Your thought process is exactly like mine. Which is why I will probably only send it to CAC. If and when I do sell it, I'll let the next guy take the risk. I have not had good luck submitting to PCGS. Although, I have not sent much in, so that isn't saying much.
I hear you and think your decision is quite reasonable. I've also only sent in a small sample, but it's been fairly uneventful (definitely no major scores). In my prior attempts, I had one decent upgrade (64 to 65), another nice result (UNC QC to AU 58), a disappointment (62 to UNC details), and everything else pretty much remained the same (including a few I had high hopes for). Will this sub of 5 be different? Stay tuned to find out! (nice tease, huh )
Haven't seen the reveal yet, so... NGC- MS63 PCGS- MS65 EDIT-I wasn't close at all. Nice improvement to the overall color in the PCGS holder. Maybe I missed the info, but did you crack it out and was anything done to minimize the "smokey" look in the NGC images before sending in?? The PCGS images make the toning much more appealing.
I cracked it out and sent for grading raw. I didn’t do anything to the coin. The difference you see is just the way GC takes photos vs how PCGS takes photos.