Can anyone here afford submitting to NGC?

It doesn't add value, not a cent's worth.

But I'd like to address the first part of your commnent. Based on what you said, it seems as if you think that the grading companies ruined the hobby. I'm tempted to ask why it is you think that way, but I'll go out on a limb and make a couple of assumptions.

Assumption 1 - you think the TPGs ruined the hobby because you think coins cost too much now

2 - because with the coins in the slabs you can't hold them in your hand anymore, you can no longer "touch" the history

3 - because you don't think that their opinion of a coin is any better than yours or the opinion of your dealer

4 - because now it is much, much harder to sell raw coins and get the maximium value out of them

How am I doing so far ? If these reasons are wrong or you more to add, please do. In the meantime
I'd like to talk about these reasons.

#1 - Yes, coins cost more now than they did in years past. But it doesn't have anything to do with the TPGs. Please name some things that don't cost more today than they did in years past. It's the way of the world - as time goes on prices go up.

#2 - Well I suppose that is a legitimate reason. It's not a reason that I agree with personally, but I can see where some could feel that way. And I also know that those have the need to feel the coins touching their skin are making a mistake by doing so. For having the coin touch your skin can and will be harmful to the coin. Their are oils, acids and dirt on your skin - none of those are good for the coins. And no matter how careful you are, if you handle the coins, some of that material is going to get on the coins. Even if you only touch the edges. And of course there is always the chance that you will drop it, breathe on it, sneeze on it etc etc.

If a coin is worthy of being in your collection, then that coin deserves all of the protection and care that you can give it. You owe it to the future collectors that will have temporary custody of that coin in the future - all of them.

#3 - There will be times that #3 is true. But those times are very few and far between. Very few dealers, and even fewer collectors, know a fraction as much as a professional grader, let alone 3 or more professionals combined, about determining authenticity, whether the coin has been harshly cleaned, artificially toned, has an added mint mark, tooling or other alteration etc etc. Not to mention the grade of the coin.

#4 - Number four is arguably the most significant of all the reasons. For while #4 is 100% true, #4 is a very good thing - not a bad thing.

You see, back in the days before the TPGs came into existence collectors would walk into a dealer's shop, examine the coins, pick the one they wanted and walk out happy.

For many of the old time collectors, this aspect of the hobby is what they miss. They yearn for the days when there were only a few grades. They miss the Saturday afternoons spent in the coin shop or at a show picking out additions for their collections, and being happy about it.

But there's one thing wrong with that. More often than not the grade assigned by the dealer was not accurate. What he called an MS65 was in reality no better than an MS63, or a VF instead of an XF. Or the coin was a problem coin of one kind or another. And thus the collector, knowing no better, paid way more for the coin than it was actually worth. Of course much of the time, the dealer didn't know any better either. But that didn't make it right either.

And this is what bothers a lot of the old time collectors. They don't like finding out now, years later, that the star or stars of their prized collections are problem coins. Coins that they believed for years, sometimes decades even, were genuine Gem 1909-S VDB cents - only to find out today that it has an added mint mark. Or that their prize Morgan had been whizzed. Or that their favorite Bust half has been harshly cleaned. They miss the days when things were easy, when they were happy - when ignorance was bliss.

And so, they look around and try to find somebody to blame, somebody to point their finger at and say - it's their fault ! And of course the new kid on the block is the one all the fingers point at. The fingers all point at the TPGs. Because before they came along - everybody was happy

But when it comes right down to it the TPGs have done more good for this hobby than any other single thing you can name in the entire history of the hobby. They have done more to further education about coins and coin collecting than you can even imagine. To a large degree they have done away with the day of the shyster dealer who took adavantage of the unknowing collectors on a daily basis. They have pointed out all of the counterfeits, coins with added mnint marks, coins that have been whizzed, harshly cleaned, artificially toned, tooled or otherwise a problem coin of some kind.

So no, the TPGs haven't ruined the hobby. The TPGs have done this hobby the greastest service it has ever seen - or likely will see.