Is "SEGS" a Trusted and Accurate Grading Company??? PLEASE HELP

I don't much care for segs maybe my bad luck but I don't like how they grade.

There is also a common misconception of SGS too. People say they overgrade. They never grade anything. Their holders are novelty only and all say ms or pr 70 except in the case of morgan dollars. There is no grading at all and never has been.

 

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Slight disagreement Doug (but then what's new right?)

The new style ANACS Blue Holders may have a tendency to be overgraded but the new ANACS Gold Holders have a tendency to be undergraded IMO. My latest submissions to them would surely upgrade at PCGS or NGC.

YES, ICG and ANACS flipped owners and pretty much staff but my limited experience with both companies has been that the old ICG Staff was fairly accurate and the new ANACS Staff is fairly accurate if not a bit tight on their standards.

I personally get tired of hearing that PCGS and NGC are the "TOP" two grading companies since it automatically implies that ANACS is a nothing company which could not be further from the truth.

The TRUTH of the matter is that ANACS is just as god a grading company as PCGS or NGC AND offers variety attribution at moore than reasonable rates. For a coin flipper, PCGS and then NGC would be the best choice but for a coin collector, ANACS is a perfect viable alternative. Especially if Variety attribution is needed.

For Example, even though this coin is in the CPG Appendix as an FS-101:



Neither PCGS nor NGC will attribute it since it's not in the Kennedy Section of the book which, IMO, is a crying shame.

To ME, thats not the sign of a Top TPG. Yes they guarantee their grades and attributions and I'm about to find out exactly what that guarantee entails but, I also know that to GET that guarantee, I gotta fork over $25 per coin in addition to all the other fee's that get tacked on.

Whatever. I guess I'm a bit tired of drinking at the PCGS and NGC bars when the liquor is just as good across the street.

 

Does the claim of them having lowered their standards come from having seen their actual written standards before and after, or simply because its an opinion? I am going to go with it being an opinion that you and others dont agree with their grading. I havent seen any coins coming out of there that are grossly over graded. Again, the variations exist simply because grading is so subjective. What you consider to be slight wear on a morgan might be moderate wear to me. Subjective.

So, what we have is two companies that lose standing in some folks eyes. Those particular folks are in a position to have their voices heard and influence people. So what THEY think spreads like an infection when there really wasnt that big a change, if at all.

 

PCGS does guarantee attributions, but they don't attribute that many things. NGC attributes a wider range of varieties but they do NOT guarantee the attributions. That is per the written guarantee on their website.

 

Maybe the CEO of SEGS will show up and join the discussion. He is a member of this forum although he doesn't post much.

Larry Briggs

 

Actually, what that says to me is that there are significantly more collectors (150 million or so by general consensus) and therefor a significantly higher demand for graded coins. Add to that a radical increase in the numbers of coins being minted the last 15 years or so, and you have a ton more coins being graded. So by simple weight of numbers there are going to be more high graded coins.

So, you are stating that the new owner is forcing graders to use lower standards. Thats a pretty strong accusation. What true evidence do you have to back up that strong a statement?

 

So you have no evidence, just your opinion based on your perception of how many high grades are out there now. True evidence would be the written standards before and after. Otherwise, its just your opinion.

 

I've cherry picked some great deals from grading companies other than "The Top Three" and I've bought some over graded garbage in the top three slabs. Moral learn to grade and buy the coin, not the holder.

 

I'm not sure, maybe they slab and grade whizzed coins as RED MS-64, at least that is the opinion I am getting under this link [photos provided]...

http://www.cointalk.com/threads/1960-d-d-error-and-guess-the-grade-by-segs.243649/

 

I'll throw a little something out there...

Maybe, just maybe, getting stuck in the baby steps or early days of TPG's existence is not so accurate after all. Is it not a possibility, that the conservative beginnings of companies like PCGS, ANACS, NGC, etc. were a little too conservative for the Sheldon Coin Grading Scale? Maybe they started grading and realized, based on an increasing number of coin submissions, that they were never coming close to the MS-70, no matter how many bags of mint coins they opened. I believe these TPG's are still in the baby steps stages of their existence and evolving into the Sheldon Scale limits. How accurate is an AU opinion if you can't find a coin that comes close to mid MS as a result? Sounds like an opinion for the birds. The balance is still being established and 30 years is not a long time in the Hobby of Kings. What was once considered to be AU, can evolve into MS after seeing countless mint examples and never spotting ones subjective opinion of what perfection should be. Different coins struck at different times will represent different quality from the mints. Sometimes perfection might have to be brought down a notch.

 

Just because a certain coin may not have an existing MS example isn't reason to redefine what MS means.

It is true...the upper tier TPGs (PCGS and NGC) have loosened their grading standards some over the last few decades. But, that is because the market wanted that. They were simply doing what their client based asked. Lower tier TPGs aren't doing this. They started out with low standards and they have stayed there. For this reason, they have never earned the respect of the consumers because there is no value in there assessment. At no point, did their grading match what the market expects. PCGS and NGC have evolved with an ever changing market...the rest of the TPGs have not.

 

Are you kidding me? So, all coin metals, strikes, minting processes, dates of minting, etc. should have one single example of what MS should look like, without exception?

 

Wow. This thread is still alive??

I'll stand by my "opinion" based upon my "experience" that ANACS is tougher with the grading than they used to be.

As for comparing the TPG's? Just look at the number of PF/PR/MS 70's that the TPG's have given out? Oh I'm sorry, I meant to say "AWARDED"!

As for "the Market"? The "Market" does what the market is "conditioned" to do. That "conditioning" is done by the TPG's and others "opinions". Namely, don't buy/bid on anything other than the Top TPG Slabs. The net result is that the non-Top Tiered slabs do not get any bids "unless" its a rare coin that is photographed well. Even then, folks (i.e. the "Market") always "mistrust" the grade on the slab totally forgetting that grading is an opinion.

Is PCGS's "opinion" better than NGC's?
Is PCGS's "opinion" better" than ANACS?

What if a grader goes from ANACS to PCGS? Does his/her "opinion" change?
What about vice versa?

Buy the coin and not the slab but then......this is counter to what the "market" has been conditioned to do.

 

No...that's the opposite of what I said.

 

Agreed. I consider coins in SEGS holders to be genuine, but treat them as raw coins.