Any morgan dollar collectors know which slabber will give the most bang for your buck on morgans? Who is toughest on them. For example I would hate to pay a premium for an ICG MS65 when pcgs would grade it a 64. I would rather buy from the tougher grader. So my question is which graders are likely to be the toughest on morgans, and which are likely to be the easiest on them?
it seems to me as a rule, an ICG ms65 will sell for PCGS or NGC ms64 money, maybe not exactly but hope you can see my point. Even if second and third tier grading services accurately grade the coins, quite a lot of people will not just blindly accept it like they would with PCGS or NGC or even ANACS. On the other side if you can tell the coins that are accurately graded , and get them for a third tier price you might come out ahead. For what its worth, I prefer PCGS coins for my morgan set. Not that I haven't looked at a lot of NGC coins(which were probably just as nice) I prefer the holders. May seem odd, but thats my preference.
I happen to like ICG alot. With NGC as a close second. I can't stand pcgs or anacs. I find that PCGS intentionally undergrades many coins to keep the registry sets worth top dollar. They seem to undergrade for the same reason that companies like SGS overgrades. Anacs is not consistent at all. I could picture sending in the same coin 5 times for 5 different grades lol. That said I tend to want to lean towards buying ICG and NGC coins, but want to make sure I get the best value for my dollar. I think ICG coins are always the best value, they just seem to be harder to find.
For key dates I go with NGC. I have broken out many CC pcgs and sent them to NGC for it to come back one if not two grades higher. So I guess pcgs in your case
Contrary to what many collectors believe, there is no definitive and complete ANA requirement for each grade and this is especially troublesome for the MS grades. Therefore, each TPG has the ability to define and determine each MS grade as they see fit. This has been the case for many years and the major TPGs are quite close in most aspects of grading these coins. However, what this means is that an ICG MS65 might not be equal to an NGC MS65 might not be equal to a PCGS MS65 yet none would be necessarily incorrect if they adhered to their proprietary grading standards. I guess this is a longwinded way of stating that each of us should learn the nuances of how to grade all coins as if raw and then apply those standards to each coin we buy.
I think you answered your own question there! The reason there harder To find is because there service is not in a high as demand like PCGS Is!
Sheesh, you'd almost think I invented the phrase (LOL). After all, I learned it from you guys........
A person can research the various auction archives (Ebay, Heritage, Teletrade) to see average prices realized for various companies' coins. While any individual coin may be exceptional, when data occurs in high numbers they aren't all counted as exceptions. For some dates, some grades, some companies, the average price differential is narrow. For other dates, other grades, the average differential is substantial. Best to do the homework before buying (or selling) the coin and make up your own mind. Someone else stating their opinion isn't going to be as influential as a person doing their own homework.
