certain holders vs. the Greysheet prices. PCGS and NGC typically average over 80% of Greysheet. NCI and INS typically are about one-third of Greysheet (i.e., less than half what PCGS or NGC brings). I'll let you extrapolate your own opinions from this data.

WH

Shocker

Buy the coin, not the slab. Hell, I could take some coin flips, pieces of paper, and a stapler and make my own "slabs." Does anyone remember the "pre-slab" era? IMO, coin collecting was much more enjoyable then.