I'd like to subscribe to PCGS on line. I don't know what level to subscribe at, though. I don't have any coins to grade, so the vouchers mean little to me. (Can vouchers be passed along to others?) I like the population reports and the other info available. I'm relatively new to this, so any guidance you can give will be appreciated. Thanks.
That's what I do each year... unless I have 4 or 8 coins lying around that I need to send in for grading, regrade or crossover, then I don't pay extra for the voucher. Even at the $49 level, you get the pop reports and you are eligible for the "free" quarterly grading specials, even though the grading specials haven't seemed very special lately...
Why on earth would you want to "subscribe" if you have no coins to get graded? The ONLY thing you get by joining the Collectors Club at $49.95 a year is access to the online Population Reports. You'd be MUCH better off in buying a PCGS Graded coin and opening a PCGS Registry Set which would then give you access to uptodate Population reports for free. Examples: Buy the cheapest PCGS graded Lincoln cent you can find then open a Lincoln Cents Complete Variety Set, Circulation Strikes (1909-Present). All the Lincoln Populations become available to you (Including CPG Varieties) for free. Buy the cheapest of ANY PCGS Graded coin and you can use that coin to open ANY Set it will fit into (Including Complete Type Sets folks) and ALL those population become immediately available to you. The PCGS Set Registry is FREE with the only requirement being that you own a PCGS Certified coin. ANY U.S. coin can go into a Complete Type Set thereby giving you access to those population reports. BTW, the Online Population report is updated every Sunday morning with the previous weeks grades. The Registry Populations are updated AS THE COINS BECOME AVAILABLE for shipping. Usually within 2 days of grading woth no waiting until Sunday to see the populations using the Set Registry WHAT IF Function. If I were you, I'd take the $49.95 you're going to spend and buy a PCGS Graded coin instead. HOWEVER, if you DO have coins to submit for grading then the BEST Value is the Platinum Membership which will get you 8 Free REGULAR submissions that normally costs $30 each. Thats a $240 grading value plus you get the Online Population Reports and Unlimited Submission privileges including 4 Free Quarterly Submissions. Lately the Quarterly submissions haven't been that good of a deal since they are submit 3 at regular price and get the fourth one free. Thta kinda sucks since it takes the "free" right out of the picture. PS: Not only do you get Population Numbers using the "What If?" Function, but you get current PCGS Price Guide Values as well!
Up until this year, I would buy the $49.99/year subscription not just to get the pop reports but also to get the quarterly grading specials. I saw it as getting 4 gradings a year for $49.99 and I would usually use at least 3 of the 4 specials. I'd also use the pop reports pretty often. Sure, i could get the info free in the Registry, but it's so much quicker and easier to look at in the pop reports, especially for coins that aren't in a current set I have going. Also, you need to be a member to submit coins for crossover or variety attribution which I do from time to time. But now things are a bit different. I'm paying for CoinFacts now which really eliminates the need to have pop report access since the pop reports are part of CoinFacts. Also, the grading specials changed significantly starting with the first quarter of 2011 and are no longer freebies but instead are buy x and get 1 free... because of that, I'm done with the $49.99/yr membership once this current one expires and I'll rejoin when I have coins to submit or when the quarterly special is a good one.
For me, CoinFacts is one of the best tools to come around, in a long time. I keep it open much of the time. The auction results and the pops give me quick answers.
I believe the certain "new" folks in the PCGS Management Team are trying to SQUEEZE as much money as they can out of the Collectors Club folks by eliminating as much as they can from the Collectors Club Offerings. This "new" quarterly grading "freebie" is not longer a true "freebie" in that the $8.00 handling fee is now "required" and the offerings lately have been submit 3 get the 4th free. To ME, thats not FREE but more along the lines of a "special". When they start cutting the number of vouchers for the Platinum Level from 8, then I;ll be looking elsewhere but in the meantime, I thought it would be nice to share with folks on how to get truely "FREE" access to Populations and Prices. Well, it'll be free until they cut this out as well.
