I was curious to know the turnaround times that other CT members have had with recent coin submissions to PCGS. I sent in a group of coins to PCGS using the economy level back in March and it's finally in the QA/verification stage. The PCGS web site gives an estimate of 30 working days for economy submissions but right now my submission is at 56 working days. Is this on par with what others are experiencing now?
One important thing no one ever mentions...how many coins are involved. The most important attribute of a TPGS (accuracy of course) is SPEED OF TURNAROUND! In view of this, I have a confession. At every TPGS I worked at EXCEPT ONE, I always put the small orders first. A no brainer. That way, rather than please one large submitter whose box of hundreds of foreign or low grade U.S. coins that took hours, I could crank out and please 20 others with unbelievable service. We often held finished coins for many days before shipping so they still went out faster than the other services yet did not cut into the higher priced (faster service) tiers. So, I'd like to see folks report the number of coins in their orders that take several months!
I've generally had pretty good turnarounds with my PCGS submissions -- One outlier is the submission from 3/13/20 which they didn't ship back until 7/8/20. They'd accidentally misattributed one of the coins, had to backtrack, etc.
My last experience was an economy order that was delivered on 11/19/20; it showed up as "received" on 12/2/20; and it shipped out on 1/5/21. Currently I'm experiencing a fairly slow process at NGC (delivered 4/30 and still in process...took about 3 weeks just to be recognized as received). It seems both major services are still slower than usual although your wait is quite long even by these standards.
One important thing no one ever mentions...how many coins are involved. The most important attribute of a TPGS (accuracy of course) is SPEED OF TURNAROUND! In view of this, I have a confession. At every TPGS I worked at EXCEPT ONE, I always put the small orders first. A no brainer. That way, rather than please one large submitter whose box of hundreds of foreign or low grade U.S. coins that took hours, I could crank out and please 20 others with unbelievable service. We often held finished coins for many days before shipping so they still went out faster than the other services yet did not cut into the higher priced (faster service) tiers. So, I'd like to see folks report the number of coins in their orders that take several months!
PCGS acknowledged receipt of my Regular Tier order on 5/5/21 and tracking shows it was accepted at the Newport Beach PO on 6/2/21. A five coin order. NGC received my Standard Tier order on 5/10/21 so apparently they will start working on it next week.
I submitted 17 coins with this order. I contacted them several weeks ago and I was told that they would try to bump up the priority. The fact that the status indicates that it's in the finalization stage I expect things to be wrapped up soon. My previous order with 20 coins was done using the regular tier instead of economy and was completed in about a month. I can understand that estimated turnaround times are just that. Since I paid for the imaging service as well I expected that to add more time. I'm not really complaining but more curious about others experiences.
Well, here is the deal that you all must face. I got this fact long ago from the "horse" when I suggested that the little collector was very important to the bottom line. THEY ARE NOT. A single major dealer can cover the profit over the year from 50% plus of all the little guys. So who do you think is going to get the best service? PCGS and NGC graders should count themselves lucky that their prices scare away most of the non-numismatists having their "pocket change" graded. That would slow their service down even more. PS If I owned a big TPGS, my employees would work in two shifts - virtually around the clock ANYTIME our service went above 12 working days. Fat chance that will happen but one of those services could cripple the other if that were done.
It's ironic that I got notification a few hours after posting this thread that the grades were finalized. Go figure
I made my first submission to PCGS through a friend/dealer of a friend/dealer on April 13. In follow up, it appears that it was submitted to PCGS within a week. The FOF is a bulk submitter and sends out a shipments several days a week. If any coin is going to take a while, it will be this one. 1. Requested Variety Plus Service 2. Requested Trueview 3. Requested Reverse Up Possible consultation required on R7 variety. Possible delay imaging a details grade copper. Nothing back as of 6/3.
It makes one wonder where it's at when delivered dates and received dates are so different. It reminds me of CC companies that find a way to receive payments the day after penalties are charged, even when mailed two weeks before due.
My last submission to NGC was only one coin, but even so it went through within the 10 day estimate. Problem was they categorized it wrong - missed the mintmark, which was critical..... However, with a little pushing from me by telephone they prioritized the correction which only required a new slab with the correct description - and shipped it overnight both ways. So in the end I was satisfied that they corrected their error honorably and quickly. However until I called to follow up they were putting it back in line to make the correction and it was scheduled to take 3 weeks! Sometimes calling helps. NGC does have a customer service wing that can help if there's a legitimate issue.
There was a time when that was certainly true, but these days there are sooooo many little collector submitter that it is significant revenue. Just from the membership alone not even counting submissions PCGS has over 20k collector memberships. Things change over time PCGS and NGC could obviously both survive off of just dealer submissions, but it would hurt a lot if they lost all the collector submitters with what that has grown into PCGS routinely works after hours and on saturdays. Never had grades pop on a sunday before but have on Saturdays, and way after closing including things getting shipped.
My turnaround has been 6-7 weeks from PCGS. From NGC, they are 2 1/2 hours away, so I deliver them, and it is much shorter.
ps What I'm hoping for: 1796____________________1C _______PCGS Genuine________ Environmental Damage-VF Detail ___S-NC-2 Reverse of 1795____ ________Single Leaves________ But a market grade drop to the details grade or damage or corrosion are also possibilities from condition issues probably caused by being buried. est sent out 4/20 est delivered 4/27 est received 5/11 est review 6 weeks + 1 week Variety Plus + 1 week True View 7/11 est mail to FOF 1 Week 7/18 est call from F 1 Week 7/25 Does this seem about right?