Everyone says, "buy the coin, not the holder". I have a question about that. I realize there may not be a black-and-white right-or-wrong answer, but here goes anyway. Let's say I bought a Lincoln silver UNC dollar coin (this part is not hypothetical since I really bought one) from the mint in February. It cost $32 plus $5 shipping = $37. I believe it is an MS70 specimen, but I could be wrong. Let's say I want to find out. Assuming I was able to submit it to PCGS, it would cost $20 shipping each way, plus the grading fee which is $15 for economy 3 to 4 week turnaround time. That would be another $55 bringing my total investment in the coin up to $87. For $73 I could buy, right now, this MS69 coin on ebay. Please note this is not my coin that I am selling, nor do I have any plans to buy it. I use it only as an example. What would be my incentive to ratchet up my investment to almost $90 on the coin I currently have? Furthermore, for those who say, "don't buy the holder", in some cases it seems the buyer has no choice. If I submitted my coin for grading the extra $55 would be factored into my price when (and if) I wanted to sell it. There is no way I would let it go for less than the $87 I invested in it to begin with. In that case, the buyer would most definitely be "buying the holder" as well as the coin. Of course, if it came back from PCGS as MS70 then it would be worth more than it would at MS69. Maybe. The other side of that coin (heh, no pun intended) is if I wanted to buy the example Lincoln for $73, there's no doubt in my mind that part of the purchase price would be because of the expense involved to get it graded. It seems to me there's no way you can separate the coin from the holder (and what the holder states in writing) when deciding on a purchase. Maybe this is a better question: how can someone sell a coin (such as the above example for $73) when it had to have cost them more than that to purchase it in the first place and then get it graded? Does PCGS give hefty discounts to dealers who regularly submit a lot of coins?
It would not cost you $40 in shipping. I think it would cost maybe $40 total including the grading. So I think your total for you is slightly exaggerated. Next it did not cost them that much for their coins - bulk submissions. Next if it cost them a total of $60 I would be surprised - and $13 profit is a good profit(not including what some will make off shipping). Now here is why you might want to get yours graded - do you want to test your grading skills against PCGS or NGC? You say 70, but it might be 69 and you just do not see the weak spot. I know dealers who with their experience admit they can not tell the difference between some 69's and 70's. So just like my silver eagles - buy one from mint and then I buy a graded coin. Saves me money and time. At least in my opinion.
The buyer most certainly has a choice. He can buy a raw example of the coin that he personally grades at MS-70 and pay less. Or he can buy a slabbed MS-70 example and pay for the plastic. This is where it pays to be able to grade your own coins rather than depend on the opinion of a TPG. Are you a coin collector or an investor? No one says you have to buy a slabbed coin. Again, a savy collector that knows how to grade can buy a raw MS-70 example for a fraction of the price of a slabbed coin. The simple answer is . . . Some dealers submit hundreds of coins at a time so they get a discount on both submittal fees and shipping. Some of their submittal fees may be as little as $5 or $10. These dealers submit lots and lots of coins hoping that a few of them come back MS-70. They can afford to sell their MS-69 coins for much less than your total investment (coin purchase plus submittal fees plus multiple shipping fees) because their investment is much less than yours. Thanks to their profits on the MS-70 coins they can afford to break even or even take a small loss on their MS-69s.
You have to recognize that "Buy the coin, not the holder" is not a warning to be taken literally. Oviously you can't buy a slabbed coin, without it's holder. That saying is really shorthand for "Determine the price you are willing to pay based on the actual coin and your own opinion of its grade - not on some knee-jerk reaction that if the holder (whether PCGS or SGS) says "MS69" the coin must be better than every slabbed MS68 on down, and every raw coin that you personally grade at MS68 or less, and it must not be as good as any slabbed MS70 or any raw coin that you personally grade at MS70.
If you are pretty sure it's a 70, but can get it slabbed for an all-in cost equal to a 69, it might be a useful and perhaps profitable test of your grading skill to get the coin slabbed.
