PCGS Versus NGC Marketing

Really? What do you find cult-like? I've been on the boards for years and don't find it that way.

 

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Well, let's just START with the way their staff at shows look down their noses at people. Then there's the "uniform", the terse personal style, the "our feces is not malodorous" attitude. Shall I continue? The OVERWHELMING "if you're not in our dealer network, you don't count" zeitgeist.

Keep in mind, this viewpoint comes from an ANA National Volunteer, and collector with 55 years experience.

 

I've have quite a few dealings with the staff and never got that attitude. And I'm not in their "dealer network," I'm just a collector who submits now and then.

Perhaps it was your approach?

 

They could discover the cure for cancer and Kurt would still despise them because they don't wear suits and they're located on the West Coast. Kurt is very proud of being a self described East Coast elitist.

 

Why yes, yes I am. How perceptive of you! I hope you notice, however, whenever I take potshots at PCGS staff attitudes, those posts invariably generate likes. It can't be just me.

By the way, I also DO find the PCGS slab itself NOT very attractive. Coming from old ANACS soapbar land as I do, the NGC offers me a similar look. The recent uptick in what are called "mechanical errors" in BOTH companies does distress me, however. I also spent four years in a "no errors are permitted" field - county election administration.

 

Works for the PA House. Pot meet kettle.

 

Given the continued upward gradeflation of PCGS lately, that coin will almost certainly eventually end up in at least a PCGS-66 holder, if not 66+ or 67.

Rich people crossing over coins between services doesn't mean anything with regard to the quality of the grading. Heck, nor does poorer people crossing over coins.

I knew before opening this post you'd have a reply (or 5) here proselytizing the PCGS product.

 

Every company in the world has people that dislike them some have more legitimate reasons than others. Staff attitudes are usually a reflection of how they are approached or what is being asked, not every customer is reasonable or polite. The bad apples have been gone for a long time.

To me the PCGS slab is the most attractive. I like the clear look of the slab itself, the clarity of the plastic is the best and being water/scratch resistant is an added bonus.

The NGC slabs I have two main complaints about, the first being the white finger prongs that really get in the way on small coins. I know it's not really realistic for the fingers to be a clear color so that won't be changing. The other is that they aren't very scratch resistant. I would like their slabs more than I currently do if they made the scratch resistant version standard issue instead of upcharging for it. The completely flat surface and type of plastic makes it a lot harder to get scratches off the face of their slabs.

The old ANACS soapbars just don't do anything for me. I know a lot of people love them, I think all ANACS slabs are pretty ugly though

You clearly have no idea what you're talking about when it comes to both how PCGS has been grading and the Eliasberg trade dollar.

 

I doubt Kurt went up to them and caused a scene or started berating them. Other than that, there's no reason for staff to not be the most pleasant people to speak to as they are representing the company.

Big business, small business, it doesn't matter. If I am interacting with them at all and they leave a sour impression on me, I stop working with that company because they obviously don't care if I am a customer or not.

 

Agree. I was trying to be nice.

 

“Cult” is a more apt description than any other I can summon up right now.

 

There are dozens if not hundreds of examples posted on this forum and others detailing the slow and steady upward grade-creep over time at PCGS. It is extremely common for PCGS to cross a coin at a 1/2 point or 1 point grade below the NGC grade, and then for that coin to eventually end up back in a PCGS slab at exactly the same grade NGC originally assigned, or even higher.

How about the recent CoinFacts debacle - you know, where they removed old CoinFacts coin photos. It is largely surmised this action was taken so that the public couldn't see how the same coin may have been photographed and regraded a dozen times, eventually climbing up to 2-3 points in grade over time as well.

PCGS stock has tanked more than 50% in the past year. It's funny that you imply there are so many good things happening at PCGS right now. I think they are at one of their all-time lows in the past 30 years with regard to customer satisfaction and market-image/perception.

I still contend you almost certainly must be a PCGS employee or paid defender to troll these boards. I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but literally any post here even mentioning PCGS' issues gets a defensive canned reply from you. It's humorous in a way, but also exhausting and so-very-transparent.

 

That's not quite fair, even though I like to slam @baseball21 from time to time. After all, even the Yankees have fans that aren't paid, and look how obnoxious THEY are.

 

It's called hyperbole. The essence is true, the implication is snarky.

Maybe I should include more emojis. I know old guys like you love those?

 

Glad to know that you supposedly know more about the Eliasberg trade dollar than TDN does.....

You might want to try learning and researching for once. It's been known for a long time that coin would cross as a 65+

A lot of people didn't like the pictures of their coins being displayed for all to see. This is a hobby full of people who think only gold and silver is money, that credit cards are evil, that social media and the internet is the devil, that have PMs buried around their property ect ect. Forums are a MINUSCULE fraction of the hobby.

Doesn't matter whether or not those positions are reasonable all that matters is that those positions do exist in the hobby and at a very disproportionate rate to society. Just because people on a forum liked it doesn't mean other customers weren't complaining offline. Duplicate photos could be removed by software in a matter of minutes that's a easy fix no matter your feelings.

NGC doesn't share their pictures either and makes it even harder to look up their certs but no ones crying about that. I'm glad they took them down.

Happened when the dividend was cut in half and no one was the least bit surprised by it. A lot of big money was using the stock for it's very high dividend before and a lot of that money moved to companies with more upside when it was reduced. It's actually gone back up a good percentage since Brett and the new crew took over.

Just more nonsense feelings as usual.

 

Nice straw-man argument there...almost no-one on the PCGS forums was happy about the CoinFacts images going away. The leadership claimed it was a privacy issue, but that is total bunk. They had to hide the photo evidence of their incompetence in assigning consistent grades.



...and, by the way, the abbreviation is etc, not ect.

 

Your feelings aren't facts or would you like to keep lecturing about the Trade dollar some more?

Forums are a minuscule percentage of collectors and the collecting community. Some forums have some big names on them, that's about it. Even on the forums you get many different attitudes when you cross over to their bullion sections.

As always you are entitled to tell us how you feel, but as always please stop trying to present your feelings as facts

 

Whuuuuuut? EVERY NGC coin is now photographed and put online.

 

I think he means "glamour shot" equivalents to CoinFacts. Not just the slab shots that NGC does (and has done for much longer than PCGS ever did pics).

 

Only if you know the cert lookup for the individual coin do you get to see the picture. You can still see every PCGS picture if you know the cert number. What NGC does not do and PCGS stopped doing is giving a view all pictures button where you can see all the pictures for that coin date/MM/variety.