Here's an Example of Buying the Coin and Not the Grade on the Slab?

moosesr

I was looking at an 1886 PCGS xf40 Liberty Nickel at Heritage Link 1 and noticed it had been recently upgraded from a ANACS VF35 Link 2. It looks like the person who bought the coin and not the grade on the holder did pretty good on this coin. To me it also shows just how subjective coin grading actually is.

Charlie

morgannut2

$471 to $680 minus costs looks pretty good. How much for the upgrade and how much for the PCGS holder I wonder. It's a nice original clean coin in either case.

cohodk

Looks like Heritage bought it for their own inventory.

ziggy29

That was a heck of a buy. Even it's a technical VF-35 (which it is, IMO), it's very nearly the detail of an XF coin at a lower price -- and the originality, problem-free surfaces and superior eye appeal make it better than a lot of technical XF coins out there.

For circulated coins, I love the VF-35 grade. Given that many coins have a steep rise in price between VF-20 and XF-40, you can often find a nice VF-35 with very nearly XF detail for a considerably less than XF price. Of course, it looks like that grade is attracting the crackout artists like the nicer AU-58s do.

fcloud

Another case of buy the coin not the holder. Someone has a good eye.