Ugs & Ngc Grading Companies

Paul with LJR Coins

Back in previous threads I defended Uinversal Grading Service as a respectable 3rd Party Grading Company. I do not have financial interest in UGS and I am certainly not the owner or partner. As stated in the past I was looking for a competitivley priced grading service that was accurate or as accurate as possible in this very subjective hobby/business we enjoy so much.
I did suggest I would send a couple of coins that had previousley been graded by Universal for Crossover Grading by NGC. The two items are very nice pieces and as you can see, NGC actually graded the 1945 DDO Quarter up and the MS-65 Morgan came back the same grade. I am not here to stir up emotions, but defend only my business decision that UGS grades fair and is not a slap a coin in a holder company that grades up 2 or 3 that calls everything PROOF/MS 70.
I assure you that these are the coins, no switching or anything funny. I wanted to state the facts. Please check the NGC number on the 1945 DDO, as of today they had not posted the popualtion which earlier was (ZERO), this is a very scarce piece.
Thanks very much for reading this and I will let the remarks and comments come as they may.

Most Respectfully, Paul
LJR Coins

 

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Wow. Thanks for the report.

 

Well done. Thanks for the report too.

What would be nice is how long UGS is to grade accurately for a significant period of time before it can break an entry into the top tier company, for its accurate grading as well as it's pricing.

 

quite interesting

 

Valuable information as long as the crossover coins were not selected because they were the best examples of UGS grading. Selection bias often distorts the validity of tests like this. But I'm secretly rooting for UGS because more top tier TPGs are needed by the average hobbyist.

 

Good Question,
I choose those items because they were higher priced coins and at least I could possibly recoupe the double fee's. I did'nt pick through inventory for UGS grading examples and I wanted the NGC opinion on the 1945 DDO which according to their facts that's the first one they have certified. I also personally wanted to know if I had made the right choice with UGS.

Regards, Paul

 

LJR Coins - Response
I first tried UGS a couple of years ago and so far they have been very consistant. The turn around time is very good, stand behind there product, reasonably prices and really good with varieties that even I failed to spot.

 

Interesting posts. I may start looking at UGS certified coins a bit more closely. They could be the sleeper company we've all been looking for (at least me). Accurately graded coins at a very reasonable price.

Am I to understand their site correctly that grading is only $3 a coin plus shipping?

 

Really nice thread here. Thanks for doing that. Nice coins as well.

 

Thanks for sharing the info Paul, hopefully they will continue to remain consistent and keep their rates reasonable. The top tier graders can always use some real competition.

 

I still only suggest that if you are a newer collector and don't know how to grade that you only stay with the top 4----NGC/PCGS/ANACS/ICG..
While UGS may be good that really hasn't been proven IMHO----if you know how to grade you can find good coins in ANY brand slab---yes even SGS.....

Speedy

 

Problem is those SGS coins are graded MS68 and a price tag of $400 for an obviously lower coin. The numbers are what jack their prices up. People see a MS68 Morgan and flip out bidding without taking a second glance at the coin.

Every coin I've seen in a SGS holder in person was....well....wonder if Stevie Wonder worked for them a bit. UGS just might be "on the right track" unlike a lot of other places. Eventually their slab name may hold a bit of weight. Someone has to pick up what ANACS lost (IMO).

 

LJR Coins

It is $3 per coin plus the postage and insurance.

 

Hello Speedy,
it's difficult to grade from the internet for most people. As you know pictures can be questionable. I would trust UGS's grade above most of the other newcomers.

Regards, Paul

 

What is their website address. I could not find it when I goggled them. All I could find was this thread and one from eBay.

 

I have just google searched and found it under Universal Grading Service. An emal address is ugs.llc@hotmail.com

 

AS soon as UGS, ANACS, IGC, grade about a billion PF69 PF70 modern coins to be sold on cable TV shows, they will get the same respect and popularity as NGC and PCGS. Monkey see, monkey do

IMO, most people use NGC and PCGS for the same reason most folks use Windows computers. Because they are the best? What a joke! Windows is what they see thier friends use so thats what they do. No ability to personally discern quality means relying on the mindless masses to chose for you. Monkey see, monkey do.

Evidence is the hundreds of mindless twitter-like 'me too', "agree with me", "look at me", "look how horrible that is" posts on this forum.

I fall into that as easily as anyone. We are imitative animals.

 

I see that this thread is almost 4 years old.

It's very hard for new TPG's to compete with the top tier services for a decent share of the market. A perfect example is Dominion Grading Service. When David Lawrence Rare Coins took over the former PCI, it was thought that just maybe the reputation of DLRC would be sufficient to keep DGS afloat, but we now see that wasn't to be. Unfortunately, a solid reputation isn't good enough to sway the opinions of the masses who have been dealing with NGC and PCGS for decades.

I wonder how UGS is doing now. Does anyone know?

Chris

 

I did also read about the news on DGS. I'm generally thumbs down on grading companies in general and PCGS in particular. I'll have to second the opinion of Silvermonger - these TPGs especially the popular ones are working a business model to make money off the collector. These days we are being convinced to collect TPG slabs and tags and NOT COINS. Look at PCGS - what a sham for coin collecting but a great business opportunity for those of us who like trading slabs. We've seen "First Strike" , "Genuine" , "Secure Plus" and so on... And PCGS actually ultrasonically etch-cleaned the mess they made on my coins after they slabbed them for the first time. In addition they dropped and dragged one of the coins and left score marks across the devices. So be careful if you have a valuable coin and send it in for grading. Please make sure you have accurate high resolution digital images before you send them out to TPGs. In my experience PCGS was ruthless, and I can't imagine that the others won't cut corners. It is funny also how I tend to ignore my slabbed coins and look more at the unslabbed units.

 

It's unfortunate that things like that will happen from time to time, but after all, people are human and subject to making huge boners as well as little ones.

Despite that, I wonder what the hobby would be like if we didn't have any authentication services and China continued to pump out thousands of counterfeits daily.

Chris