"Our side of the street"?

[Gembeeyou]

I've noticed a lot of people throwing around the phrase "This side (or "our side") of the street." Since I doubt that that phrase is going to be listed in the new coin glossary thread, would someone explain to us newer folk what that means, and what or where the other side is? Is it the toned coined collectors site or....? Also, what is the "Evil Empire"?

 

While on the subject, are there any other good coin-collecting-oriented message boards that you would wholeheartedly recommend?

Thanks!

Jim/Gembeeyou (formerly Finest Known)

[RoelSports]

PCGS chat

[gmarguli]

"Across the Street" means the PCGS forums. I think they closed them down.

 

 

[Gembeeyou]

Ok, thanks gentlemen! BTW, I just walked over there, and they do still have active message boards!

 

Are there any other real good coin boards around though?

[Gembeeyou]

[quote

Coin wise, the "Evil Empire" would be PCGS.

Why are they called that? Do they "deserve" that critcism for some reason, or is it just said in jest?

[BankNote1]

Sorry but the original "Evil Empire" is Heritage.

[kryptonitecomics]

Most of the folks that post over here also post over there so it's just in jest for most folks....but there are certainly more than a few who have had some negative dealing with PCGS or on the forum over there so for them......I am sure PCGS is considered the evil empire

 

As for other forums......I am a member of NGC, PCGS, and these too as well:

 

TCCS (Toned Coin Collectors Society)

 

and

 

Coin People

 

Neither is as busy as the PCGS boards which certainly can be a good thing at times as your threads stay on the front page long enought for folks to see them and respond.

[michael]

over there most are coin whores out to give their "johns" (people buying expensive pieces of plastic with coins of face value worth out of the holder)

 

the creeping crud (take as much of their johns money) and the clap with a little herpes simplex thrown into the mix that is the strain that has no cure and slowly eats you from the inside out

 

all in the name of the almightly $$$$$

 

as most all of the threads on the coin boards are either my grades i got in plastic and i am extremely angry as pcgs did not price them right for me so i can sell them for multiples of what i paid for them

 

or some sleezebay feedback arguments

 

or crying as their coins thsat they are checking on ten times a day did not gety graded yet

 

or they got their grades and they made a plastic killing and they can put it up for sale as they got the grades even though the coins are not back yet

 

or waht will this grade if i send it into pcgs? so then i can buy it cheap and make a killing getting it graded by pcgs with their plastic around it

[michael]

or ever other post is about sleezebay or pee pal

 

as it is only about selling and making money selling by preying on other peoples passions about pcgs graded plastic with highly common coins in them

[Tradedollarnut]

The 'evil empire' is a bourse floor name for Heritage, not PCGS.

[Jazzy]

Why so reserved Michael?

 

Tell us what you REALLY feel.

[Gembeeyou]

Thanks for the links, Shane!

[James_OldeTowne]

The other side of the street is PCGS. Many posters have accounts on both sides; I post exclusively on NGC's boards. I was a member of the PCGS boards, but was banned for making posts that did not agree with with David Hall's (then-President of PCGS) philosophy.

 

James

[kryptonitecomics]

Thanks for the links, Shane!

 

No problem.....enjoy all of the forums and learn as much as you can

[zrlevin]

David Hall's (then-President of PCGS)

 

When did they get a new president? I thought he still was?

[ldhair]

Ron Guth shows to be president of PCGS.

David is president of Collectors Universe.

[zrlevin]

Ron Guth shows to be president of PCGS.

David is president of Collectors Universe.

 

Okay, Thanks!

[Tradedollarnut]

David Hall's (then-President of PCGS)

 

When did they get a new president? I thought he still was?

 

Ron Guth was named president late last year.

