Excellent advice, Im glad we spoke because I was considering sending as many as fifty at a time. Your post made me realize i might be being a little hasty. Im not a dealer so theres no rush. I have a full set of morgans lacking of course the 95S and over a hundred bust halves. I would like to use the same service though for uniformity in appearance of the collectons, bad idea? Steve
Do the submission fees apply to non-ANA members apply to ANA members when sending coins to NGC? I saw that members can "submit U.S. and world coins directly to NGC for grading." I'm curious as to whether or not joining ANA would save any money if I decide to send coins to NGC to be graded. Does ANA membership just mean that you don't have to be a member of NGC to submit coins?
No it's not a bad idea at all. Maybe you should try one of the ANACS specials which end on June 30th. It applies to US coins only. You don't have to send your Morgans or Busties at this time. Just send some stray coins that are not in any set. That way you will not be committing to any one service. Of course you could crack them out if you didn't like ANACS. I am not thrilled with the yellow label but I am getting used to it. Anyway here are the special prices: 10 coins economy service $120 10 coins 15 day service $160 5 coins 5 day service $110 Promotion code: CW [for coin world] or NN [for numismatic news] Now just a comment, I sent 6 coins in for the economy service. They say there is a 31 day turnaround time. I got the coins back in about 16 days and that includes Memorial Day. So to me it really is to no advantage to use the 15 day service. Now my next batch I got the 5 coins for 5 days service. You can monitor what's happening on the website. I gave the coins to the rep at the coin show June 13th. The website says expected shipping date is June 22nd. So that's MORE than a 5 day turnaround. Next time, if I do submit again, I will not pay for the 5 day service.
I think for NGC it's the same fee regardless. For ANA it costs me $46 a year. To submit you need to download a hard copy and mail it in snail mail. They want to use your credit card and have to approve you as a ANA associate. Then they mail back your membership number. Then you submit the coins using your new number. I am going to do it. But I think it's a slow dragged out process.
Steve, Before you decide which TPGS to use for submitting your bust halves, it might be a good idea to ask some of the veteran collectors of this series which service is best for attributing them. Chris
Whether it's a good idea or a bad idea depends on you and how much you know about coins. Consider this - 80% or more of all raw coins are problem coins. What that means is that out of that 50 that you send in at a time, probably 40 of them, and maybe more, will be placed in details holder. That said, if the coin is not a scarcity or a key, then it is not worth the grading fee to even submit it. So, do you know enough about coins to be able to judge if your coins are problem coins or not ? Probably 90% of collectors will say they are. But when push comes to shove, 90% of that 90% are proven wrong.
My dealer charges me a flat $25 to submit. He just sends it along with his monthly shipment. I love it, no hassle, no shipping worry!
Thank you Everyone, I consider myself a pretty good grader. I know they all wont come back what I think they are. 80% back in a slab that says details would fold me up. I was only going to send in the morgans, but reality dictates my bust halves will have to be done as well. And subjective grading of them and getting that done at the right service would be crucial. I have spent the better part of the last 20 years studying the busts halves and am comfortable Im 90% right about my Overton attributions. But I would definitely want the chosen TPG to be up to speed on them. I cant get that 80% details rating out of my head.
Thanks for the information everybody, I was thinking about sending some coins in for grading and have a good base knowledge now from your information.
When I say 90% right about bust halve attribution I mean identification of the dies used. In my short time here at CT I can see that the grading of bust halves is very intense. Learned a lot from that thread. Steve
