ICG And HSN'S Mike Mezack Part Ways? "There are 3 Major Grading Services"

Apparently ICG graded coins no longer receive HSN-Coin Collector Host Mike Mezack's Seal of Approval as a 3rd party grading service based upon comments he made to co-host, about a half hour ago when selling ANACS SP70 Burnished American Silver Eagles.

Mike: "...ANACS, PCGS, and NGC are the 3 Grading Companies"
Co-Host: I thought there were Four?
Mike (Looking Really and Sounding Uncomfortable!): "Well there is an ICG coin, but for now you should focus on NGC, PCGS, and ANACS. They are the three major grading services."

So why the break-up I wonder? Mike has been offering ICG graded coins along with predominantly ANACS, and occasional NGC & PCGS graded coins. And then it occurred to me given Mike just dissed ICG to his devoted watchers. Are there any ICG graded Eagles on the HSN website? Sure enough, I found one. A 2015 Philadelphia Minted Eagle in a MS69 for $379.95. Wonder how those buyers of this coin feel now about that ICG slabbed coin they purchased? Hopefully they are still within those 30 days to return! So again, why the recent shunning of ICG by Mike Mezack? Any thoughts?

Till Next Time!

Jeff

 

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Wonder if anyone has @Insider info??

 

If one did, it seems like it might be a bit of a "career-limiting move" to talk about it here...

 

Who cares his show isn't real anyway!

 

That show is a waste of time.

 

Unless Mezack ran one of his "snake oil" scams on ICG !?!?! Maybe they would blast him, like the scum of the earth, granny violator that he is

 

I noticed Mikey doing that tonight. He directly contradicted the co-host of the show rather curtly when she mentioned ICG as one of four major graders. Very interesting, for sure.

 

Yes, and thanks for the comment. Something happened to that relationship. HSN I'm guessing sold their fair share of ICG slabbed coins.

 

Nobody views ICG as a legitimate grading service.

 

Mikey did until recently and sold their graded coins to his minions.

By the way, gang, ever noticed how all of the HSN hosts take calls from buyers — except on “Coin Collector?”

 

ICG definitely one of the 4 major grading companies for sure. I use them for slabbing counterfeits. Would i send rare coins to them? No.

1. Mike is a good marketing master
2. He has every right to talk up coins to try and sell them
3. I would never, ever buy anything he sells

 

Nope, I have never found ICG as a reputable slabber, and to be honest I don't look at many either.

 

Completely false. It’s one thing if you just want to stick to PCGS and NGC, but if you think ANACS is fine ICG is every bit as good as them and many people consider them to be better.

 

I had a nice 1815 bust quarter in F 15 and never had a problem when I sold it. That being said, I think most people who sell a lot of coins would agree PCGS and NGC are the most respected.

 

Not many since ANACS got sued and lost for undercutting their contract with inside information or whatever it was

 

First of all, I do consider ICG to be a top 4 TPG.

I have noticed quite an increase in high graded Morgans in their slabs lately (graded from 66-68). Many look to be 1-2 points too high. And quite a few are coming from eBay seller Centsles (the person who is behind the NNC self slabs). Is that potentially where ICG has acquired most of its business after losing HSN?

Also, ICG has often been decent at grading classic coins (outside of what I have seen the past few years). It’s their modern 70 graded coins that usually weren’t respected (and some 1950s proofs with high grades, like PR 69/70 Franklins, Washington’s, Lincoln’s, etc).

 

They have taken a lot of the economy level business with their better pricing and the first tier price increases and I can't publicly type what I think about that other TPG. Really a MS 68 Morgan is going to be suspect in anything but a PCGS slab at this point preferably with a CAC. No offense to Insider but as much as I like them for lower value things I wouldn't want a top of the market coin there but that isn't exclusive to them anyway.

All that said, one thing that people do forget about he who shall not be named is that he can grade and has proved it before so if he's using that to send elsewhere I'd expect decent results

 

I have also heard that eBay seller can grade. That is why I think he’s using ICG. He knows a Morgan is a 65-66, but ICG will give it a 67. Even though he won’t see top tpg money, the ICG 67 will still bring more than a PCGS or NGC 65-66.

 

I think it's just price. He made a business off of his service, probably doesn't see a need to pay PCGS prices. I wouldn't use them at the Morgan 68 level but I would for a lot of other lower levels. That said I don't think he's getting sweetheart grades, I do think those happen but not at ICG or the first tier TPGs.

 

Hey, thanks for the tag!

I grade and authenticate coins for ICG. Wish I could add something to the OP's question but to be honest, I didn't even know any of our coins were sold on TV except back when the Presidential dollars came out each year.

As for buying coins from ANY TV shopping networks, either raw or slabbed by ANY TPGS - it's mainly done by ignorant (that word means "Uninformed" in case some ignorant member is reading this reply) folks or those without access to the Internet.

Finally, I should not expect to read ignorant statements from CT "regulars" here but apparently I expected too much.

There are four major grading services. Anyone who says different is either IGNORANT! or has an "agenda." NGC & PCGS are considered the top two services and ICG & ANACS are the second tier. There are reasons for this based on marketing, perceived value, and trade practices to eliminate fair competition. Ignorant folks have no clue what goes on "behind the scenes" to keep things as they are. The actual folks who work at each of these places could be switched around (it has happened many times) with no noticeable change to the product they send out.

Each service makes grading and authentication errors. Therefore, we can find counterfeits and over graded coins in each slab. Fortunately for ICG and ANACS, the other services have more errors out there due to the volume of coins they slab.

Each of us can use whichever TPGS we like as each service has pluses and minuses. I'm not going to list them.

I'll leave you all with an example of IGNORANCE: "Nobody views ICG as a legitimate grading service." An educated person who is qualified to have an informed opinion would not use "absolutes" such as "everyone," "all," and "nobody" when .