if you are members of pcgs, perhaps you can organize enough members to request a change . maybe the first grader who sees the coin can make the call to not certify it rather than to go thru a different procedure. they could charge a flat fee on refused coins. if it could be cost efficient as well as make the customers happier..maybe they would make a policy change. grading itself is an art form but at least we can compensate on our end by assigning our own dollar amount to the coin in relationship to its certified grade (i.e;...it may say ms65 on the case, but its worth ms63 prices to me...or vice versa!!)..steve
I would not have a problem with a tpg charging full price if full service was rendered as well. I think it very reasonable to request that one should receive what is paid for. I believe that anything submitted should end up in a slab, with the appropriate problem(s) if any, noted on the label. Let the tpg(s) create a different style/color of holder if need be to distinguish problem vs. problem free coins, but at least the submittor will have some evidence that the item is genuine or not, and any future purchaser may consider the impact of any noted problems when determining the value of the piece. I think this would benefit the hobby as counterfeits would also be slabbed. While fakes may be broken out for fraudulent purposes, any that remained in those slabs would no longer be passed off as genuine or possibly genuine, thus helping to clean up the hobby a bit. That could also prevent the submittor selling the body bagged coin as raw, and then having a series of subsequent owners repeatedly submitting the problem coin again, only to receive another body bag (or maybe not). I believe that happens now with some coins, and only serves to transfer money from collector's wallets to the greedy tpg's fingers. I think it would be helpful to (honest) sellers to have a tpg slab each coin and at least have the authenticity verified (or not). But since such a practice would reduce resubmissions, and hence their bottom line, I doubt anything resembling my suggestion would ever occur.
I realize that many disagree with me on this, but I have a hard time understanding, when they tell you ahead of time that problem coins will not be slabbed, why people have a problem with it. Anyway, here's why I am against the idea of problem coins being slabbed. I think we are all pretty much aware of the fact that there are a huge number of collectors out there that really don't know much about the hobby, especially when it comes to the grading companies. The evidence for this is just how many of those people pay outrageous prices for coins in slabs like SGS and all the others like them. And I am not talking about just newbies either. You would amazed at the number of collectors out there that have been collecting for 10, 20 even 30 years or more - and yet they know nothing about the TPGs. They honestly think they are all equal - that a coin graded by SGS as MS70 is worth just as much as a coin graded by PCGS or NGC as MS70. But these people aren't stupid - they just lack education and information on the subject. Now imagine if you will this scenario. Let's say that one of these collectors has been buying coins in SGS slabs, thinking all the while what a great deal he has been getting. But something comes up and he needs money, so he goes to a local coin shop or a coin show even to sell them. He very quickly finds out the mistake he's made and he is told that if he wants to buy slabbed coins - buy them slabbed by NGC or PCGS. So the collector goes home, dejected, disgusted and downright mad. Now let's assume that NGC and PCGS slab problem coins. A few months pass. Now the collector feels that he has been educated, that he knows better than to buy coins in SGS slabs - only to buy them in NGC or PCGS slabs. So he goes to a coin show or he starts cruising eBay looking for coins to buy. He won't make that mistake again. So here we have our collector looking to buy coins. He sees a bunch that he likes, they seem to be bargains, and they are all slabbed by NGC & PCGS. So he quickly grabs them all up and goes home quite satisfied. Some more time passes, and our collector, seeing that prices have risen thinks that he should go sell some of his coins and take the profits for more coins. So again he tries to sell them. But the dealer says, thanks but no thanks - those are problem coins. But the collector says - now wait a minute, you told me to buy coins slabbed by NGC & PCGS. These coins are slabbed by them. And the dealer says, yeah but these are problem coins - they're different. Do ya get my point ? We have all heard these stories, we've heard them right here on Coin Talk. We see them take place every single day on eBay. We see unscrupulous dealers and sellers take adavantage of the uneducated, the unknowing and watch them lose untold amounts of money. And try as we might, we can't educate them all. We can't reach them, they don't belong to a coin forum; most of them don't even know such things exist. And they go on and on throwing their money away. And we want to make it worse ? We want to give those unscrupulous sellers yet another way to take advantage of them ? And if ya want proof - take a look at ANACS, they already do it. Those slabbed problem coins are sold every day to people that don't know any better and pay way too much for them. I say no thanks. Do not slab problem coins - period.
