Home U.S. Coin Forum

Have you ever been hacked off when you found out...

...that some substantial coin you bought at a particular grade was once in a holder at a lower grade????

Comments

  • braddickbraddick Posts: 23,946 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It shouldn't matter. I know it does, but it really shouldn't, especially if you're buying it 'sight seen'.

    peacockcoins

  • BigD5BigD5 Posts: 3,433
    Only if it was mine, and I didn't have the *alls to crack it myself. image

    I've had your example happen, and no it didn't bother me. Grading standards have changed, and there are plenty of coins out there that have changed numbers.
    BigD5
    LSCC#1864

    Ebay Stuff
  • tradedollarnuttradedollarnut Posts: 20,162 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Yes.... but I got over it.

    The holder doesn't matter as much as whether or not YOU like the coin.
  • CrackoutCrackout Posts: 1,368 ✭✭✭✭✭
    In this world, timing is everything!!
  • 291fifth291fifth Posts: 24,323 ✭✭✭✭✭
    For some of the "big time" coins this is quite common. Read Q. David Bowers column in the Feb. 16 edition of Coin World for an example.
    All glory is fleeting.
  • ShamikaShamika Posts: 18,780 ✭✭✭✭
    I would certainly prefer not to know!
    Buyer and seller of vintage coin boards!
  • nwcsnwcs Posts: 13,386 ✭✭✭
    Not if the coin deserves to be where it is at. It wouldn't bother me.
  • lavalava Posts: 3,286 ✭✭✭


    << <i>Not if the coin deserves to be where it is at. It wouldn't bother me. >>



    image

    If I felt any other way, then I should feel ashamed to ever submit an "upgrade."

    Glass half full/half empty -- who is to say they got it right the first time and the new slab is overgraded?

    I brake for ear bars.
  • lavalava Posts: 3,286 ✭✭✭
    By the way Anaconda, you have some nice coins. That goes without saying right. If I call you please hang up. I need to stick to mirrored morgans.
    I brake for ear bars.
  • Adrian,
    YES! In fact, it was yours too. I owned a 3 legs PCGS 63 w/ great color, sold it. Six months later it turns up on your site for sale in a NGC 64 holder.image
  • ARCOARCO Posts: 4,391 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Hasn't happened yet, but I can tell you that under NO circumstances would I ever buy it!

    There are currently two Key date barber halves in MS grades graded by NGC listed on various internet sites that were cracked out and upgraded one point. They still look just as beat up and like the original grades they were given, but now they having asking prices hundreds of dollars higher and some ink on the grading plastic saying they are of a better quality.

    I find the crack out game in MS grades utterly reprehensible to the hobby and as such I will never collect any coin in any MS grades. Not that anybody really cares, but the hobby is still too flawed as far as inconstistence grading is concerned for me to ever spend any money on MS coins in the series I enjoy.

    If I find a coin upgraded, I would NEVER buy it, just out of principal.

    Tyler

    edited comment - I would not buy MS grades sight unseen with only the plastic grade, or based on a computer scan. Eyeballing the coin in person is different and I have purchased coins over $1000 in MS condition.
  • jdimmickjdimmick Posts: 9,668 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Dont know if it would tick me off, but if offered the coin, I would probably pass. Not for the same reason's as Tyler mentioned, but for the mere fact that if the coin was originally holdered at a lower grade, then my thought would be that the coin is possibly borderline or lower end for the grade and could go either way if re-submitted. It would always stick in my mind and be questioned by myself, should it really reside in that level of holder. If it were in my collection, I just soon have it in the lower grade holder with it being solid /strong for the grade then have the coin be lower end in the next grade level holder. Now if it were a unquestionable mistake in the original grade, then I would like to have it in a correctly graded holder.

