Hello fellow coin peeps I have several coins I'd like to send in to a TPG to have officially graded but I am not sure which one to use. Since my collecting tastes are primarily US coins, with a mix of copper, nickel, silver and hopefully someday, gold, is there a difference if I send it to ANACS or NGC or PCGS, to include resale value should I ever part with any of them? Thanks
PCGS is the most respected followed by NGC. They will, however, "body bag" cleaned coins. If you're sure they are NOT cleaned I'd choose one of those. If it may have been cleaned I'd go with ANACS. They'll net grade it. If you want all MS70s go with SGS. Just kidding. Please don't even CONSIDER SGS! Honestly, I own VERY few slabbed coins. Eventually I will slab though in the event that something happens to me it will be easier for my wife to get a fair price. PCGS will get most of them.
As clembo indicated, it depends on what you're holding. For lower-end coins, TPG price is an issue. PCGS is the most expensive and slower. They are also less consistent (in my personal experience). If you have doubts about possible "problem" coins (i.e. cleaned, altered surfaces, etc), consider NCS / NGC. They're brother companies. One sends them to NCS, and if they're OK, they shunt them over to NGC for full-fledged "problem free" slab. If there's a problem, it still winds up slabbed (NCS) with a details grade. That's a lot better than a body bag.
I recommend that i grade your coins for only $5 each lol j/k follow AJ's advice and post pics here if you want us to help you
DGS has a visual population report. Meaning you can go online and look at your coin, and others like it. They are very new, and I don't really reccomend them, but they have good prices, and are run by respectable numismatists. You may want to consider them. I have no way to prove it, but I see them becoming a major player in the TPG world, and at the very least taking the place of ANACS. One thing that will help them with this is they will get a ton of exposure due to the population report and the fact they are being sold at David Lawrence Rare Coins. Their biggest downfall will be that they do not offer the same garuntee on copper coins that they do on the rest, but this has been an issue for all TPG's. They know they take a gamble on copper. You have to be careful with copper, and I have seen many a MS 60 somethings with signs of oxidation.
There are many drawbacks to PCGS: 1. They will body-bag a coin for many reasons - damage, cleaning, etc... (mentioned before). 2. You have to be a member to submit directly to them and their Platinum Membership ($199.00) seems to be the best bet, with 8 free submissions, which makes each coin cost $25.00 each (not including the online subscription to their Population Report & a few other benefits). Also, if you go with the Platinum Membership, you have to submit all 8 coins at the same time and not one or more at a time. However, once you've used up your free submissions for that year, you can send in one at a time if you want. 3. Turnaround is getting longer and longer so by the time you decide to go with them, it may take up to 60 to 90 days to get your coins back, although it seems that all TPG's are getting slower in turnaround. 4. The more valuable your coin is, the more it can cost you to have it graded, which I think is a direct conflict of interest on PCGS's part. What I mean by that is PCGS can make more money for their services if your coin is worth over a certain amount, so they could be swayed to give your coin a higher grade in order to receive more money for their services and if that ever becomes an issue, PCGS slabbed coins will plummet in value. With the other TPG's you don't have to become a member and you can submit one coin at a time, if you want. However, due to shipping costs, it's always best to submit several at a time. Also, ANACS & NCS will not body-bag a cleaned or damaged coin, so they are the ones I would send my coins to since many of my coins have problems and the ones that don't, they'll slab too so they will service all of my coins, PCGS won't. Plus, they are cheaper and since I hate spending money on anything but coins, I am always looking to save money anywhere I can so I will have more money to spend on coins. Ribbit
Not too bad of a deal, but you can get population info for signing up at heritage for FREE. Of course the PCGS pop report is much more convieniant and more up to date. At Heritage you have to search for individual coins they have for sale, or that have sold, and then look at the details. The way I see it is the TPGs are a needed but beneficial evil, and if you are going to to do it, you cannot go wrong with the best. You can also think of it as a very limited form of insurance concerning the grade of your coin. $25 bucks a coin can be a good deal if the coins you are having graded are worth it. If your coins are under $100 in value per coin it is kind of a wash unless you are able to submit them en masse with a large group. Ask your local dealer... they sometimes facilitate these kind of things for their customers or know someone else who does. Then you can get a much better deal. When I do this I typically pay less than $10/ coin.
Your best bet after subtracting the costs of the process and the headache of not getting the grades you thought could be as simple as ryanbrooks.com.
Unless the grading costs are less than 10% of what you think the coins are worth, that's probably best.
I would suggest you have your coins viewed by a professional who would make a recommendation on which TPG would best suit your coins and your intentions.
p.s. alternatively, if you have the ability to photograph you coins, post them here and solicit opinions on the topic. There are some very sharp coin collectors on this forum all to happy to help.
If the coins are relatively low in value (less than 300 dollars) I would recommend ICG. They will only body bag coins with PVC, the cost is low, the turnaround is quick, and for coins that tend to be low value, typically the spread between an ICG vs. NGC or PCGS coin does not justify the increased submission cost. If the coins are higher in value, I would recommend PCGS or NGC, and I would definitely recommend getting a professional opinion first.
I must disagree with this statement. If you submit a coin that is say 3,000 dollars in value in ms-65, and it is worth 5,000 dollars in 66. You believe the coin is a ms-65, but PCGS calls it a 66. Let's also say you submitted this via regular service, they are not going to upcharge the customer. In the year I spent there I only saw a few instances where they charged the customer more, and that was due to blatant abuse on the customer's part. (IE a dealer submits a 300,000 dollar coin via economy service). The reason PCGS has a tier system with a maximum value is partly because of the increased turnaround time, also they must pay to have the coin insured while on the premises, and also by slabbing a coin at a grade that they guarantee, they always run a risk that the coin has a problem that they missed, or the coin may have been not neutralized properly after a customer dipped it, and later it will turn in the holder, or perhaps they just accidentally overgraded, and they may end up having to purchase the coin later on. (sorry about the run on) Also, it's hard to grade a coin a higher grade when you know that you are essentially generating wealth, and in some instances it can be 10's of thousands of dollars.
spot on. I literally have a 100+ coins out there siting in PCGS/NGC vaults for over 2 months now cant wait to get them back.
