johnnybro3011

When i started my coin collection, i was always told to buy the coin, not the label. Of course this means you can like toned coins or brilliant white coins, which ever you like ,freedom of choice. Now the major 3rd party grading companies ,of which i consider only 3 reputable - PCGS, NGC , And the oldest ANACS. I know you may consider others are just as good but in my own opinion these 3 are the most consistent in there grading at least to my eyes side to side an ms61 from all 3 look the same, as well as a 65 looks the same across the board most of the time. They are not always correct we all know that a consensus of 3 sets of eyes determines the grade and we as humans are not perfect so there are sometimes mistakes made and we see this as some people crack open some coins for re-grading and sometimes win. This also makes the census reports all bogus because no one knows how many coins have been regraded or how many time a single coin has been regraded at that. Now things have all changed. With the united states mint now producing special limited edition sets and congratulation sets, the label matters much more than the coin. And i am having a really hard time accepting the fact that a 2016 w coin that is the same exact same coin across the board whether bought as a single coin or in any set is now given a super wide range of value based on these "limited edition" sets. Now you buy the label, not the coin and pay 3000 dollars for the same exact coin because the label says its from the limited set or congrats set or this set or that set... In my opinion this is destroying the coin collectors collections value for absolutely no reason at all. a 2016 w burnished or 2016 w proof is the same coin in ms 69 or 70 no matter how you cut it. It is a travesty that these labels make the same exact coins are being bought and sold for a range of $80 per coin to literally thousands of dollars more because the 3rd party graders put a few extra words on a label. Who is to blame here ? the mint or the graders or both. I believe both. the creation of the sets from the mint and the words on the label from the graders. Now the 2015 bullion coin... millions struck, yet someone found out the west point was not producing all the coins because the demand was so high they asked the philly mint to mint 79,640 coins to meet demand. The same dies different location and through the freedom of info act we have to pay 500 to 800 dollars for an ms 69 bullion coin that has no mint mark and is the same coin...exactly the same coin as the coins from west point. The mint themselves said they are the same they are considered the same exact coin by the mint yet the graders words make a 20 dollars piece of silver worth up to thousands of dollars in ms70. There is something very wrong going on here and it stinks. It makes me want to quit because we are seeing the same thing that destroyed sports card collecting in the 80`s and 90`s with sets and subsets and subsets of subsets of rookie cards making them worthless today. Am i crazy or sane i need to know how everyone feels and we need to fix this problem or im quitting the hobby i have loved for years. please let me know your thoughts and what you all think we should do if anything to fix this problem. And Rick Tomaska is now at the center of all this, in my opinion, after all he has written all the books and set all the standards for the graders to go by. i wish he would write a book explaining this growing problem in the hobby and what to do about it. Thanks for reading my rant and im looking forward to your responses to this major flaw in the hobby.!! Johnnybro3011