    Of Course if I were selling it, having it in the higher grade holder would most likely bring more money at time of sale, cause many of you know that several people pay for the plastic label grade vs the coin itself???
  • Cam40Cam40 Posts: 8,146
    What about the grade guarantee. Can you show the picture of the previosly holdered coin to the appropriate
    service. I,m guessing this service is PCGS? They have a grade guarantee dont they?
    What IS their policy on grade guarantees? I know if its been cracked out all bets are off but...what if you
    `have the proof` it was a better grade than now?
    If grading standards werent so wishy washy sometimes maybe we could have rock solid grading
    that NO ONE could argue with.
    What if we DID have rock solid no-one-can-argue-the-grade grading it wouldnt work
    caise collectors wouldnt have anything to complain about. That would be a coin collectors nightmare huh.
    image
  • "YES! In fact, it was yours too. I owned a 3 legs PCGS 63 w/ great color, sold it. Six months later it turns up on your site for sale in a NGC 64 holder."

    I remember that coin. It was a moose. I don't have it any more.

    "Doggie ate it."

    (Followed him around for a week. Musta gotton lodged on his liver. Washed it off real good though.)
  • tradedollarnuttradedollarnut Posts: 20,162 ✭✭✭✭✭
    So.... even if you personally agree with the grade, you'd never buy a coin that once resided in a lower grade holder?

    It doesn't matter what the price is?

    It doesn't matter what it looks like?

    It doesn't matter that most eye appealing coins holdered in the last few years would now be graded one to two grades higher than in 1987?

    Would it make a difference if you knew that the previous lower holder was a first generation PCGS holder? I don't see why, but would it?

    Interesting.

    Don't get me wrong - I'm not a fan of grade inflation. Yet I've seen plenty of coins that I'd be happy to buy in a higher holder if the price was right. Does it really matter if you pay 75% over sheet for a PQ near gem or a 25% discount to sheet for a just made it 'gem'. Same coin..... same price.... different holder.
  • BearBear Posts: 18,953 ✭✭✭
    I recently purchased a wonderful target toned Barber Half Proof

    in an old PCGS rattler holder. the coin was graded PR-64 but is a lock upgrade.

    The coin was in the recent Goldberg Sale and I had to fight off two crackout dealers that

    bid the coin up almost to its upgrade value. The coin had the toning I was looking for

    and seemed to be a 1-2 point upgrade candidate plus a Cameo designation. Should know

    if I was stupid or wise by the end of next week. Will let you know. As long as a coin has the "look"

    then it would not bother me if it had been upgraded. If the coin is a really marginal for the grade

    then I would pass.
    There once was a place called
    Camelotimage
  • orevilleoreville Posts: 11,950 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I have acquired some coins for less money in the higher grade slab than they sold for in the lower graded slab! People love potential in an undergraded coin in the slab as opposed to a crippled (marginal) coin in the next grade!

    I have on four different occasions cracked those coins out had them graded back in the lower grade by both grading services and got much more $$ than I bought all four for.

    I know this sounds like heresy monsterman, but it has worked well for me!
    A Collectors Universe poster since 1997!
  • I've never been aware of a coin I own being upgraded; the only thing that
    comes close is buying a raw F15 and having it come back as VF35 (I still think
    it isn't a VF!) But, that was just a rare, happy win in the slabbing game.
    Robert Getty - Lifetime project to complete the finest collection of 1872 dated coins.
  • roadrunnerroadrunner Posts: 28,303 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Depends on the coin. Usually I have found out just prior to buying a coin that it was upgraded, and in many cases I have backed off, especially if the upgrade was on a recently graded coin (not a first gen or old holdered coin).

    I recall paying a stupid price for a rattler PF63 Barber half at auction last year. Paid 64++ money for it. Sold it in the holder later on for
    65 money to a major dealer. Another occurence was a MS62 1839 ND half that got upgraded at that the SAME service to MS64 within a 2 year window. The coin was a dog as a 62 and still a dog as a 64. It went up nearly 6X in price too. Unless something walks and talks, the history does make a difference, that is unless you are omnipotent about grading/pricing coins and know EVERYTHING about the market. The fact that the best graders only bat 80% should tell you something.

    roadrunner
    Barbarous Relic No More, LSCC -GoldSeek--shadow stats--SafeHaven--321gold
  • Dave99BDave99B Posts: 8,524 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Grading is subjective. It would not bother me in the least.

    Dave
    Always looking for original, better date VF20-VF35 Barber quarters and halves, and a quality beer.
  • No, NOt if the coin I bought was PQ for the grade - I try not to buy coins that "just make" the grade, as generally I don't think they are a good value - there are exceptions to this rule, - if the coin is a key date and very scarce, if its not a problem coin, and I won't be able to find another, then I would consider it.

