NGC membership is free if you're an ANA member. And you never have to renew your NGC membership. Ever. I let my ANA membership lapse for over 2 years and kept sending coins to NGC. So NGC is essentially free to join.
Memebership costs nothing for either. You save money with the pcgs membership using the vouchers for regular secure service and ngc gives you a credit for it. If pcgs would let me I would renew my membership every submission
Heck, all the more reason for, 'if you want it graded, buy it graded'........ I love my 'graded's' and I love my 'raws', and never the twain shall meet.
Sometimes one can buy coins cheap enough..that even spending money on getting them graded..you still are in cheaper than buying them graded.
And how did that work out for you last time, Tim? You're right in that it is possible, and if you've genuinely advanced in your grading abilities, that's wonderful, but if you haven't....
Not really anything to do with how good, just more or less luck. It very rarely happens, unless you sneak up on a rare variety or error, or there is a tiny crowd.
I make out getting my own raw coins graded because of a different factor - proven again at the Brian Silliman course last week at Orlando. My grading standards are tougher than either PCGS or NGC. Running through several hundred coins from ANA's grading sets during that course, my grade was under the official grade by about 8:1, taking out the ones on which I matched them. Yes, roughly just under 90% of the time, if my grade didn't match the TPG, my grade was lower. That's why when I get a shipment back from NGC, it's usually like Christmas Day. Problem is, my declared values are too low.