Depends on what ya define as 'costly'. If you want to grade otherwise common coins that abound in superfluous nature, yeah, it's costly. And it's danged stupid.....
He doesn't have that button green because he has a different problem, one that has been addressed in another thread - https://www.cointalk.com/threads/big-star-on-dollar-bill.306914/ And if he follows my instructions in that thread his problem will be solved and then he will have the button.
Correct - but most experienced exhibitors/dealers can take a cursory look at your coin and give you a fairly accurate guesstimate at no charge. I found an AU looking 1924D merc dime in a bag of Apmex 'junk silver' mercs, took it to a local coin show & three separate dealers concurred on a grading estimate of 50 or 55