    My philosophy is to buy a COIN, not a paper insert (the plastic's ok, it protects the coin from fingerprints and drool). - If it's a nice coin and it was previously under-graded, it doesn't matter.



    << <i>I find the crack out game in MS grades utterly reprehensible to the hobby and as such I will never collect any coin in any MS grades. Not that anybody really cares, but the hobby is still too flawed as far as inconstistence grading is concerned for me to ever spend any money on MS coins in the series I enjoy. >>



    ARCO, Considering that humans grade coins and that humans make mistakes, why would buying a coin that had been previously mis-graded (ie under-graded) bother you? If they get it wrong the 1st time does the collector/dealer have to forever be stuck with their mistake? What is reprehensible is when the services Mis-grade coins: they probably undergrade as many as they overgrade - not many crack out the over-grades and ask for it to be downgraded, but the under-grades are often cracked out until they get graded properly.

    Your post suggests that the first time a coin is graded, it is 100% accurate - do you really believe that to be true? It's not the hobby that's flawed, its the grading services that are not perfect. But if you refuse to buy nice coins unless they have never been re-submitted, you may miss out on some gorgeous coins. If you really feel the way your post reads, your recourse is to NOT buy slabbed coins period, as it's the grading services who make mistakes, and not buying MS coins does nothing to "punish" them if you still buy their circulated slabbed coins. It would seem that unless the grading services ALWAYS, 100% of the time, grade circulated coin accurately, you would have to avoid them too as there are also mistakes made in grading circulated coins. JMHO

    Collecting eye-appealing Proof and MS Indian Head Cents, 1858 Flying Eagle and IHC patterns and beautiful toned coins.

    “It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.” Mark Twain
    Newmismatist
  • BustmanBustman Posts: 1,911
    Recently, I called in a NGC PR67 Seated Half dollar to see on approval. That same night I was looking thru past auctions and found that exact coin had sold 6 months prior as a PCGS PR65 for half the price. I did not even want to see the coin at that point.
    I don't mind a coin going up one grade, but going up two grades.... and from PCGS to NGC!! That just tells me the coin is either totally maxed out, or more likely ovegraded. And even if I was wrong about that, psychologically I just couldn't do it.
  • ColonialCoinUnionColonialCoinUnion Posts: 10,087 ✭✭✭
    It does hack me off, which is one of the reasons I never buy any coin unless I can trace its 'history' and figure out where its been, how it was graded last time it appeared and what it sold for.

    This reveals not just whether or not the coin has been upgraded 12 times, but if its been cleaned, buffed, dipped, spanked, milled, whizzed or
    re-colored recently in order to cram it into a shiny new holder.

    It also shows that plenty of coins now called 'finest known' (or other similarly silly statements) simply aren't and were sold in past sales described for what they really are.


  • "This reveals not just whether or not the coin has been upgraded 12 times, but if its been cleaned, buffed, dipped, spanked, milled, whizzed or
    re-colored recently in order to cram it into a shiny new holder. "

    ....spanked......!

    I love creative writing!!
  • I once saw what i now recall as a MS 65 Arrows Half which later went into a 67 holder with a 70K price tag....



  • Recently received an 1878 PCGS MS65RD IHC on spec from a well-known non-specialty dealer. Was surprised to find a small carbon spot [wasn't in the online description image] that I knew I couldn't live with so I decided to send it back. Before doing so I did a search, just like my old buddy Shylock taught me, and lo and behold the coin with its telltale spot had sold in a Heritage auction two months prior in a 64RB holder. If I had keep the coin and made the discovery later it would have eaten at me that someone else had just made a big upgrade prior to my purchase. Just think its human nature to want to think that one is making a smart purchase with upgrade potential rather than being absolute final end user.


  • itsnotjustmeitsnotjustme Posts: 8,777 ✭✭✭
    I really like it when I'm the one that upgraded it!
    Give Blood (Red Bags) & Platelets (Yellow Bags)!

Leave a Comment

BoldItalicStrikethroughOrdered listUnordered list
Emoji
Image
Align leftAlign centerAlign rightToggle HTML viewToggle full pageToggle lights
Drop image/file