25th ASE Anniversary Thread, Grading Fees & Results

I thought this would be a good start for a new thread - I am starting a new thread with a post I wrote the other day summarizing the service levels and costs and how to submit your ASE sets for grading to PCGS or NGC.

1) PCGS stated that you can either ship the coins to them or bring them to one of the shows where they are going to take on-site submissions. The closest show is the Collectors Society Vegas show in mid-December (more info on their website). If you take them to the Vegas show you can open them in their presence, decide which ones to submit and they can either do modern service at $14/coin, FS at $32/coin, or on-site grading at those rates plus a surcharge of $65/coin (in addition to the $14 or $32 of course). PCGS coins submitted in sealed boxes or opened in their presence will get the special 25th Anniversary Set label regardless of what level of service you choose. I think that is probably the route I will take but will watch the pop reports online and see what people post their results are for those who send in and get results before Vegas.

For a full box of 5 sets/25 coins, it would cost $387.95 for modern service or $837.95 for the FS labels. If you want on-site grading, you save the $29.95 shipping but add a whopping $1,625 to pick up the coins the following day. Total fees = $1,983 for modern service or $2,433 for FS labels!

2) NGC will only do mail in submissions at $17 for the Special Modern Tier only, whether or not you with the ER designation on the special 25th Anniversary Set label if you submit them in sealed boxes. Therefore, they are not charging extra for the ER designation on the labels, it is just an issue of whether they are received in house by Dec 8 (see below). If you want the OGP returned (and who wouldn't), it will cost an extra $1.00 per set (not per coin) for return of the OGP plus the capsules. If you send it only the capsules only the RP and S-Proof will get the 25th Anniversary Set labels and the other three coins will get a 25th Anniversary black label but will not state that the coins were part of the set.

For a full box of 5 sets/25 coins, NGC will charge $394.45 for modern labels or $469.45 ER labels. All coins received in house before Dec 8 will automatically be labeled Early Release unless you mark the submission form "No Early Releases." If you want the OGP returned add an additional $5 for the return of all boxes and capsules and be sure to clearly mark the submission form with "Return Mint Packaging" and you get the good stuff back too.

* If the PCGS and NGC population reports are coming in at similar splits between 70 & 69, I will probably submit to PCGS. My experience has shown that where PCGS usually grades 1 out of 3 moderns as MS70 or PF70, NGC will usually grade 2 out of 3 as MS70 or PF70. Personally, I am hoping that the grades will come in a little closer between the two companies so I can bring them to Vegas directly and then I will leave the coins for shipping back to me to save a bit on fees.

Probably I will keep the 70s for myself and sell the 69s (now or later) to pay for the substantial investment (close to $1900 a box or more) of a graded box of 5 sets. Just my plans, but I thought the summary might help people decide as well.

If people could submit the grades as you find them out, I am sure we would all appreciate knowing.

Thanks!

 

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Thanks for the work, David. I'm still not sure which way to go. I haven't seen my box yet, but my wife took delivery yesterday. Had to hold it at UPS because I was traveling and now I'm in the hospital and hope to be home soon. I can't wait to see the box it came in!

 

My sets departed today at 3:25 pm via registered USPS to get graded at NGC. I am hoping for the best; but ofcourse I have not seen the coins yet!...

 

Don't know if I 'm getting mine but if I do I'll submit and let you guys know.

 

Great work david2400. Thank you.

Could you please post your graded results when you receive them. Anyone else post their results yet?

 

I haven't yet submitted my coins, figure that if I submit to NGC (which is how I am leaning) then I have until Monday 11/28 after Thanksgiving to ship and still have them in by the Dec 8th receiving deadline for the ER designation.

Why NGC?

* I have read from a couple posters that NGC has much better experience in grading modern coins than PCGS. I submit a lot of First Spouse Gold and Platinum/Gold Eagles, and have found that NGC tends to assign more accurate (and yes, higher) grades than PCGS. I personally examine each coin before submitting using a 8x lighted magnifying glass and even so found that PCGS only grades about 1 out of 3 coins with a 70, whereas NGC tends to be 50/50 or better.

* NGC is not charging anything extra for the ER designation - all coins are submitted as a modern special at a price of $17 per coin. As long as the coins are received in house by Dec 8, you will automatically get the ER designation.

* Whereas PCGS will allow me to open the box at the Vegas show and visually inspect which coins to submit, I have not had very good results submitting moderns to them and am concerned that even if I thought the coins were 70s under magnification many of them would come back as 69s.

