Hi All Pardon another dumb question My grandma used to collect "drummer boy" quarters (Bicentennial) and last night I thought it would be nice to buy a really nice graded one for a fond memory item - I found a ton on ebay - MS64 and up - for like, 10-15$ Why would someone grade a 10$ coin and sell it for 10$? Its like giving away the grading fee. What am I missing here? Example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/1976-S-25C...70.l1313.TR1.TRC0.A0.H0.X1976+quarter+MS.TRS0 Thank you!
Couple things. People *may* have been buying those graded coins for much more back in the day (also when grading costs were less). Today, Demand may be nill, in which case the price has dropped considerably. Also, many people send coins in that are not worth their grading fee. They send coins with damage in that they think are errors, and find out their "error" quarter is only worth 25 cents, with $30 overhead on top of it.
...also, some large volume dealers sent in massive numbers of coins like these trying for MS70 coins worth big bucks, the remainder they would sell for whatever to get back the grading fees for the lot while they made the profit from the MS70s
I get THAT happening - I collect toys which also has grading companies, and people send a $80 figure in and pay 40$ grading fees to find out the figure is upgradable because of paint touchups, etc... IE: I get that human error or unseen touchups can cause this (comics especially) But these coins were obviously already nice. I guess like the next poster says, trying for the MS70
I also get people sending in coins for grading that dont financially make sense because of sentimentality, love of the graded look, etc.... Toy people do that too!
Sometimes you buy something that drops in value. You either keep it or you unload it. In some cases the value drops to being where they will never recoup the grading fee. This is where the tpg's have the advantage. They are not dependent on future value of their product.
^^^ This^^^ Think the tv coin sellers and I'm sure a lot of dealers do it too. Which there's nothing wrong with that. People who submit high volumes and that are registered at the highest level get a discount on grading fees, holders etc.. any way. And the rare high grade ones are what they're going for with bulk submission. A lot of the old special mint set (SMS) stuff which are not proof coins, can still receive cameo and ultra cameo as if they were proofs. The regular one may not be worth the grading fee. A cameo designation might make something worth $100+. Ultra cameo might bump it into 5 figures. I've noticed it isn't just the grades they were chasing. So yeah, this leads to a lot of lower quality stock that they're just looking to dump. What surprises me is even some modern stuff with nothing really to chase can be had cheaper than you can get them graded for yourself. PF70UC. About the cost of grading fees.
In 1976 the hype of a Bicentennial coin was out of this world. Now, 42 years later, reality has taken over.
I actually just bought one today for the type set. I have no doubt the hype was through the roof but hadn't been born yet to see it.
