For me a raw coin means "caveat emptor". It doesn't matter to me whether it was OMP, resealed, or resealed after busting out of a TPG holder. It is all the same and should be treated as such. I don't for a moment believe that OMP represents the average condition of the coin as it comes out of the mint. Just consider this very normal scenerio: I have a sheet of 10 coins. I examine them, then pick out the best ones to sent to NGC/PCGS. I sell the rest of them as OMP. That's pass #1. On pass #2, the individually OMP-wrapped coins are collected and examined. Naturally I keep the best one and sell off the worst one. Onward to pass #3... This is similar to the so-called "unsearched roll of quarters" straight from the bank vault. It maybe unsearched after they've entered bank's coin counting machine, but they were searched many many times before getting there. So the pre-1964 silver quarters are already plucked out and the "unsearched roll" does not represent the average quarter population at all. No, OMP, same as raw coin, does not represent the average. On day one, possibly, but 20 years later?
Thanks for your response …
Seriously Sandac? … you are saying if I buy a coin from a reputable dealer that is sold as “OMP” that I should accept it as “BUYER BEWARE” ??? … SERIOUSLY ???
No disrespect at all to you but I amiably disagree.
As a buyer/collector I have the right to expect that a reputable dealer who is selling me a set of Pagodas, Goldfish or Pandas, etc as “OMP”, that these coins are indeed sealed in their original seal/packaging as the day they were minted. Anything less is NOT OMP.
If these “OMP” coins I am buying have been previously submitted for grading, graded very low and then busted out of their holder, then I am being scammed if they are sold as OMP. There is a HUGE difference in value.
The same thing applies if these same “OMP” coins have been removed from their original seal and “baked”, “washed” or any other cosmetics and then resealed and sold as “OMP”.
I don’t think there is one reputable dealer who will come on this forum right now and tell me that busting out my 67’s or 68’s and resealing them to be sold as “OMP” is an honest way of dealing coins.
If that is the case and there is nothing wrong with it then the coin collecting world is going in the wrong direction.
I want to believe that dealers would not stoop to this level to make a profit.
So I guess in your opinion I can remove all of my low grade coins from their holders, reseal them and sell them to anyone and that is fine with you?
Maybe if it is no problem to the Chinese buyers I may pursue this avenue, they see no problem with it, I can unload coins that I don't want and they will be happy just getting the coins they want.
Maybe it's a "win win" for us all !