* Modern Coin Mart submits almost all of their coins to NGC for grading - while that is probably because both companies are located in the Tampa Bay area (and John Maven the owner used to be a grader at NGC), MCM is one of the largest dealers in the country so they must know something.

* A set of MS69/PF69 sold on eBay yesterday for $1289 - raw sets are selling for about $800 on eBay, but if I can sell a 69 set for $1200 then the approx $100 total in grading and postage fees per set are more than covered by the bump from selling a slabbed and graded 69 - plus I can keep any 70 sets for myself :smile

* Prices seem to be holding firmly on eBay and not slipping, even as hundreds of sets are being added daily. I am feeling comfortable that by the time I get my grades off the website (available when shipped) the prices will be at the same levels or higher. As a side note, I always submit directly to NGC - I do not submit through a dealer because I just think the temptation would be too great for a dealer to mix in their submission with mine and keep many of the 70s themselves.

I still have a couple weeks to decide, but this is how I am leaning. I will probably ship mine using Express Mail or Priority Mail with Insurance - Priority Mail Registered is a little cheaper for the same insurance coverage but much much slower.

Thoughts? Has anyone found their grades out already? Please share!

David :hail:

 

Great idea on this thread. I'm now 4 days into NGC having my coins and am thinking that some time next week (maybe?) I should have at least received the grading breakdown. It will be very interesting to get a early preview of consensus on these sets. My original plan was to keep housed only the MS/PF 70's and reconstitute any lower grades back into their original mint packaging. However, if MS/PF 69's are really pulling prices above raw sets, or if very few sets pull 70's, it would be something us dealers in the crowd would want to know sooner rather than later. So as soon as I receive my email that the grades are in, I'll post them.
Actually, I wonder if having a dedicated thread just for grading numbers only might make it easier to see the breakdown? Thoughts?

 

My thinking was that this thread could provide the information for members to make their grading decisions (hence my two lengthy posts) and then we could use it to post our grades once we get them from either of the major TPGs...

Does that work for everyone? I can edit the thread to make that a little more clear in the title...

 

I'm trying to decide what to do with my sealed box, so that information would be helpful.

The "easy" way, if it is permitted, would be for someone who can look at the population reports to provide them on a periodic basis.

 

They don't update them that often.

 

NGC told me that they don't start updating the population reports until they have a critical mass of grades, I am not sure if that means several hundred or several thousand, but they might not have numbers to report before the last week of November, which would be the deadline to send in for the ER designation at no extra cost. I don't have access to PCGS reports because at the moment I am not a member...

I think we should report our results here as they come in and I will try to report every couple days the totals reported on this thread. I would encourage everyone to report the results they receive, no matter if they are 70/69/68 etc, so we can get some accurate ideas of the trending.

Thanks!

 

Agreed.
Kind of like our own pop report

 

Just spoke to NGC to get a sense of how these were grading out, while not a hard statistic backed by a population report (those are probably still a week or two away) they are estimating that about 70% of these are coming back PF70/MS70 - *even* the no mintmark bullion eagles. So I think I am going to pull the trigger and send my whole box in for grading and then sell off the 69s on eBay, especially if I can get $1200 or more for a slabbed 69 set.

 

Would like to hear all the results!

I think should I ever submit to a TPG, I would not look at the grades on the computer. It would just be so much fun to open the box and see each coin one at a time and have a bunch of surprises in a row.

 

Make sure if shipping with USPS that it is registered mail because regular insurance does not cover coins.

 

I'll probably decide next week - it will give PCGS a chance to post the initial population report.

I called my two local coin stores - neither will will give any kind of estimate unless I bring the coins in. It is a sealed box - why don't I have high expectations?

 

Does that hold true even for USPS Priority Mail with Insurance?? Meaning because they are coins they MUST be shipped USPS Registered Mail, whether First Class or Priority??

 

Yes - I confirmed yesterday coins are not insurable unless express over night or registered.

 

I have my box with 2 sets unopened will wait a couple more days see if my single order 38391xx goes in, im still inclined to send the 2 sets to NGC with the 69s prices in the 1k 1.200 range its worth it,

 

I've had my 25th sets for a week now and haven't made a decision yet whether to grade or not and if so, what TPG to use.
I'm leaning towards NGC.

I've heard here on CT about joining another org and getting all of the benefits of NGC at the same time. Can anyone tell me about this? Thanks.

Edit: I just found the ANA website (Money.org). ANA members get NGC direct submission privileges. I'm going to go that route now.