Featured Charmy's PERSONAL TOUR OF STACKS BOWERS' AND PCGS's FACILITIES w/lots of photos!!!

Stacks Bowers and PCGS (both in Irvine) recently announced the following grading and consignment event at Stacks’ new offices and since PCGS was offering tours of their offices at the same time, I thought I’d take the opportunity to consign some coins I’ve had for a while to the August ANA auction and take PCGS up on their tour offer which is what I did today. Here is their announcement:

So I went to Stacks Bowers’ offices first



I met with Scott Reiter so he could write up my consignments.


Then Scott took me on a tour of their offices. Here is their beautiful new building



These are their affiliates that are also housed in the same building


Something in particular caught my eye – they have WINE auctions too (sadly, I didn't see any actual bottles of wine)!




This is the main lobby with a security guard who checks you in


This is a secondary lobby, also with a security guard


Then I was introduced to two of Stacks’ amazing catalogers:

Jim Matthews


Frank Van Valen


In this room is someone you may recognize from some of my show reports - Corbin, a PCGS grader working on consignment coins, and a very nice Stack’s staffer Sarah Jackels assisting him.



Then it was off to PCGS for my private tour!

When I first arrived, I did have to leave my purse with the security guys. And of course, before the tour I asked if it would be ok to take photos, and then I also asked permission from Don and Steve before each picture that I took. There were certain more sensitive areas where I knew they wouldn't want me to take photos so I didn't even ask, like the security office and the Secure Plus area. Other than that, whenever I asked if I could take a picture, they said it was ok - they truly were great hosts, very nice, kind, easy going, and didn't mind answering any questions I had.

I first met with Don Willis who showed me around the corporate office


This is part of their customer service area


This is John Nelson, PCGS’s webmaster!


Mike Sherman, PCGS’s VP


Kristen in Marketing


Catherine in Graphic Design


Don Willis in his office



Then Steve Mayer, PCGS’s Chief Operating Officer, took over my tour and brought me down to the security area, receiving area, and grading rooms. As you can imagine, the security room has camera views EVERYWHERE – from the parking lot, to the customer “red phone” entry door to the dealer lobby (no more stealing pens and rubberbands!) and of course everywhere in between!

This is the room where all the coins are held except during the time they are being processed. The room is surrounded by 6-inch thick concrete and steel walls, including the ceiling.


This is one of the desks where the mail is opened – note the video cameras that record all packages as they are opened.


These are small white boxes that hold coins from each submission – they have already been separated from the submission form. The step before this is where the information from a submission form is inputted in the computer and the coins are then separated from the form and placed in their own white box with stickered labels on the box and each coin identifying the submission form number – it does NOT contain any customer information so the graders do not know who submitted the coin(s). All submissions and coins are labeled, verified, and doublechecked along each step of the way


This is the main grading room


And here are several graders – that’s senior grader Charley Brown in the back by the wall


This is the bulk grading room


This guy is placing the coin in the clear round gasket, then places the coin and gasket between the top and bottom pieces of the slab, as well as the label


Then these guys put the slab and coin on this press and seal the slab together. These guys are lightening fast and you can tell these guys have been doing this for quite a while!


They have the same process for baseball cards


A sealed blank slab


This is where the coins are verified and reunited with the submission forms


This is the shipping room. PCGS uses USPS Overnight Express to ship coins to customers unless the customer has their own FedEx account. This is the FedEx side


This is only a half day’s pile of coins ready to be shipped – they usually ship out twice this much in one day


I didn’t take any photos but I was also showed the Secure Plus room where they take the digital images of coins submitted for Secure Plus grading. (I was told that most all foreign coins are now digitally imaged.) The person working in this room had two small machines about the size of an old Browning camera along with two computer screens, and while one coin was being processed, the guy would work on the other machine/computer so he could process coins twice as fast. He was very adept in what he was doing!

I really enjoyed my tour and very much appreciate Don and Steve taking the time to personally walk me through their facility. The tour was so interesting and very helpful in giving me a much better understanding of PCGS’s grading process. THANK YOU Don and Steve!!!!


My next stop was the office of Ian Russell’s GreatCollections.com (also in Irvine). Since Stacks Bowers’ generally had a $1,000 minimum coin value they would accept for the Philly ANA auction, I also had some coins below that minimum so I decided to take them to Ian. Yes, I know I could have simply give them to Teletrade since they were right there in the same building as Stacks Bowers, but I really like to give smaller companies as much of my business as I can, since I am sort of in the same boat! Not to mention that Ian and his wife Raeleen are two of the hardest working people I know!




So that’s it – Hope you all enjoyed this little tour as much as I did!!!

 

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You always post the coolest stuff on here. Awesome tour! Great job putting this presentation together.

 

Love the pictures and info.
Do you need a personal assistant to just follow you around to these cool places?

 

Thank you for taking us on an inside tour. The grading room was very interesting.

 

Very interesting report Miss Charmy!!

 

This article blew me away:thumb: Before i could only imagine that the pcgs grading rooms and facility was lined with gold and coins were graded by small elfs, but now i see they are just humans like you and me also props on the red vines in one of the photos. They could be essential for grading purposes.

 

Very cool! All that in depth info and pictures you posted of the PCGS grading service REALLY makes me appreciate them and what they do. If I ever send a coin in to be graded, it will be to them! Also, maybe it is just me but I was surprised to see so many young looking people working at PCGS.

 

Awesome entry. Thanks for sharing your tour!!

 

Loved all the info and the tour. Nice to See Ian Russell of Great Collections:hail:

 

So Stacks is abandoning NY?

 

Very nice. Thanks.Loved the pics.

 

Great job, learned alot and it was like being on a personal tour thanks

 

Totally Cool Stuff Here! As a San Diego native, PCGS is the only TPG I let grade my coins! Really cool and a shout out to Corbin... Every time I call there for anything and I get him on the phone, he is super nice and helpful :smileNice Report 4 Sure,Erik

 

Thanks for sharing... I am curious how they handle the grading/certification of error coins as well...

 

I hate to be a downer on my first post in awhile but,I am amazed and appalled by the lack of quality control in the slabbing room! was that a bucket of licorice and a bottle of water? I was lead to believe even a persons breath on a coin can be damaging...maybe thats how some coins get that magical toning?!

 

I noticed the licorice at the bulk grader's area also and thought - niiiiiiiice! Grading areas should be like those super clean dust free rooms.

 

Wow, what a trip! I had no idea they were even offering tours like that, I'll have to see if I can get in too!

Seems like a lot of fun!

Oh geez, I just saw how old this thread is! Still awesome!

 

Indeed.

Cool tour.

Old thread.

I have the same concern another poster mentioned: The people handling coins do not appear to be wearing gloves and the coin grading environment bears absoluely no resemblance to a cleanroom (eg: industrial sized tub of red vines). I also saw a video tour of the PCGS facility on YouTube. Again, no gloves.

Is this really a good idea?

If I'm going to send off a copper/bronze coin which may be worth north of $500 to a TPG I'm going to expect it to return free from skin oil, mayonnaise, and sealed in a slab free from cat hair.

Operating a cleanroom type environment isn't cheap and having to gown up to go to work can be a bit annoying (I would know) but these coins aren't exactly replaceable. For all the freaking out that goes on about coins being cleaned or improperly cleaned, let's not make more reasons to have to clean coins.

Do the other TPG grading offices operate in a similar manner?

 

Yea, the graders and the guy putting them in the slabs should have been wearing a white mask and hairnet.