I received an email from a viewer of the forum asking when to use a lower tier grading service. Here is the rule that I recommend and use. When buying a coin: Unless you are very good at grading coins, never, ever, buy a coin in a low tier holder. Your odds of being burnt are 85% or better. The only low tier service that I use is PCI. This case is very strict and limited. When at a show, if buying or selling a raw key date coin, or a heavily counterfeited coin, I will use PCI for authentication purposes only. With a two hour turn around time, the transaction can be taken care of quickly. The buy/sell price does not change after the coin is graded reguardless of the grade assigned by PCI. Again, using PCI is only considered when time is a factor. Routinely I will buy coins housed in other holders as I am confident in my grading skills. After the purchase, all of these coins are removed and reholdered by either PCGS or NGC. Anacs is used if a variety is in question.
One service seems to be always left out... I think you're overlooking the new kid on the block...ICG. They are FAR from a low-tier service. Unfortunately, I've found out the hard way, they are very hard line when it comes to grading, maybe a little too hard. From everything I've seen they appear to be very conservative graders at a minimum and very accurate at a maximum. I've heard more than one dealer bad mouth them, but it was more along the lines of that they couldn't sell the slab for what wholesale said it should be worth. I think there's a bit of ignorance out there in the collecting field when it comes to grading services. Many would say that PCGS is a bit too lenient. I happen to live in the Denver area and I can walk right into ICG's offices (and I have). I met and spoke with J.P. Martin. He's a very personable and very intelligent gentlemen. We talked about how hard it is to tell a proof from a business strike when it comes to the 1884 or 1885 3-cent nickels. Basically, he said you really can't even trust a business strike in those so-called upper tier services. By the way, I must say, I'm very satisfied with circulated type coins that are graded by ANACS. They tend to be fairly conservative on those coins whereas PCI is a bit more lenient. SEGS is an interesting player. They don't get a lot of respect, however in a comparison study done by Coin World, on average, they undergraded everything given to them. Maybe that was just a fluke. Anyways, I think it will only be a matter of time before ICG receives the respect it deserves. Many of us (including several dealers I've spoken with) deem ICG as potentially the highest tier. Take a look at J.P. Martin's video on grading mint state coins. It's eye opening and teaches you just how strict they're grading guidelines are.
Isn't ICG concidered one of the BIG FOUR? If so, then ND purposely didn't mention them because they are not considered "low tier". They are already recognized as a better quality grading service.
IGC is certainly a top four grading company. I consider them top 3. I have bought many ICG coins. I have not used them as a grading service yet, because the majority of the coins that I buy and sell are bought by customers competing in the registry sets. This limits my options to NGC and PCGS. The only reason that I did not mention IGC in my previous statement is because they do not fall into the low tier service. I believe that IGC is leading the edge of grading with their technology. All will follow suit at some point.
I don't think anyone was calling ICG "low tier." It's just that crackouts would go to PCGS and NGC presumably. ICG overgrades a lot of high-grade moderns in my opinion. But for other coins they are as good as, and maybe a little better than, PCGS and NGC. The marketplace doesn't recognize it in terms of sale price, so it can be an opportunity. The same can be true for the old green label PCI slabs, particularly those with 10 digit serial numbers on the back. These are the first generation PCI slabs, and at that time they were pretty close to the "majors" in terms of strict grading. It's not as much of a secret as it used to be, but those old PCI slabs can bring you great bargains because the new gold-label PCI slabs are usually considerably overgraded and many buyers throw out the baby with the bathwater.
I don't know if that's supposed to give a good metal image or a bad one, but I think I'm leaning towards...bad.
I'm like Ernst Blofeld, but instead of a white cat, it's gotta be a pile of silver... "So Mr Bond..."
It's not bad RePeat - it's just that Sylvester is a little ...... - welllllll - he's British. There that explains it And Sylvester - we all know what happened to Blofeld in the end
I know. I was just giving the guy a hard time Sylvester, is that you posting a lot over on coinpeople.com? If it is you, then who's the girl in your avator? Edit: The reason I ask is because I thought it was a picture of yourself, but then GDJMSP referred to you as a "he".
I met ND at the Palm Beach Show in FL and he made a good point on PCI when it comes to authenticating ONLY. If you are at a show and need it done fast...and they will back it up, PCI makes sense.
Yep that's me on coinpeople, i live there practically. Yes i'm most definately a he... although the avatar does throw people. As for the avatar well that's Mandy Moore, a singer and an actress. Arguably not too good at either (well her singing's not my cup of tea at all), but she's pretty and that'll do for me!
