I was perusing ebay today for a common sacagawea I needed to fill out my set. I found a ton of MS67 and above graded PCGS items for under 10 dollars. Why would anyone get these coins graded, or is there a way around paying 30 some dollar for grading a coin? I am a bit baffled why there are so many PCGS/NGC graded coins available for under 10 dollars. Whats the catch here?!
Welcome to Coin Talk. Several possibilities. Dealer got a bulk rate on coins being graded, large lot of coins sent in with the hopes that one or two would be high grades to make up for the lower grades, or someone bought a collection and is unloading stuff they want to sell.
I've purchased dozens of Proof 69 PCGS ( moderns ) coins for under $5.00. Total cave in for whomever submitted them originally. L&C Coins offers bulk lots at $5.99 each. ( not promoting )
Most people who send these coins in send them because they think it is one or two grade points higher than it grades out as, and most of the time one or two points more can drastically change the value of the coin. Most MS69 or PF69 coins you find are probably 100X that value in MS70 or PF70.
@toned_morgan is on the mark. People submitting believing they have a higher grade piece. Price points get morbidly unrealistic given one-two higher grade points. A fools gamble.
@Deano Marino @Lawtoad @tommyc03 @toned_morgan @Randy Abercrombie I haven't submitted anything in large numbers for quite a while. (Thanks, Social Insecurity!) I'm not a dealer, but I frequently submitted 50+ coins at a time from Mint bags. I can't remember any instance when I didn't get about 30% come back as MS68, and that is a great result for business strikes (Sac's, Kennedy's & SQ's). Results like that not only paid for the purchases from the Mint and the submission fees, but it also left me with a tidy profit of about $1K on each submission. So, what do you think I do with all of those that came back as MS67? (I only had a small handful from ALL of the submissions that came back MS66.) I give them away as gifts for deserving YN's. Chris
If you are a bulk dealer, you submit 400 coins, a few of them come back as 68 or 69. You make your money here. The rest come back as 67 or lower. You sell these off as quick as you can.