I see now the PCGS fee schedule says the minimum shipping charge is for 1 to 5 coins. That's a bit more cost effective I suppose. I'm just a sometimes casual collector, although I'm viewing this Lincoln dollar as an investment. Moreso if it is indeed MS70. If I join the PCGS Collectors Club now I see they're running a quarterly special where they'll grade any one Lincoln coin for free (through June). For the $50 membership fee that might be worth it. The question then becomes do I have anything else to submit over the next 12 months to spread out the cost of membership. Right now the answer is, "no". I'm going to a coin show this weekend. Can anyone suggest a ballpark figure for what a dealer might charge Joe Blow walking in off the street to have a coin graded by PCGS? It would be a neat test to find out if my estimate is correct. And if I'm wrong it won't kill me. I'd consider it a learning experience.
According to the PCGS website there is an $8 handling fee per order, the declared value (assuming MS70) should be $120, and thus $20.35 for return shipping. Economy level is $18 per coin. Then you have the shipping and packaging to PCGS to begin with. Even if you get it there insured for $5, that's still $5 more. So you have Shipping there, Handling, Grading, and Shipping back: 5 + 8 + 18 + 20.35 = $51.35! Not exaggerating at all according to the PCGS website. And with his initial determination, he originally said $32 + $5 shipping which is $37 to acquire the coin. That brings the total cost to $88.35, provided that you can even get it there for $5.
pcgs only accepts registered or express mail packages....so add another $17 min to get it to them, unless you drop it off at a show. these costs are not as high for a dealer who uses the bulk submission, they can be amertized into many many coins
As an example, even under bulk pricing for individuals, if you were to buy 100 of these coins from the mint, it would cost you roughly $3200 + $5 shipping, or $32.05 each to acquire. Submission per coin would be $10 each. $8 handling for the order ($0.08 per coin), and return shipping (declaring 100 MS70 valued at $120 each) of $72.85 (or $0.73 each). Shipping there would be about $33 ($0.33 per coin) registered mail with $3205 declared. So your cost per coin for PCGS grading would be: $32.05 + $10 + $0.08 + $0.73 + $0.33 = $43.14 per coin. That is quite the difference from the individual coin submission of close to $100! Many of the TPGs are all about business, in my opinion. And the costs to utilize their services show that. In my opinion, the TPGs are not in it to be a service to the hobbyist, or to make the numismatic community a "safer" place to be...it's all about making money and making the stock holders happy...after all, making the stock holders happy IS the law!
Yes, I forgot about the per-coin handling fee on top of everything else. The word "racket" comes to mind because splitting hairs with the fee terminology is, at best, a bit shady in my eyes. There's no doubt they provide a useful service under the right circumstances, however. It's pretty obvious they're in it for the money. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Plus, if I really thought the coin was MS70 (I do) and judging by recent sales and auctions of that quality, I would want to fully declare an MS70 value on it and not skimp on the insurance to get it out there, making outbound shipping closer to $20 than $5. I wouldn't take that chance, especially with the track record my local post office has. The gamble would be on whether my MS70 grade is accurate or not. An MS70 should be worth a total investment of $90 or so. No guarantees, naturally, be it next month, next year or 50 years from now. And if the value should hit $300, then the minimum grading fee also goes up to $30. That would argue for having it graded now instead of waiting. So like I said, there's no right or wrong answer. It's a difficult choice for someone like myself right now. I can hear the wife now.... "You spent $100 on what?"
Look, who really cares if it's MS-68 or 70? Keep the coin in it's plastic sheet and enjoy the darned thing.
That's one option. If everyone thought like that, though, the PCGS guys would be flipping burgers for a living.
Good point forgot about the handling fee - the few times I have used a grading service I sent in a lot more coins than 1. What I also did to save money was I valued them at what they cost me + grading fees. This way if something happened I broke even for all of it. Now a few of the coins come back at higher grades than I thought, which would have cost me some money if they were lost. I would join PCGS again, but the last I look the 8 free gradings were for coins under $300 - the few I want graded are over $300.
Bulk submissions. Power Seller status. 70 profits make up for 69 losses. I send my submissions USPS Priority Mail.
