Has anyone here had any success with breaking up their SMS's to have them graded? The sets themselves are rather inexpensive, yet a high grade coin from them seems to hold a premium based on NGC's price guide.
The people who have had success have it because they - 1 know how to grade, 2 they were very lucky. Those who do not have success don't know how to grade.
There are a few difficulties here. SMS's are one of the tougher moderns to send in for a grade high enough to profit. These are still the red headed step children of numismatics and the demand isn't as strong as it is for proofs or unc coins. Regular high grade coins from these sets are highly desirable but the market is thin. Much of the demand is for the highly PL coins and the frosted cameo coins. And herein lies the biggest problem; frosted cameo of great enough intensity to recieve the designation are quite scarce. To compound this rather large problem is most of the SMS's seen on the market have been checked by somebody to see if a cameo is there. Even if you find an unopened mailing box of these the odds are low and they're even lower in opened cases. You're probably better off with mint or proof sets since many of these have never been checked and the market is a lot stronger at least at the high end.
I'll second that! Paying a premium for original mailing boxes "can" be offset if you get some CAMEO's but if you don't, then you usually kick yourself in the butt with each one you end up selling for a huge LOSS!
