Sad sight at local coin show today

Barry

More PCI (gold) and NTC slabs than I've seen in a LONG time.

foodude

More PCI (gold) and NTC slabs than I've seen in a LONG time.

Yikes! Did you touch them; did you wash your hands afterwards...

kieferscoins

Are you in Florida or another part of the country?

Cameron Kiefer

LucyBop

DcamFranklin was there pushing his goods?

ksteelheader

The plastic around the coin does NOT determine the quality, or lack thereof, of the coin......Ken

BigE

Absolutely Ken, but it is an indication of a bad show when lots of unscrupulous dealers try to pawn overgraded stuff to novices for profit----------BigE

Barry

fudude - No, I didn't touch them. Just to be safe, I went to the nearest eyewash station and rinsed my eyes out (convenient, the show being adjacent to a fire house)

Cameron - No, I'm in PA.

Ken - While what you say is true, I won't give any business to a dealer who mostly sells slabs-of-deception. A "regular" dealer who has an occasional PCI/NTC/Trugrade among his inventory is a different story, in my view. See it as you will, that's just the way I am. I don't buy from crooks, even if there is a coin on my want-list in his case, even in a PCGS slab.

RGL

PCI is no better ... bought (only because of the return privilege) a PCI 1951 PR-68 DCAM Jeff thinking perhaps there was an outside shot it would go PR-67 CAM. The coin is a 64 ... nice CAM on obverse, but major jaw hit; no CAM reverse, which is fingerprinted multiple times to boot ... (the sucker was back out the door with minutes of arriving) ...

jdimmick

Barry,

At the local shows in this region here, I am seeing a lot more NTC and PCI slabs than ever before. I wonder if one of the main reasons is that these are gettin to be the only coins that some of the dealers can obtain at a price low enough to turn a quick fast profit on. Or are they holdering the raw coins they buy in these services to maximize the grade recieved, then market them as better than they really are.


I know one dealer in particular that sets up at all of the local shows here, A few years ago, he would be one of only a few dealers that you could count on having the better material at the shows. Stuff like your higher end type, dollars and several key dates. All would be PCGS or NGC with an occasional ANACS coin. Now a majority of what he carries is PCI and NTC stuff, Now I know he buys several things raw and/or PCGS/NGC holdered and breaks them out and then re-submits to these services. But he is still managing to get many people to bite on and purchase them. Used to be, I could always count on picking up something at a show from him, but after his philosphy changed, can't say that I have bought from him in over a year.

jim

foodude

Barry, I actually did look at a few PCIs at a show today. They went right back to the dealer's case

XpipedreamR

<< <i>Yikes! Did you touch them; did you wash your hands afterwards... >>





I've heard you can get warts from handling them.

Bochiman

I didn't go to the Tacoma show that Russ went to this weekend, but the last time I went, I saw a fair share+ of PCI and NTC and even Trugrade. (yes, there were still NGC and PCGS but the others had a large amount).

I think, rather than just unscrupulous (sic) dealers up here there is also the cosignment and pure cheapness (and real or believed thoughts that their customers don't know the difference as long as it is slabbed and has the "right" grade, that is wanted, on the slab) of people.

I was privy to a conversation 2 months ago between a dealer and a longtime customer. The guy wanted a coin slabbed and then the dealer to help him sell it. It didn't come back from NGC at the right grade and the guy didn't want to spend much money anyway, so he went with NTC or Trugrade (I forget which one) since they would grade it the point or two higher and only cost ~1/2 or so of NGC/PCGS I believe.

I agree with the "buy the coin, not the slab", but dammit, there are series that are new to me and I want to learn, so I want to buy one or two in a trustworthy slab/grade so I can learn. I don't want to see tons of the bad slabs tat I have to wade through over and over to try to find the right ones.
On the plus side, I don't think we have been hit with the grade inflation that other, major shows/metropolitan areas, seem to have had this year.
The downside is that we have more of the PCI/Trugrade/NTC slabs (even the occassional AGC still circulates up here).