I wanted to send another batch of coins to be graded by ANACS, and wanted to use FedEx, but FedEx can't deliver to PO boxes, and that's the only address ANACS lists on their website. I tried searching for a physical address and think I found one, but is it safe to send submissions to this address? P.S. This is the address I found for them: 6555 South Kenton Street Suite 303 Centennial, CO 80111-6838
I would call customer service at ANACS and be 100% sure of the answer rather than taking a shot and getting the wrong answer on a forum. They may not accept submissions at a physical address.
Well I'll check with them Monday. I can't imagine they'd object to accepting submissions by FedEx, since they send the graded coins back by that method. I met a representative from ANACS at a coin show once, and they even mentioned they'd accept hand-delivered submissions (and that you could get your graded coins from them in person, instead of having them delivered to you) so there has to be some physical address you can hand carry them to, and if there is I don't see any reason why you couldn't have a third party deliver them there too. I'll confirm this with ANACS myself of course but am just curious if anyone else has submitted coins to ANACS other than using the US Postal Service and can relate their experience. I can't be the first or only person to have asked this I'm sure.
Sure. When I submit to ANACS it is at the Auburn, MA coin show [which is cancelled for tomorrow BTW] A rep named Paul Joseph is at the show and he takes your coins and he mails them to CO at no cost to you. You just pay return shipping. And it is usually Fed Ex unless you specify another. ANACS has representatives at other shows too.
This is my fourth submission; first was years ago, by mail; second and third time I hand delivered them to an ANACS representative at a coin show. (I imagine since the coin shows were in Aurora, CO, only a few miles from their business address, they would have just hand delivered them there instead of mailing them). I suppose I may as well confess that I already sent them on Thursday; in retrospect I should have confirmed this first but it didn't occur to me there might be a problem until after the fact. I do have confirmation that they arrived at the address I posted and someone signed for them but I haven't received any confirmation from ANACS yet that they received the submission and are processing it. I'm hoping that I'm worried over nothing and that at worst I accidentally sent my coins to ANACS admin or something and they will forward it on to the proper place. I'm sure if that's the case it can't be the first time it ever happened and I'm sure whatever ANACS employee signed for it isn't going to just steal them or throw them out; I mean, they wouldn't stay in business very long if that kind of thing happened lol... but some kind of confirmation would be comforting. In any case I sent an E-mail to ANACS and will be calling them Monday. Just was wondering if anyone else has been in this situation and can relate their experience in some way. I can't be the only one.
If you sign in on their website then check back under your account it will say they received them. Then it says "in process" later. But it takes a few days for this to appear.
Thanks. Will try to get some kind of confirmation from them anyway just to put my mind at rest. I talked with them Thursday before I prepared the submission, letting them know i intended to send it by FedEx, but it didn't occur to me at the time (nor apparently to them either) that I would need a physical address to do so. However they didn't say anything to the effect that they wouldn't accept submissions by FedEx, meaning there has to be some physical address they accept them at, since FedEx can't deliver to PO boxes. I take that as an encouraging sign.
As a rule, the TPG's don't like to advertise their physical location. It provides the possibility for a criminal element to try to take advantage of it. Whether or not they would be successful is anybody's guess. There are a lot of dumb crooks out there! Chris
Their address isn't precisely a secret, as it only took me a few minutes to find it online, but they certainly don't go out of their way to reveal it, and it's nowhere on their own website. I imagine such a place has to have good security anyway but you do have a good point, why make it any easier for criminals lol...
Yes it is, but they are also faster, more convenient, and in my opinion and experience, more reliable, so I was willing to pay more. For roughly $20 I got signature confirmation, insurance, and next day delivery (despite the fact I didn't even ask for or pay for next day rates), plus a free box and packing material. Post office probably would have been a bit cheaper but the speed and reliability were worth it to me; plus the nearest FedEx office to my home has a more convenient location and more convenient hours than the nearest post office, and their service was far better. So yes they're more expensive, but I think it's well worth the cost in this case. (P.S. just so you don't think this is a FedEx commercial lol, to be fair UPS has good service too in my experience, but FedEx just happened to have a more convenient location relative to my home in this case, plus they share a building with my bank where 3 of the coins I submitted were stored in safety deposit boxes. So this is less an endorsement of FedEx than it is an anti-endorsement of the USPS, which I honestly don't know how they haven't gone the way of the Pony Express yet.)
