I have been toying with having a number of my coins submitted to a TPG. However, I do not know if this need will arise again; I mean, it probably will, I just don't KNOW, and a one time submission at the rate and fees they charge...I don't know if it make financial sense. So I saw a thread about submitting through a dealer. Now this seems to make more sense. A small per coin or overall fee to jump in with their larger order. It isn't like it costs them anything. Or risk. The problem is, I don't know if I am close enough with, or am comfortable bringing that up with any of my local guys. Would it be viewed as overstepping a budding business relationship? There is this one guy who every time I see him asks about my daughter, which blows my mind because he only met her once, for 20 seconds before she sat on mommys lap picking out indian head pennys across the aisle while daddy haggled. And I don't even really haggle with him either. He is super fair. He even floated me $40 I was short on a beauty he had that he knew filled a hole in my ongoing oddity of a collection, "sure buddy, don't worry about it, I am sure I will see you in Plantation or WPB next week". That counts for something in my book. He could have held it for a week or two until the next show. He could have sold it to someone else. But he let me walk with it, simply from our 15-20 transactions/exchanges and conversations. Are there any dealers who are members here who do this? Is this a standard thing like a bank having a notary on staff? Just a service offered with the rest of the business that is transacted? Or would your jaw hit the ground that a customer maybe that you don't feel you know so well asked for this service? I am pretty anal and protective of my collection. I would be sweating a bit dropping off 25 coins, after paying him too, crossing my fingers he doesn't rip me off. thoughts?
and what would be an average cost per coin, or for 25 coins graded by NGC. lets say the coins are worth $175-$550 each. break it down if you can. for example, if i had 20 coins, and normally the TPG would charge me like $35 per coin plus S&H, but the dealer pays $20 per coin, if I gave him $450 is that in the ballpark? i own graded coins that i truly got at a steal, but have NEVER sent a coin to be graded. now that I am thinking about it, I feel like i may have closer to 75ish I would consider sending, but a solid 25 for sure.
If you are a member of the ANA you may submit coins to NGC directly without joining a collector's club. This would save you money. Alternatively, you may join the PCGS collector's club to submit on your own, too. NGC and PCGS list submission costs on their websites so you may want to check these out to find out the information. I don't like to submit for collectors, but when I do I don't charge anything over the actual cost of submission and shipping. Others are like me, but some folks charge a fee for the service and this is their right.
ANACS is also open to anyone to submit. FWIW I've considered asking my LCS to submit coins for me to PCGS, but the prices they quote me are outrageously high...I'm not sure why. Maybe they've added a fee in there and don't realize that I can Google how much it really costs.
would there be a specific number of coins, or value of coins, etc where you would tell this person "ummm, no". and are you saying that if some random customer walked into your shop with lets just say, 5 x $200 value each coins, he just fills out the form and pays you the TPG fee in advance and is good to go? do you share tracking numbers with them so they are "in the loop"? i don't want to "up the guys rump" every day asking if the coins arrived, if the coins left the TPG, if he received them back, etc.
see, that would be a huge turnoff for me. i wouldnt even buy from him again. and in referring to the dealer i mention in the original post, i do not think he would do this to me. i just dont want to overstep a boundary. i really like this guy and plan on buying coins regularly from him...both raw and occasionally slabbed.
I don't have a shop; I travel the country going to the major shows and deal with my clients in person at shows, via email or through my website. I have submitted coins for clients, for other dealers who ask a favor and even for strangers who are non-coin collectors but somehow acquired or inherited something worthwhile. The range has been from a single coin to dozens of coins at a time, but again this is not something I like to do so it is not something I encourage. In my case, folks just leave the coin(s) with me and I do the submission, pay upfront and then bill them when it is all done. Most dealers with shops will take your submission, write and inventory receipt, give approximate pricing and turnaround times and will then call you when the coins arrive. It takes some trust on both ends, but if you already know the person then it is much easier.
i appreciate the insight. i am curious if anyone on here has been burned by doing it this way rather than just eating the fees and self submitting.
Yes, I have read on the boards over the years of a few instances where coins dropped off at dealers were lost or damaged. It is surely a rare event, but if you are concerned about it then it may be best for you to simply do the submission yourself so that you can control most aspects of the process.
Tom, I have a feeling that I would do what you do if I had the funds. Of course, I might do it in my own personal way... I would buy a 1972 El Camino SS with a custom locking tonneau cover, paint it all black with a Viking symbol on the tailgate, the drive around the country cherry picking every show and shop I came across. Maybe that's my plan for retirement, if that is even a possibility any more by the time I'm 65.
Most dealers won't do this for you for the price that the TPG will charge them. They're gonna want at least $25 per coin plus shipping i order to make a few bucks for their time. Expect for this to be the case even if they're sending your coins in with theirs. They still will want to put your submissions on a separate submission form. Each submission form will carry its own shipping costs. There is no need for a notary or anything like that. It needs to be a dealer that ou have mutual trust with. (it sounds like you already have one.) This whole process is a little more time consuming for the dealer than most people expect. The process can last up to about 6 weeks and each. The dealer will have to field calls from you such as, "how much longer before we get our grades?" or "how much longer before we get our coins back?" All of this takes time, you get the idea..... To submit 25 coins, it should $625 plus about $30 for shipping. I hope that this is helpful to you.
As long as it's a dealer you trust and you get a written, itemized receipt, you should be okay. Just make sure you double check the submission sheet - I remember a thread on the NGC/PCGS boards where someone had done this, but the dealer wrote a lower value for a particular coin to save money on shipping. Then the TPG damaged the coin between the imaging and encapsulation (the image was undamaged, the coin in the slab is damaged) and so they only offered the owner what was written on the form.
A long time ago I was working for a guy and a customer gave him a coin to send to pcgs. It came back a pattern and the dealer bought the guy a new coin that looked like the old one and kept the pattern. I was just 15 so I didn't really do anything. I didn't know the owner so I couldn't notify the guy if I had wanted to. Moral of the story- join pcgs diamond get 8 subs free with pcgs coinfacts and directly submit the coins yourself.
pcgs has four tier levels, silver, gold, and platinum, and now diamond, each has its own service, with a membership fee, heres a link to pcgs for more info https://www.pcgs.com/store/memberships.aspx
The first time I went to a particular dealer, I asked if they would submit coins for me, and they were happy to.