[EZ_E]

over there most are coin whores out to give their "johns" (people buying expensive pieces of plastic with coins of face value worth out of the holder)

 

the creeping crud (take as much of their johns money) and the clap with a little herpes simplex thrown into the mix that is the strain that has no cure and slowly eats you from the inside out

 

all in the name of the almightly $$$$$

 

as most all of the threads on the coin boards are either my grades i got in plastic and i am extremely angry as pcgs did not price them right for me so i can sell them for multiples of what i paid for them

 

or some sleezebay feedback arguments

 

or crying as their coins thsat they are checking on ten times a day did not gety graded yet

 

or they got their grades and they made a plastic killing and they can put it up for sale as they got the grades even though the coins are not back yet

 

or waht will this grade if i send it into pcgs? so then i can buy it cheap and make a killing getting it graded by pcgs with their plastic around it

 

Doesn't Michael have a way with words?

 

[BillJones]

One more commonly seen message from across the street is, “It is impossible for a collector to overpay for an ultra high grade modern coin in plastic, especially PCGS plastic.” This is true even if the mintage is in the billions and the number of survivors in Proof or Mint State is also in the millions or billions. Anyone who disputes this is stupid, dishonest, totally uninformed or perhaps worst of all “a modern basher.”

 

 

Someone might have paid $15K for the only Lincoln Memorial cent that gotten into a PCGS MS-70 holder. BUT if they had paid $1.5 million instead, that would have been right in line with the market. AND WOE be it to anyone who says any different.

 

 

Always remember, you can never overpay for modern coin in a PCGS slab. This is always true even if the coin in the slab is overgraded or has “gone bad” and not longer rates the grade on the holder.

 

These are words by which all collectors and numismatists MUST live or risk eternal damnation.

[MarkFeld]

over there most are coin whores out to give their "johns" (people buying expensive pieces of plastic with coins of face value worth out of the holder)

 

the creeping crud (take as much of their johns money) and the clap with a little herpes simplex thrown into the mix that is the strain that has no cure and slowly eats you from the inside out

 

all in the name of the almightly $$$$$

 

as most all of the threads on the coin boards are either my grades i got in plastic and i am extremely angry as pcgs did not price them right for me so i can sell them for multiples of what i paid for them

 

or some sleezebay feedback arguments

 

or crying as their coins thsat they are checking on ten times a day did not gety graded yet

 

or they got their grades and they made a plastic killing and they can put it up for sale as they got the grades even though the coins are not back yet

 

or waht will this grade if i send it into pcgs? so then i can buy it cheap and make a killing getting it graded by pcgs with their plastic around it

I'm sorry to see what I believe to be such an exaggerated, distorted, irresponsible and unfair assessment of the PCGS forum. And I say that despite the fact that I am pals with Michael.

 

There are plenty of good posters with lots of good information there - with a bit of effort and patience, you can get an answer to almost any question. Ditto for this forum.

[NoTwilight]

One more commonly seen message from across the street is, “It is impossible for a collector to overpay for an ultra high grade modern coin in plastic, especially PCGS plastic.” This is true even if the mintage is in the billions and the number of survivors in Proof or Mint State is also in the millions or billions. Anyone who disputes this is stupid, dishonest, totally uninformed or perhaps worst of all “a modern basher.”

 

 

Someone might have paid $15K for the only Lincoln Memorial cent that gotten into a PCGS MS-70 holder. BUT if they had paid $1.5 million instead, that would have been right in line with the market. AND WOE be it to anyone who says any different.

 

 

Always remember, you can never overpay for modern coin in a PCGS slab. This is always true even if the coin in the slab is overgraded or has “gone bad” and not longer rates the grade on the holder.

 

These are words by which all collectors and numismatists MUST live or risk eternal damnation.

 

 

Bill,

Haven't been there in a while eh? Most of the posts are just the opposite, bashing moderns, slab collectors, conditional rarety, and the 70 grade in general. I haven't seen a post as you describe.