Which would only matter if I ever intended to resell the coins. Which I have no plan to do any time in the definite future. If I cared about recouping expenses on the sale of my coins I probably wouldn't have them graded in the first place. The Chinese Panda I got an MS 70 on I could very well recoup my grading costs on were I to ever sell it, but why would I want to? If I wanted the money instead of the coin I wouldn't have bought it in the first place lol... I'd much rather have the coin in my hand than the money I'd get for selling it. Well I understand where you're coming from; most people have coins graded for purposes of making them easier to sell later, but that's not my motivation for getting these coins graded. It's more to: 1. Satisfy my curiosity as to what a professional's opinions are on the grades 2. Making it easier to establish a value on the coins, for insurance purposes and such 3. Preserving them, and making them more convenient to store To be honest if recouping my costs on a future sale were more of a concern I'd probably go with PCGS or NGC, as much as I like to defend ANACS (I honestly think their customer service is far better, and they have far less barriers to entry than the "Big Two", regardless of their apparently lesser reputation when it comes to grading, which I honestly don't think they deserve, but well I can't control public opinion much). But well for what I want grading for, ANACS is a lot cheaper and faster than any other reasonably reputable TPG, plus they more accessible partly due to the fact they require no membership of any kind, and are in my local area, and frequent coin shows also in my local area. So say what you will about their reputation (and I think they deserve a far better reputation than they seem to have) but they suit my purposes very well. And well to make a long story short, I buy coins because I like having the coins, not because I see them as an investment, so I couldn't care less if I'll ever recoup the costs from purchasing them and sometimes having them graded (the vast majority of my collection are raw coins). I very rarely sell any coins in my collection, and on the rare occasions I do I usually spend the money on more coins (usually what I sell are "extras" basically). What they can potentially sell for in the future, raw or graded, will by my heir's problem after I die (and I kind of hope he won't sell most of them either and instead pass them on to his heirs, but that'll be his prerogative).
I also favor ANACS and it's mainly because they have a rep at the smaller coin show I attend. Even though I have no intention of submitting a coin the rep is most helpful to look at it and give an opinion. He even looks at paper money and tells me what he thinks. I think it is most unfortunate that the status of ANACS is not what it should be. Right now they have the dollars and cents special. You submit ten silver dollars and/or ten Lincoln cents and the fee is only $10 each. If they happen to find a VAM it is noted on the label for free.
FWIW I shipped my ANA Convention medals from Florida to Bob Campbell in California so that he could image them. There were 42 medals in the box all graded by NGC, and it weighed 7 lbs. I shipped them USPS "Overnight" with $2K insurance and "Signature Confirmation" for $78 which I didn't think was too bad. Chris PS. I thought FedEx and UPS didn't insure coins for their collectible value.
USPS Lost Shipment Reimbursement I believe you'll find that USPS will allow you to place any value you desire on your shipments, but their regulations are quite specific about "proof of individual shipment" value requirements. It's reported that package delivery fees are the "cash cow" for the postal system. This link is typical of USPS response for payment of "collectible value": http://www.cointalk.com/t186728/ Vendors, including the U.S. Mint, seemingly realize that delivery of valuable items through the U.S.P.S. system, even by registered mail. is reportedly unreliable. Reimbursement for "lost" insured items can be a difficult process which doesn't reimburse at insured value, but at provable "basis value". I don't receive any mail at my residence, only at a PO Box, after having some insured shipments "evaporate" some years ago. The postal system is seemingly broken, and I'm constantly negotiating with my local postmaster about my signature confirmation insured packages not being entered into the "tracking system" which I'm told isn't a "real time" system. I'm told that data is supposedly manually updated within 24 hours. It's a difficult process receiving the shipments at my "gated" property, but I purchase many expensive items that haven't been lost, regardless of their minimal insurance coverage by the secondary delivery services. I recently purchased 20 ounces of modern gold coins from a prominent vendor with which I've had an account for almost 2 decades. They shipped to my PO Box in the past. They currently "self insure" refusing to use the modern postal system. The coins were delivered by FedEx. My experiences may be abnormal, but associates claim similar experiences. :thumb:
Go on the FedEx site, there is a service that FedEx uses to deliver to po boxes. UPS has one now as well. EDIT: IT's called FedEx Smartpost. SmartPost—SmartPost is a shipping service for residential delivery that combines FedEx Ground with USPS last-mile delivery. FedEx picks up packages from our distribution center and transports them to your local Post Office. The USPS then delivers the package the last few miles to your home. http://www.fedex.com/us/smart-post/outbound.html
