Some customers of PCGS have been disappointed by the long waits now on guarantee submissions, 6 months and more in some cases. NGC has never taken longer than two months in my submissions for coins with problems. I saw this older revision they had on their guarantee: http://www.pcgs.com/News/Pcgs-Grading-Guarantee-Update On their statistics page they publish their current guarantee pay-outs: http://www.pcgs.com/Statistics/ "Warranty claims". WARRANTY CLAIMS Last 30 Days | 12 Months NUMBER 14 VALUE $ 123,863 Nothing on how long people had to wait. Personally I have never gotten a plug nickel on these submissions as I am just looking for the problem to be addressed or a good replacement coin.
It says in this to ask the Customer Service Representative about the turnaround times... How to Use the PCGS Guarantee If you have a coin that you feel is overgraded or counterfeit, call PCGS Customer Service and they will help you fill out the proper submission forms. For approximate turnaround times, please ask a PCGS Customer Service Representative. After PCGS examines your coin, if PCGS feels your coin has been overgraded or is counterfeit, you will be contacted by phone or email and given the current market values so you can decide which of the repayment options you wish to use. If PCGS determines that the original grade is correct, your coin will be returned to you with the original grade and you will be responsible for the regrading fee and postage charges. www.pcgs.com/guarantee.html
You haven't gotten anything out of them because they're not held to any standard. What this "guarantee" says is if they feel like paying you they'll pay you.
Not nearly as good as it used to be, there isnt anything for strike, color, corrosion or PVC/toning issues. Only seriously misgraded, fake, missed damage or repair get consideration any more with the rest sent through their fee for service restoration service. It sucks too because now there are starting to be crappy ungrable coins with PVC or incorrect designations being traded cheap dealer to dealer and sold to collectors unknowningly thinking the PCGS brand means more than it really does. Kind of like the raw unholdered days that TPGs were supposed to fix and protect customers from. I had a freshly graded trade dollar turn green with lots of PVC bloom that etched into the surface of the coin after a year or so in the SDB. I had to pay over 100$ to get a skin less and burnt coin for damaged surfaces back still in an AU58 holder knowing full well it would never ever had made it into a problem free holder if submitted raw. I blew it out on Ebay for a multi-hundred $ loss and it still wasn't worth that. Those few payouts are mostly to placate a few noisy customers or dealers CAC has the only/best guarantee left in the hobby.
That's pretty egregious on a lot of different levels. But I have had similar problems with them wanting to charge the submitter for the quick dip/regrade charge. Remedy: at least file a complaint with the CA attorney general to get your grievance on file for future consumers/customers! Lawyers are too expensive but there are other options.
David Hall publicly declared that anything overgraded by three or more points is presumed to be a mechanical error. I don't think that is what most people would consider a mechanical error (and I don't think it matched the language of the guarantee at the time of the statement either). To be honest, I think disappearing or weakening grade guarantees is a major threat to this hobby. The TPGs brought a lot of money into this hobby, and the services can take a lot out. I predict eventually it will cause a major adjustment in the market price of more expensive coins.
Now you end up paying them $25 to state that they won't honor their guarantee. They are able to do this because most claims are trivial to the cost of suing them, and collectors won't unite together and speak through their wallets. NGC alienating its consumers and pushing more to PCGS won't exactly help the matter.
Based on what folks have posted over the years on the forums, PCGS does not care if the customer is happy or not. I use them but have little faith in the guarantee.
To be fair most claims are also a matter of opinion. Yes certain things are slam dunks but saying a 40 should be downgraded to a 35/30 is often just one opinion against another. I disagree there. The most expensive coins are where TPGs build their reputations and get their press. Those are the most likely to get payouts so they can make them go away if it isn't representing their brand how they want it too
My experience with NGC is I always got a response within a month and a half, and if they were against honoring the guarantee I would get a call from Scott Heller etc. with a proper explanation of why the coin was not a problem, like a type II gold dollar certified AU50, dealers thought it was a problem coin but probably from rusted dyes. Since David Hall came down with brain cancer and had surgery the guarantees were thrown into chaos, no good company allows that to happen with no back-up plan. I filed a complaint with the CA attorney general.
I wish I could remember now what coin it was but can't right now. Anyway it was either an MS or PF70 modern commemorative that I sent to NGC because of some problem. NGC said that their conservation arm could not 'fix' the problem. I think it was only a few weeks after submission that they called and said that they had been looking for a replacement coin and were unable to find one. (NGC does not sell coins so they had been looking on the open market for one.) They promptly paid me the NGC list price for the coin. As I remember it was around $400.00. I've never submitted anything to PCGS.
This is one reason why I have never liked, trusted or wanted a coin in a plastic slab "graded by" a TPG ... grading is subjective and not necessarily spot on accurate. When it is "better" to have a slabbed coin with a CAC sticker to know you have a coin that's been "properly graded" because the TPG's grade cannot stand alone, then there is a problem. When not even the TPG is willing to stand behind its grade to the point that it agrees they "screwed up" the grade, and pay for his worthless opinion rendered, then there is your "proof" their "best guess" is not any better that your "best guess" .... I save my money and stay away from TPG. I really don't care if someone else disagrees with my grade, no coin (in or out of a plastic slab) will bring any more that the buyer and seller agree i's worth in their exchange.
Many collectors are upset that the NGC registry will no longer accept PCGS coins, who think NGC management's reasoning is bogus. A number of them have publicly griped on the NGC forums about it. A number of registry participants may defect.
Meant to post my comment here regarding the NGC v PCGS registry coins. I was unaware that NGC no longer allowed PCGS coins in their registry. I had always heard that it was the other way around. Not that I post any coins in either registry.
The change is coming in January of 2017, but the owner made a public announcement a couple of weeks ago or so. PCGS coins is existing sets are supposedly grandfathered in... at least for now.
And PCGS has had the same policy (our stuff only) for years. It's a tempest in a teapot. The few who really care will grumble and cross over to their preferred registry. After all, they are the ones paying absurd premiums for top pop. Most will just have two partial sets, one in each registry that they combine in their real-world collection and be happy. As for the "let's create an independent registry that works for real collectors?" Lots of people have tried to create independent collection sites, they rarely attract many users and never a critical mass because there is no money in it and no point.
