IYHO... Best grading and slabbing service

Thanks @swish513 good to know! The backing of a guarantee is what I'm looking for.

 

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Thank you @baseball21 would you say the same for PCGS with Canadian gold?

 

Same plan here. And those are some pretty sweet wheaties and nice peace btw

 

Buy the coin, not the holder - always.

If I buy slabs, they are from PCGS or NGC.

That being said, is NGC's reputation starting to tank copard to PCGS?

 

That could not have been better said by a lifelong collector offering it to you as advice. You'll be OK.

 

I have no idea why I can't get my response out of the quote but this was what I was trying to post in reply to post reading: "I fully agree with, and understand, the importance of trusting ones eye when making a decision on a coin but until I gain that confidence I'm at the mercy of the stickers on slabs"


You'll find a lot of people who hate on slabbed coins forget this important part. Slabbed coins are a safe entry/gateway for beginners like myself into the hobby and vital to the future. The nice thing is you can still use your eye with coins in slabs, that's not mutually exclusive to raw coins and you get the added benefit of the coin most likely being authentic and most likely in the ballpark of the grade on the sticker removing a lot of the doubt.

I can speak from personal experience being 6 months or so in, I've regretted every raw coin I've bought (I am just flat out not good enough to make a wise purchase of a raw coin and will probably remain that way for awhile) and would have quit 5 months ago if not for slabbed coins saving the day for me.

As for your OP, everyone's advice above me is far better than anything I could add. I've used NGC twice and been happy with the process but also learned along the way I'd rather just buy already slabbed coins than deal with sending them in myself. Refer back to me regretting every raw coin purchased.

 

I'd say I'm about half and half with purchase to keep/sell. The ones I want to keep I'll slab and may want a sticker on it for bragging rights, the others, unless it's a low end piece, I'll send to a grading service.

 

As always, when I'm buying I'm buying the coin and not the holder, it doesn't matter if it is in a disreputable slab, a middle or top tier, or a two by two. The coin is all that matters. Now if I find a coin I want to put into a slab, then it goes to NGC. Why? Well as an ANA member I have submission rights. I like the holders to boot, and if I'm building a registry set, like I am with my quarters, I want them all to match, just more aesthetically pleasing to me. When selling, I find that it doesn't matter the slab or raw, quality rises to the top and dreck doesn't move, it matters not if that dreck is in a slab...knowledgeable collectors won't touch some things.

 

"Bragging rights" is also considered a valid reason for slabbing.

 

I hear you but half of the fun, if not more, for me is coin roll hunting and sorting through junk looking for a diamond. As far as the other half of my purchases I couldn't agree with you more. Knowing what you have in your hand (or pretty dang close to it) is better than staring at a raw coin questioning yourself about the amount of scratching, wear, etc before you open the wallet. As far as collecting coins for other than base metal value I'd say I'm only about a month in. The only grading I had to do before was make sure the die stamp looked correct and listen for the right "klink." Stepping into this world has me fascinated; wanting to learn all that I can and this step of the hobby (grading and slabbing) seemed like an important place to start learning. A cool FREE app that I found that I'm using to get used to the scale is PCGS photograde. Not sure if it's out for android (most likely is) but it is slowly becoming my favorite app on my iPhone.

 

Thank you @bqcoins i agree with things matching... aesthetics matter. Another vote for NGC here.

 

Didn't even think to look for a photograde app that's great to know use it all the time on my computer.

And yeah, you learn and get better fast at grading yourself with practice. Every time I go to my LCS and pull out a couple coins I'll ask him "what makes this one a 63 and this one a 64" and he is great at pointing out exactly why and I learn something every time.

My last submission of 5 coins I undergraded 2, overgraded 2 and the one I was 85% sure was cleaned (but valuable enough to attempt) came back straight graded 61 according to NGC. So I need a lot more practice apparently lol

Having a good time learning though that's for sure.

 

Yes, that is correct for most - but you sure won't see me bragging about upgrading a coin after several crackouts(expensive) because I could care less what a holder says.

 

While there are certainly bargain basement graders that are disreputable and should be avoided for submissions, there is no single TPG that is best. Which is best can vary by series. The key is finding out which TPGs are best for the type of material you like to collect. When you become advanced enough to properly evaluate and grade raw coins, what slab the coin is in becomes a lot less important.

 

@IBetASilverDollar yeah man the app is pretty slick. I need to find some good LCS in my area. A lot of pawn shops to pick from but they just want their cash more than trying to gain a customer by teaching them something. I'll be happy when I get to the point you're at with grading by eye especially being that accurate with your guessing.

 

Don't the reputable graders stand behind their work with a warranty though? I read on their pricing sheets up/downgrading is free of charge...probably still pay shipping.

 

In my opinion yes, I like how they grade gold better

For ancients, bullion, or very low value coins that may be true. However for everything else that certainly is not. Raw coins will limit where you can sell and generally sell for less especially if you try and sell them online.

 

If they actually make a correction PCGS will reimburse the shipping cost, they always have for me and I believe they still do. NGC I believe does the same, I don't have any experience with the others so not sure if they will or not