Can
You Afford To Get Your Coins Slabbed?
I was
once a nieve collector like you, until the day that I decided to bite the
bullet and get a coin slabbed. I will think long and hard about that in
the future.
While
going through a roll of quarters that I got from the bank, I came up with
the coin pictured to the right. The coin is all copper colored and really
looks like a missing clad layer. Even the reeding is sharp and all copper
colored. The design is very sharp and high quality so I assume that it
must have been stamped without the clad layer being in place rather than
being stamped and having the clad layer fall off.
The
first logical step was to get the coin weighed. I went to see my barber,
who runs his coin business from his barber shop, and asked to use his scale.
The coin came in at 6 grams. I weighed a regular New York Quarter and got
5.6 grams. This is getting more interesting by the moment!
The
next best advice is to send it in to a slabber for authentication. Good
advice but this is where I got my shock! I called for current rates and
was quoted $20 for slabbing and authentication. What about the EW discount?
$20 for slabbing and authentication. They were immovable.
Grumbling
to myself, I said well, I'll bite the bullet and drop $20 on the chance
this baby won't come back in a body bag. I proceeded to print out the submission
form.
I started
to fill out the form until I got to the part where it asked for the value
of my coin. Value? I don't even know if it's real! That is why I am sending
it in. How do I know what the value is? Well, let's presume it's real,
otherwise why even bother to send it in. What is a totally missing clad,
overweight New York quarter worth? I checked Ebay - nothing there. I asked
a dealer and was told that it could be worth, "Lots". Hmmm, no help there.
So I assigned a large value to it just in case it's real and it gets lost
in the return mail.
Now
I must calculated the return postage. See chart on reverse it instructs
me. Holy Cow! To return a single coin to me valued at less than $100 the
cost starts at $12 and goes up from there! If I ran an auction and tried
to charge a person $12 postage/handling/etc. for winning a single coin
they would have me arrested! But, sigh, these are the slabbers!
So
I cough up the $19 it's gonna cost to get the darn thing sent back to me
in a body bag, most likely, all the while praying it gets lost in the mail.
Now
I go to the Post Office to ship this baby out. I was told to ship it registered.
Good advice. Now I don't trust ANYONE, so I add insured with a return receipt.
They do their thing with stamp, stamp, paste, paste and give me a bill
of OVER $10!
Now
this thing is getting hairy. $10 to mail it in, $20 to look at it and entomb
it in plastic, and $19 to mail it back to me! This is now a $49 operation
JUST TO GET ONE COIN SLABBED! I hope it gets lost in the mail on the way
back!
With
my luck it will come back safe and secure, and BODYBAGGED!
Based
on my experience, I advise you to think long and hard before getting your
coins slabbed. Once slabbed, you must be able to sell your coin for $50
over your buy price, JUST TO BREAK EVEN! I don't know about you, but I
have sold very few coins where I have made a $50 profit. This may be one,
or it may be a crap shoot, but, either way, I'm not holding my breath.
The
only thing that I am left with is the feeling that slabbing is a high rollers
game and has no place in the world of small collectors.
[To
be continued after the coin is returned, limosined to my door and presented
to me in a gold slab]
