The only panda gold/silver coins I have purchased so far have been OMP ones. Am I better spending a bit more money on say the MS 68 and above. The coins that are sealed in the capsules that come from the mint how do you know what condition those coins are in or do you take the chance. Are the coins in the sealed capsules that are BU have a grading or do members unseal them and send them off to NGC for grading hopefully they get a MS 69 or above? Sorry for the stupid questions but I am trying to expand my collection and hope someone can take the time out to explain. Michelle
Buying OMP in person is best because you can look at the coin and judge it for yourself. If you can't look at OMP, then it is a gamble. Not all OMP coins are created equal as damage can occur from the coin moving around in the capsule, from being stored improperly, etc. As of late many people are valuing OMP equal to an MS67 grade. Buying graded, most people will tell you to buy only MS69 or higher, but I am of the party that says to buy the coin not the grade. I have bought, graded and sold many many coins and I can tell you that all of the grading companies can be very inconsistent. Right now I have some MS67 and MS68 pandas listed that honestly look better than some of my MS69s. I've had many 69s and 70s go back to NGC because the quality of the coins was poor. In general, if you can't see the coin in person it's safer to buy a graded coin so you know it is authentic and in most cases in the condition shown on the label. OMP is a gamble, but it can be fun (or costly) if you want to play the grading game with them later on. On a side note, if you can get an MS69 or MS68 close to the price of OMP, it's a good deal, but generally that is hard to find.
My bargain mode is buy a ms69 or pf69 for less than 50 uss than omp same coin in ncs/ngc or 25 in ngc only. The 25 or 50 uss are the cost of grading and ncs and ship plus the bad gradings (67 or 68) But sometimes i buy omps and make the odds to have a good Score. Read in this forum my and others members ngc estadistics in grading to have a better data. Or buy a ms68 if i think is very cheap. For 2009 and later i buy severals to save in capsules. But i only buy from reputable sellers here (fishbal, yennus, jc and others) Because in usa you run the risk to buy a bad grade panda cracked from the slab and put into the capsule. For the old years have in ebay a lot of resealed ones.
