I’ll be the first to admit I am not a coin collector or have much knowledge about them. But today on eBay I saw a slabbed current state quarter that graded MS68 (is not the highest rating) it was currently going for about $104.00 and going up.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1352849050

I pondered this a few minutes and wrote the seller asking if the quality of his coin was better/finer than a “Proof” coin from the mint, he wrote back and said no. He did dance around the answer a bit but did admit the Proof was a finer coin.

I went to the US Mint site and found a whole set of 10 Proof coins only cost $19.95, one of which is the same coin being sold on eBay but is an extremely fine quality specimen. It’s in a US Mint holder and is mailed directly to you from the mint so it is even more ‘authentic’ and better quality than the slab. I asked if the slabbed chip would be still worth as much if I took it out and was warned NOT to take it out as it’s value would then be questioned until it was regraded and then it COULD come back lower! . If I took the Proof out of the case, it would still be pretty obvious that it is a proof to most anyone.

A slabbed coin using the 70-point grading system creates an artificial market. Let’s recap: I can buy 40 Proof coins of best quality OR buy one lesser quality coin for the SAME price.

Is this what we want in OUR hobby?? Pay a higher price for lesser quality.

Sorry to rehash old issues but this example was just too good not to post....(this example is NOT isolated, eBay is FULL of them)