Take a look at Great Collections grading policy. They submit the coins on your behalf for $10 to PCGS or NGC (economy), and since they're a block from PCGS, apparently you don't have to pay for return shipping. Of course, the catch is that you must list the coin with GC once it's graded, but if you were planning on having it graded to sell, anyway, this is a pretty nifty idea.
I agree. I also see GC getting pretty strong prices, so overall sounds like a pretty decent setup for someone interested in selling raw coins for the highest value. I should probably make a note of it for my wife. I have tons of ungraded US coins bought years ago. I bet you many collectors would not touch them nowadays because "any good coins are already in slabs" mentality. Many new collectors cannot comprehend the idea not all of us collectors from years ago jumped on the slabbing bandwagon.
Great Collections offers a valuable venue, but lets keep in mind that they charge a buyer's premium of 10% and a seller's fee of 5% (for items individually worth less than $1,000). Therefore, you may save a few dollars getting a coin certified through them, but may then be dinged 15% of the sales price upon sale.
I don't think that's a completely reasonable position. The alternate venues for most non-commercial individuals would be eBay or HA/TT. If you go the eBay route, you'll likely get a lower price and owe 13% (since Paypal is essentially mandated) as the seller. On top of that, you'd have to pay $20-$30 more per coin to have them graded/slabbed. Since we're talking about coins under $1000 final value, that's 2-3% saved on the grading fees alone. You're right that there is the potential for the 5% seller fee, but I view it a tad differently: For lower value coins (say $100-$200), the savings in grading fees are significant: 10-30%. It makes it viable to have coins graded (MS65/66 Mercuries and Walkers) that would otherwise be sold raw on eBay. The difference in price between a raw MS65 and a PCGS MS65 could be very substantial for a non-Power Seller on eBay. In any event, I just noticed it while looking over their site, and it seemed like a good deal that others may not have seen.
It's actually an entirely reasonable position on my part. The HA/TT route is not always the best option for a group of coins that are individually lower priced, but ebay should not be automatically discounted. The casual seller likely would not have an ebay store and thus would pay the higher fee that you quoted (approximately 13%) since they would also have to use PayPal to facilitate a sale. They would additionally have to pay or absorb shipping and the risk in dealing with the buyer. However, the difference between GC and the public for theeconomy grading that you have specified is $10 per coin at PCGS and as little as $4 per coin (or up to $7 and $10 per coin) at NGC. Again, the seller in this case would have to pay return shipping on the coin(s) in question and this can up the cost per coin by some few dollars. Overall, it would only be around $10 per coin more, all-in, to do this yourself vs. having GC do it. The prices realized on ebay should not be scoffed at, either, since ebay can generate great levels for sales and ebay has the eyeballs that blow the competition away. I have no axe to grind with GC at all, but this may come down more to a preference of doing less by using GC vs. doing a bit more with some wildcard final pricing ability by working with ebay.
Even if you take the NGC route, you'd still have to pay $14 (assuming you submit five modern coins) plus $32 S&H. That's in addition to the shipping you'd have to pay on the item to the buyer, assuming eBay. So, you're looking at $20.40 for just the base grading + shipping... then another $3-$5 to ship to the buyer. Let's say $25 to make the math simple. That's $15 more than you would have paid to have GC have the coins graded for you. At $1000, that's 1.5% (on top of the 13% paid to eBay). At $200, that's 7.5%. Yes, there's a very specific slot within which the $10 + 5% (15% if you include the buyer's side fees) will work out better on eBay... I think it's $950-$999.99 final price, to be accurate. Below that amount, the $10 + 5% is a better deal, and above that range, the 5% is waived. That all said, if eBay gets better prices than GC, go with eBay. However, in the short time I've been looking, GC seems to beat eBay final prices on graded coins. For raw coins (assuming you think the grading won't add value), eBay is the better option. However, for those looking to sell raw coins as raw, this thread isn't relevant.
The idea is to provide convenience, "one stop shopping", so as to draw in more customers for the venue. Heritage used to do the same or very similar thing, I would imagine they still do, Teletrade has always done it to my knowledge, and now Great Collections is offering to do it. The selling venues, including ebay, are competing with each other is what it boils down to, just as the TPGs themselves compete with each other, just as any businesses compete with each other. It is all about the dollar, getting you, the customer, to use them instead of the other guy. That's what makes the world go round.
Oh, I forgot about TT. I think they grade for free, but their final prices don't seem as strong as GC, from what I've observed. All in all, Doug is right about the one-stop-shop concept. To me, it's not just convenient, but also cheaper, as a bonus.
