Has anyone heard of the grading company called ANI? How good are they? I recently ended up with several of them I bought in a coin lot. The grades seemed realistic and the coins actually were darn close. What are your opinions?
Pam, please post your different topic in a new thread. This thread is about "keeping track of coins'. I wouldn't want someone hyjacking my thread and moving off topic. Thanks
You might want to post photos of them in another thread and maybe we could give our guess of the grade. From what I've heard and seen they are just as bad as any other off brand slabbing company. Speedy
No guarantees of any kind, except that the coins submitted will be graded! And the only mention of standards is that they grade by consensus. Pardon me, but two poor opinions aren't as good as one good opinion IMHO.
I don't understand why so many companies seem to "choose" to be second tier TPGs. They have to do everything that a top tier company does. The only hurdle they can't seem to get over is to just properly and consistently grade the coins. It doesn't make any sense that there isn't more competition for the top spot.
I've got a coin or two graded by ANI and there's one ebay seller I know who sells a good bit of their coins. Both coins I have seemed to be close to the actual grade. I guess any new company that grades coins will have to prove themselves for a while and if they mess up very many times, then they'll probably end up real quickly with the NTC's of the world. I wish there would be several other grading companies what could compete with NGC and PCGS and maybe ANACS and ICG. As long as PCI, SEGS, and some of the others have been around it looks like they could get a better batting average for grading coins accurately. Personally, I like slabbed coins. They protect the coin and at least have someone's opinion of the grade of a coin so one can compare it to others to learn the differences that the grading companies have for different grade coins.
To my thinking the reason is rather simple actually - money. All of these grading companies have seen with their own eyes a business model that works - place a coin in a plastic holder, call it whatever grade you like and somebody will buy it. And if you charge less than the big boys, then those who think they are being wise by saving a buck will submit the coins and even more money will roll into your coffers. Why bother to spend the money for knowledgeable staff and advertising - a professional grader is paid anywhere from $100,000 to over $250,000 per year. And advertising aint exactly cheap either. Then you need a place of business, office equipment, office staff, sonic sealing machines etc. Add all that up and it comes to quite a sizable hunk of cash. These folks find it a lot easier and cheaper to set up a table in the garage or basement, buy generic coin holders, slap a label on them and presto - they are a grading company.
Where does someone get certified as a "professional grader" and what criteria constitute the award of the title? Thanks B
To the best of my knowledge there is no such thing as a certification program. As for what criteria are used to determine whether or not one is a professional grader - it is the judgement of their peers and other knowledgeable people in the industry. In other words - you have to earn your reputation through your actions and accomplishments over a period of years. To my way of thinking that is much harder to do than taking classes and obtaining some diploma.
Nowhere... nothing... and there's no iron standard that all companies use to determine grade (though even if there was there would still be differences of opinion about what grade any given coin is). An opinion is just that, an opinion (and it's tough to say that one's opinion is wrong and that another is right). I compare it to education (as that's my field) and public vs. private schools. Does a private school give your child a better education? What constitutes a "better education?" Is it a better fine arts program? What is a "better fine arts program?" Is it sports? If a public school added soccer, would it be better? Would it be equal? In many people's eyes, it would never be equal, no matter what. If a particular grading service grades higher than others, is it less of a grading company if it consistently grades higher? Are they wrong or grading incorrectly? Ultimately *you* are the judge, and perception seems to play the largest role in choosing a company. Note that I'm not talking about the companies which grade crappy coins as MS70 every time, even though I'm not sure they are "wrong" either. Again, it's what you judge to be correct, not what any of the "top three" or any other grading service says. You are paying for the opinion.
Here is a thread where I actually posted a picture of an ANI coin and asked everyone to guess the grade. The first pics are very big and take a while to download, so scroll down a few posts and you'll find smaller files. As you can see, it appears they really missed the boat here. I actually have this same coin submitted to PCGS as I had a freebie coming. I'll let you know what I find out.
have some. Don't know much about them. I went on googles. Found a link that says they sponsor this site
Peter - Does any TPG actually "sponsor" CoinTalk, or is the link Andrade says he found just an urban myth?
I think its google advertising themselves since the links in cointalk are placed at random by google. I do not think there any official sponsors of this site. ( But, I could be wrong)
I got bought 2 1963 Washington silver quarters graded from ANI with a grade of MS-67, for 10 dollars. Is it accurate? I really hope so, because a 1963 nms-67 quarter is listed to be worth 2000 dollars each.
