ICG Value vs PCGS + NGC

In your experience, how much are coins graded by ICG worth compared to PCGS or NGC? From what I can see, PCGS and NGC are definitely the top 2, with PCGS coins going for slightly higher than coins in the same grade graded by NGC. How much lower than PCGS are ICG graded coins worth? For example, if a coin regularly sells for $500 in PCGS MS65, what would a ICG coin in MS65 sell for? Also, about how close are their grades? If the same coin was sent into PCGS, NGC, and ICG, on average do they come back the same grade? Who is tougher, currently?

 

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I'm sure you'll get a number of responses, but you really should check the grading standards for each series. It has been my experience that people tend to pay less for ICG slabbed coins and that they are harder to sell. As for PCGS/NGC I'm really not sure there is much of a difference.

 

I seem to get coins for much less in ICG slabs then ngc/pcgs & sometimes ANACS. I dont mind ICG stuff but I rank them lower then ANACS.

 

Ok, thats what I was thinking and what I have seen in the completed listings on eBay. What I wanted to know is about how much less do they sell for when they sell. Are they usually 10% less, 25%, 50%? I only have a month of completed listings to go from, so if anyone has been paying attention for longer I would be curious as to what they have seen.

 

I bought an ICG 70 modern commem for the same price as raw, which is also the same price as the NGC and PCGS 69s were going for, according to my LCS. I don't think you'll find any hard and fast rule of thumb, but hopefully anecdotal evidence will help ya.

 

IGC is not one of the better TPGs, and as such, the grades on the slabs mean far less. Do they get it right sometimes? Yes. By and large, they are too lenient.

 

The question - as asked - is far too general. Even if playing a game of averages, its tough to pin down a percentage. Some will get no premium over raw, and others can (in cases) being near top TPG money. All depends on the individual coin.

Is there a certain series you are looking at?

 

Yes, the series I was looking at is MS+ Indian Cents.

 

I think it also depends on when the coin was slabbed. If ICG graded it 5 or 6 years ago (or before that)...when they were considered a decent grading company, the coin might hold a little better value. Today, their reputation is much declined (similar to what has happened to ANACS).

 

Is there any way to tell when a coin was graded by ICG? Serial number, or type of slab maybe?

 

In my experience, ICG coins sell as if they were overgraded by one point, especially if the value is over $200.

 

Ok, thanks Lehigh, that helps.

 

I will add my 2¢ to this. First, one of the reasons they are not considered a top flight TPG is that they are more erratic than NGC and PCGS. i.e. this coin might be the equal of the top tier and the next might only get genuine. How can you attach a to the ICG value when one might be 100% and the next 10%?

However, what I have noticed is that there are very few modern (>1940?) high grade coins from ICG that have a prayer of equaling NGC or PCGS. Some I have seen are a joke.

 

Rlm, are you saying that ICG is more lenient when grading cleaned coins? If a coin has been obviously cleaned, do they even give out genuine grades?

 

You will learn not all "cleaning" is so obvious - particularly with NGC and PCGS lately. But, yes, ICG has often been more lenient than NGC and PCGS. Also, more lenient grading. More lenient is calling a coin red rather than red/brown. etc.

 

I understand. Does ICG designate coins it has deemed to be cleaned with the Genuine grade?

 

If you called up a coin dealer, and said "I have coin X in MS65 PCGS/ICG, what will you bid sight unseen?" you could reasonably expect to find the following :

For the PCGS coin : Somewhere in the range of 80% of the greysheet bid for the coin.
For the ICG coin : Somewhere in the range of 70% of the greysheet bid for the coin.

So...presuming your $500 is greysheet bid, you could probably haggle your way toward $400 for the PCGS coin, $350 for ICG

Greysheet publishes just this sort of information. They have a Certified Coin Market Index that tracks low, high, and average bids, expressed as a percentage of the greysheet sight SEEN bid price, for 8-10 TPGs.

FWIW, in THAT index, NGC and PCGS are so close as makes no difference. ANACS and ICG usually swap 3rd and 4th place. Everyone else is WELL below those two.

 

Yes, they do.

 

FWIW, I have a bunch of 1950's Lincolns graded MS-67 by ICG (i.e generally a $50 to $100 coin in NGC) and I typically pay less than $10 for them. Also in that bunch are the 1956-, 1956-D, 1957- 1957-D and 1958- coins. Those are $1,000+ coins in PCGS MS-67's and I still paid <$10 for the ICG coins. And there is no Greysheet for those coins.

 

Maybe that's why it's a "range" and an "index" and a "guide", hrmm?