 

--Jerry

[MikeKing]

over there most are coin whores out to give their "johns" (people buying expensive pieces of plastic with coins of face value worth out of the holder)

 

the creeping crud (take as much of their johns money) and the clap with a little herpes simplex thrown into the mix that is the strain that has no cure and slowly eats you from the inside out

 

all in the name of the almightly $$$$$

 

as most all of the threads on the coin boards are either my grades i got in plastic and i am extremely angry as pcgs did not price them right for me so i can sell them for multiples of what i paid for them

 

or some sleezebay feedback arguments

 

or crying as their coins thsat they are checking on ten times a day did not gety graded yet

 

or they got their grades and they made a plastic killing and they can put it up for sale as they got the grades even though the coins are not back yet

 

or waht will this grade if i send it into pcgs? so then i can buy it cheap and make a killing getting it graded by pcgs with their plastic around it

I'm sorry to see what I believe to be such an exaggerated, distorted, irresponsible and unfair assessment of the PCGS forum. And I say that despite the fact that I am pals with Michael.

 

There are plenty of good posters with lots of good information there - with a bit of effort and patience, you can get an answer to almost any question. Ditto for this forum.

 

You're the ultimate peace maker and overall good guy Mark, but you have to admit that Michael's comments are strangely funny because it does address a certain element prevelant on those boards. And I agree with you that there are a lot of great posters there, many of whom migrated here or were banned along with you, but some remain, so I occasionally would take a peek over there to see if there were any interesting posts.

 

The interesting posts have decreased in number considerably since the bannings, and I stopped looking over there after I started to read one post which made sexual inuendos about a poster that I wouldn't want my children to see and that made me want to vomit. Indeed, the ranting and raving went on to such a degree that I would certainly think that the post would be deleted. It would on this board, and fairly so. But it wasn't deleted accross the street.

 

Now why is that? Why do they leave horrible posts making sick sexual inuendos about board members yet they banned a whole bunch of good posters including yourself? Something is rotten in Denmark. Oh...I'm sorry....something is rotten at PCGS.

[BillJones]

Bill,

Haven't been there in a while eh? Most of the posts are just the opposite, bashing moderns, slab collectors, conditional rarety, and the 70 grade in general. I haven't seen a post as you describe.

 

I have to admit I have not been over there very much since the “December purges,” but everything I wrote was certainly true when I was building my 10,000 + posts over there. I got hammered every time I said anything about the ridiculous prices people were paying for stuff that was just ahead of “pocket change in plastic.” I still recall the many defenders of the 1963 cent that was in a PCGS PR-70 DCam holder that sold for over $30,000 and then was bid up to more than $40,000 at successive FUN auctions. The trouble was the coin had black spots all over it, and a dealer would have been lucky to have gotten $10 for it OUTSIDE the holder. PCGS was finally shamed into buying back to tamp down the controversy.

 

Maybe the PCGS POP -1 market for ultra grade modern coins has hit its “bigger fool wall.” Or maybe the people who supported that market are finally running out of collecting money and now finding that they were on the wrong end of a one-way “roach motel” market. (Easy to check, but impossible to check out, at least with most of your money.)

[MercP]

As you can see from my post count, I'm a major lurker on this and the PCGS board. However, I have learned tons of stuff about coins and coin collecting from both places. Yes, the boards are diffrent. They both have a diffrent feel to them, and there are good and bad on both boards. There are plenty of people on both boards that make putting up with the nonsense worth while. For whatever reason I don't understand there does seem to be a larger population across the street, which of course means more nonsense there. Therefore, I find myself spending more and more time here.

 

 

I like modern coins, so I do get a little tired of the modern "bashing" across the street. However, I can see the point people make about top pop moderns. This is way I never buy slabbed moderns I only make my own.

 

Just my two cents.

