Coin Collecting or Investing? with David Hall and John Ford in 1989

Zohar

Interesting.

LINK

JCMhouston

Ford was a very smart man.

MacCrimmon

"...smokescreen to make money....."


So says the man who dabbled in gold ingot forgeries, and smooth talking bereaved widows!! LMAO

7Jaguars

Yes, It seems he (Ford) did not have the most pristine of records....Wonder that he should make such statements given what he was up to!

bidask

I really enjoyed that video!

DeiGratia

Very nice. Thank you zohar

TwoKopeiki

Interesting video. Thank you for sharing it, Z.

RobP

I only know of the two names and not of any baggage either may be encumbered with, so taking the two arguments at face value I have to concur with Ford. People should learn how to grade themselves rather than relying on another's opinion. Slabbing is a self serving market aimed at the investor rather than the collector, not that I am against investment per se. Collectors will recognise a rare coin because they are interested in the subject matter rather than the dollars. e.g. I bought the William I PAXS penny from Derby in the January Heritage sale. Why? Because there were only 3 out of 20 coins from Derby with this reverse die in the Beauworth hoard of 1833 which is a good proxy for the issue in total representing probably 95% of all known specimens. And the price obtained in the sale was about one third of its market value simply because it was in a piece of plastic labelled EF40 and not MS60 something.

The glaring flaw in the case presented by Hall in my opinion is this. To say the market goes up and down is quite normal and does happen for all asset classes, but prices of slabbed coins are determined by the number and that is no different to the varied opinions regarding the grades of unslabbed pieces. Most of us do a mental grading when buying which may or may not agree with the TPG grade. I would ask this. When was the last time anyone remembers a 66 on sale for less than the same type of coin in 65? All those who subscribe to set registries are trying to get the highest average score. As individuals they will naturally decide whether they like a coin or not, but how many would take a 66 out of a set and replace it with a 65 or 64 because the latter was a nicer coin? The tail number invariably wags the coin dog. The grade also has to be considered alongside the attribution. A significant percentage of the slabs I buy are on the basis of what isn't on the label.

Pokermandude

While I totally agree that people should learn for themselves, I don't think slabs are a bad thing for the hobby. In this day and age with so many sales being done over the internet, they are a necessity if you don't have a trusted dealer or dealers to buy from.

Like most non-newbie collectors, I've been burnt by raw coins, and have ended up owning dog coins in TPG holders. I've developed a much better eye for grading and quality. I've become quite picky with classic-early modern coins. I've passed on plenty because I either don't agree with the grade, or the coin is simply ugly and I don't care what the label says. I've noticed buyers on Ebay getting much smarter about this too. Not many years ago people would bid up a coin with colo-rectal colored toning to the same level as a blast white or nicely toned one, just because it had a number on a holder. Not so any more.

But I think, most importantly, slabs are SO much better for the collector when it comes time to resell. No more dealer telling you that your "EF coin is really VF, even though I sold it to you as EF years ago". The grade and opinion on the coin remains pretty static. Sure they can and do disagree with the slab grade. But as a non-dealer it is much easier to shop your top tier TPG'd coin around and eventually sell it for a fairer price.