DGS Visual Population Report Up and Running

DGS is making their visual population report available to all. Only coins with a value of over $100 have a picture associated with them.

Here is an example of an MS-67 Morgan Dollar.....
http://www.dominiongrading.com/authentiview_lookup.cfm?digiserial=011495001

Please give opinions on grading quality of this new service......

 

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They appear to be pretty accurate, as far as the Barber coins go.

In the Bust half dollars, they seem conservative.

Also, comments about cleaning, & marks seem accurate, but at least they don't grade to market.

 

DGS -- treasurehunt

I am hoping they will become a major grading service. The visual population report is very cool. Thanks for your comments, and I'm happy that your feedback is positive.

 

The photo population report is a fabulous idea/service and I only hope that PCGS and NGC will follow suit.

That said, having looked at all the large cents graded, they seem to be fairly graded, although there weren't enough examples to make any broader comments on their consistency -- which is much more important to me and I suspect the market.

Respectfully...Mike

 

p.s. not unsurprisingly, it seems as if DGS is using the same scanning technique as DLRC -- a bit of a disappointment but better than the competing PCGS and NGC offerings or lack thereof!

 

p.p.s. reading more closely into DGS, they plan on using 1970 Photograde as their standard, which were adopted by the ANA in 1977. I imagine this will get some around here (cough, cough) very happy, but I wonder how it will play out in practice.

 

Prices

If their grading continues to hold up as they add more coins to their population report do you think that the prices will stay low?

It is very interesting to me that they have positioned themselves into a unique place in the market. Lower prices, quality grading, high qaulity coins signed by the grader, and a visual population report could elevate them to a respected status fairly quick.

If PCGS/ NGC decided to go with a FREE visual population report as DGS has how would they account for the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of coins they have already graded?

 

rhoggman, I would be interested in hearing what your relationship is to DGS. Are you the owner?

 

is it normal to have to send in like 5 coins to be graded at a time?

 

Am I the Owner?????

Are you serious???? You think I am the owner? I'm sure Figenbaum (do some research), doesn't participate in this forum.

I could be very wrong about him not participating; however, he owns DLRC. DLRC is one of the biggest internet auction houses out there. I'm sure he has plenty to do in the field of numismatics besides posting here.

I buy graded coins, but as a non-dealer I don't really submit coins for various reasons. Therefore, my interest is that I live in Virginia Beach, and I am excited that there is a cheap grading service out their that seems to be positioning themselves to be somebody who matters in the market. I do not think that John Figenbaum would tarnish his good name by offering a service on the level of a PCI, or NCS. Obviously living where they are located is a huge benefit to me. If I could get a coin graded cheaply, and quickly by a reputable TPG it would be wonderful. So yes... I want them to succeed, and I wanted other people's opinions.

So far people have positive things to say, and I think that is great.

Like I said to, me sending a coin to PCGS or NGC is too much trouble for the little man. Sending a coin to ANACS almost always garuntees a somewhat less maketable coin. If another respected TPG emerges, developes respect, and is able to offer a better service for less $ I think everyone should be excited about it.

I will be a cheerleader for DGS unless until I start hearing about overgrading, and unmarketable coins; however, at this point I would like to see DGS succeed. Maybe someday I could drive over there, drop off my coins, and then actually be a able to sell them in a DGS holder.

 

I think coins are mostly subbmitted individually when the value is already percieved to be significant enough to eat up the cost of having the coin graded.

I doubt many people will wast time submitting single coins worth less than $500 unless they recieved the coin at a great discount, or believe the coin's marketability will be elevated by a high grade which it is percieved to deserve. Normally coins are submitted in masse to get better prices. My local dealer knows a guy who submits coins to NGC. This man will in turn let many people submit with him at the same time allowing everyone to get coins graded much cheaper. This is still a hassle for me, although not a bad route to take.

For example: I am not going to submit a 1938-D Buffalo Nickel to NGC/ PCGS unless I think it is going to command an MS 68 grade which is highly unlikey; however, if I really thought this were the case I might do it for the steep price of grading. If it came back MS 68, my otherwise common Nickel would instantly be very rare (in grade), and command a huge price difference than and MS 67.

However I would be much more likely to send this off to a respected TPG if it only cost $20. The nickel I have is from my father's collection, and is nicer than any I have seen, but is is not worth grading If I have to have a subscription or member ship, plus pay a steep price for grading only to find out it is only worth around $250 or less.

For $20 I would be happy if it came back as an MS-64 in a holder that people respected as "sight unseen". Hopefully DGS can bring this to the forefront.

 

I will have to look at this more when I get home. Looks interesting to say the least and I will need to peruse several types of coins.

 

Yes it is normal to send in 5 coins at one time. Do look at the price breaks for sending in more though. You might want to collect a few more worth grading and send them all in at once for that price break. Also dont forget to insure it to the value of what you think the coin will be graded as when you ship it.

 

thanks guys

 

Looked at more of the site. I think the need to do more grading. I noticed on their modern that I did not see any 70's. So are they being tough to start to build the customer base? Didn't they say something like that with PCI? Weren't the early holders the one to look for. While the grading looks accurate, will they maintain it over time? I do really like the visual population report.

 

Early Grading is Tough

I read in the book "How to Make Money in Coins Right Now, 2nd Edition" that the owners of PCGS, and NGC have admitted to the fact that grading standards have varied during different time periods. People have used this knowledge to their advantage, and still do. The book does not talk about the current period as it was written in 2000.
When both of the services started out they were tougher on coins. This in turn lead to a money making strategy where people would "crack" the slabs an resubmit the coins(still happening). For instance PCGS coins graded in the first two years of their business are thought to be a point below where they would be if they were graded today.
It's too bad that PCGS/ NGC did not take pictures of all the coins they have graded because the cracked and resubmitted coins have actually scewed the numbers, and thereby falsly increased the percieved number of coins available to the market as a whole.
Only time will tell if DGS will follow suit, but I hope not. I think the visual population report may actaully hold them to the fire. People will not have to aquire or compare available coins to know that DGS has a variety of subjective grading problems. All they will have to do is go to their website and see for themselves. If DGS does have wavering standards their visual population report will surely be their ruin.

 

If I am correct they started grading coins on May 1st 2008, and have reached 1,000. They may have surpassed that number but by how much I do not know.

 

Can you elaborate on this please?

 

Photograde doesn't cover uncirculated coins because as they said in the 1970 edition is isn't really possible to show the lack of wear in photographs and they can not adequately show the differences between the different qualities of Uncirculated coins. Hence their standards only work for circulated coins.