[texasrichard]

The "december purge" is what allowed me to "find" this forum. I still post at both and enjoy both. That being said however; they are different as I see them. There are certainly great numismatists who freely share their opinions and expertise on both boards. There can be some pretty sharp tongues ATS and that is just part of what happens when there are so many more people involved. (IMO)

 

Since the "purge" I would say that the general "tone" (no pun intended) ATS is more related to "making profit" than "numismatic interest alone" than it is here. There are of course still many great numismatic interest posts there as well. Just this morning someone posted a newly found variety. There are fewer in relation to total "nonsense" posts here.

 

I don't pretend to know the politics of what goes on. The reason I came here is because some of the folks who were on the receiving end of the "purge" came here and I respect their opinions.

[gmarguli]

There are plenty of good posters with lots of good information there - with a bit of effort and patience, you can get an answer to almost any question. Ditto for this forum.

 

Let me re-write this statement for you with a little more "finesse".

 

There are plenty of good posters with lots of good information being buried there - with a few hours of effort and patience digging thru pages of garbage, you can get an answer to almost any question - especially if it deals with coin minted in the last 5 years or better yet still on sale at the mint. Ditto for this forum - only we focus more on classic coin than moderns.

 

There are a handful of great forum members over there that I'd love to see over here. However, they're usually drowned out by the people who like to spew garbage.

[NoTwilight]

Bill,

Haven't been there in a while eh? Most of the posts are just the opposite, bashing moderns, slab collectors, conditional rarety, and the 70 grade in general. I haven't seen a post as you describe.

 

I have to admit I have not been over there very much since the “December purges,” but everything I wrote was certainly true when I was building my 10,000 + posts over there. I got hammered every time I said anything about the ridiculous prices people were paying for stuff that was just ahead of “pocket change in plastic.” I still recall the many defenders of the 1963 cent that was in a PCGS PR-70 DCam holder that sold for over $30,000 and then was bid up to more than $40,000 at successive FUN auctions. The trouble was the coin had black spots all over it, and a dealer would have been lucky to have gotten $10 for it OUTSIDE the holder. PCGS was finally shamed into buying back to tamp down the controversy.

 

Maybe the PCGS POP -1 market for ultra grade modern coins has hit its “bigger fool wall.” Or maybe the people who supported that market are finally running out of collecting money and now finding that they were on the wrong end of a one-way “roach motel” market. (Easy to check, but impossible to check out, at least with most of your money.)

 

 

Bill,

What I like over here better than over there is that people are much more tolerant of other people's interest. There aren't nearly so many people trying to tell people what they shouldn't collect.

 

Even though most of the coins I post here are classics, I need to disclose here that I am a collector, and more importantly a seller, of "Modern *spoon*" bullion coins. ATS the critics are very vocal and as a result, people, including myself, are often reluctant to post about our 70s. There are a couple of people who enjoy flamefests who still post "Hey, Look at my new PR70 Platinum Eagle Threads" but most collectors of this stuff just stay quiet--so much so that I see modern bashers starting their own threads to troll for more modern bashing. I step forward and defend it occasionally and I get PMs from experienced modern collectors asking me to refraim as even a calm, intellectual discussion just fuels the fire. I'm glad to say that I see nothing like that over here.

 

Cheers,

jerry

[BillJones]

I collect modern commemorative coins extensively. For example I have all of the cherrywood box sets, except the 32 piece Atlanta Olympics monster, from the 1984 LA Olympics to the Jackie Robinson Legacy set.

 

My only problem with modern coins is the stupid high prices that some people pay for them. I don't like to see new collectors get soured on the hobby when they learn that they have lost thousands of dollars and have WAY overpaid for stuff that most collectors don't regard that highly. My attitude is that new collectors should be warned. After that if they choose to buy the stuff at high prices in an effort to be king of PCGS regestry hill, it's their problem.

 

As for the people across the street who attacked me vociferously everytime I disagreed with them, you don't need a PhD to know what mot of their motavations were. To put is simply, one only needs to type $.

[ldhair]

I don't care what side of the street it is.

It's just not worth the time to worry about it.

Both boards are really cool if you learn to avoid the garbage and not get hung up on it. Just have fun with it.