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Old PCI photo holders...should I expect a premium?

11 posts in this topic

 

A very small local dealer (operating out of an unrelated flea market booth) has a small hoard of the (I believe) third generation old PCI photo slabs. Nothing really special as far as the coins are concerned - Franklin halves and Washington quarters in mid MS/PF grades. Some have developed a bit of attractive toning, but nothing to get crazy over.

 

I was thinking of buying these and attempting to flip them, but before I did I wanted to ask all of you your thoughts if you'd be kind enough to provide them. I know the slab collectors out there are few, and PCI is not the grading company of choice...but I'm thinking there might be enough interest out there to sell them off at the upcoming FUN.

 

As for the asking price - he's basically using PCGS values as his initial price point. He would work with me if I took them all though.

 

Oh, and for the record - I might keep one of them for myself, but I am not looking to collect plastic! I'm really just looking to make a couple dollars! :grin:

 

What do you think?

 

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I would pass. They are interesting and may be worth a small premium to a slab collector, but I don't foresee them selling for the prices in the PCGS Price Guide. This guide tends to be inflated, especially for modern issues. I would imagine that the slab premium, if any, would be subsumed by the high asking price.

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I would pass. They are interesting and may be worth a small premium to a slab collector, but I don't foresee them selling for the prices in the PCGS Price Guide. This guide tends to be inflated, especially for modern issues. I would imagine that the slab premium, if any, would be subsumed by the high asking price.

 

+ 1

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PCI did a fairly good job grading coins but the marketplace tends to treat these coins as raw these days so I would advise against paying any premiums for the plastic.

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Some collectors sing the praises of the old PCI holders, but mostly what I saw from them was inconsistency. There were PCI graded coins that could be cracked out and sent to PCGS for up-grades, sometimes as much as MS-64 to 66 according to some who post ATS. BUT in order to do that you had to be able to pick the coins that are under graded with is a long way from ALL of them. This mostly applied to Morgan dollars from what I can see.

 

So I don’t see a lot of upgrade or profit potential in the Washington quarters and Franklin half dollars that you have seen.

 

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Thanks everyone for the advice. I spoke to the dealer yesterday and passed on them...at which point he told me that if he doesn't sell them in the next month he'll give them to me for melt. I guess I'd be in at that price, but it sounds like I could still have some difficulty getting rid of them! We;ll see what happens.

 

Thanks again for protecting my money!!

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Thanks everyone for the advice. I spoke to the dealer yesterday and passed on them...at which point he told me that if he doesn't sell them in the next month he'll give them to me for melt. I guess I'd be in at that price, but it sounds like I could still have some difficulty getting rid of them! We;ll see what happens.

 

Thanks again for protecting my money!!

 

How can you go wrong buying them at melt? I'd be surprised if he still has them after a month though.

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Don't use PCGS guide prices. They're over-inflated in almost every instance and many times coins don't even auction for those prices.

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Don't use PCGS guide prices. They're over-inflated in almost every instance and many times coins don't even auction for those prices.

 

True, unless you are looking at really scarce to rare, in-demand coins. Then the PCGS guide ranges from viable to "wish list" amounts.

 

This market is divided between the collector coins that have been depressed in price because of the bad economy, and the "whale food" which is more pricey than ever.

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Even still, the best place to look is at auction records for the biggies. For lesser coins, look at Numismedia price guide that's found on NGC's site, or subscribe to the Greysheet and consider wholesale values (not saying that you'll be able to buy at wholesale, but it's a starting point for FMV).

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