Not sure on an actual but I read somewhere graders start at six figures with the more tenured ones pulling 250k
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=clct It doesn't look that huge. Roughly $10 million net profit on $25 million gross income.
Strikes me as huge. Many companies tend to have net profits of 5% of their gross. NGC, being a privately held company, does not have to release financial statements.
That might be small potatoes to Wall Street but you could put that amount of jing in my pocket and this camper would be very satisfied.
You have to realize that's not all from coins. Collectors Universe, Inc. provides authentication and grading services to dealers and collectors of high-value coins, trading cards, event tickets, autographs, memorabilia, and stamps in the United States. Some of those services lose money every year. The losses provide a handy write off to help with tax liability.
Good points. Another thought is how honest and rigorous are the accountants with the grading services and top tier numismatic and collectible companies? They are competing with one another to get the business. I can think of one darling of a particular segment of the investment world, CCME, China Media Express, an advertising company. Deloitte and Touche had done the accounting work so everyone assumed they were kocher. When "Muddy Waters" investigated, and made accusations they cried foul; the accusations proved true and a company that had traded over $20 a share is now non-marginable. It is really easy to cook the books with numismatics. I doubt many IRS auditors have gone over the entire paper trails of a $10 million or more collectibles company. Coins come in raw, bought at spot, they get certified, now worth many times the original price paid. They get traded, or sold for a check or cash. As I said, it is really easy to understate tax liabilities, not a good thing to do though.
I doubt the (GASB) really cares about TPG's accounting practices. We have much larger fires to put out within the U.S. Government. Such as blank check practices and manipulating tax reports to hide U.S. Debt. It will be interesting to see what happens when corporations are forced to indoctrinate the international tax codes, and if they will be enforceable. Also on a side note, according to PCGS's Yearly report, they are expanding to focus on world coinage. (curtesy of CU forum).
Good points. Various accounting methods are frankly Greek to me. I once thought audit rates were high enough so that none of the big boys could hide. Obviously I'm mistaken; plus you have the legal tax avoidance that David Cay Johnston and the New York Times does a good job of covering. Apparently AIG scored a huge profit recently, no taxes, like GE. "Bending the Tax Code, and Lifting A.I.G.’s Profit | Last week, the American International Group reported a whopping $19.8 billion profit for its fourth quarter. It was a quite a feat for a company that was on its death bed just a little over three years ago, so sick that it needed a huge taxpayer bailout..." http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/morning-take-out-430/?scp=1&sq=AIG%20taxes&st=cse
Actually Collector's Universe is not a bad little stock. Nice yield, but limited growth potential in my eyes. I bought it and captured a dividend but sold it after thinking twice about it. With how I feel about slabbing, I couldn't sleep at night knowing I was profiting from it.
Medora, Do you think that the Hong Kong Visit/show will bolster the PCGS market? I've also noticed their new slabs for 5oz-1kilo coins.
They need international growth due to so many US coins already slabbed. I am just not sure how successful they will be. Maybe they can find the growth, either way it just makes me sad owning part of a TPGer, so I sold. Chris
