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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Jim-P, post: 8140863, member: 118020&quot;]After collecting off and on for many years I decided to have many of my coins professionally graded in 2021.&nbsp; Initial discussion was in a <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/first-time-submitting-coins-for-encapsulation-preliminary-report.380658/#post-7571486" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/first-time-submitting-coins-for-encapsulation-preliminary-report.380658/#post-7571486">post back in May</a>.&nbsp; Over the May through August timeframe I sent in about 85 coins (the bulk of my &quot;good&quot; coins to four services: ANACS, PCGS, NGC, and ICG.&nbsp; Not really enough to develop a trend, but some observations.</p><p><br /></p><p>My initial submittal was to ANACS, they were offering a ten dollars and/or cents for $10 each special.&nbsp; They offer a reasonable flat fee per order for conservation service.&nbsp; I opted for it.&nbsp; I was pleased with their work.&nbsp; I used them again.&nbsp; They set up at coin shows, at one I saw they were offering free return shipping for event submittals (ten coin minimum).&nbsp; Good deal.&nbsp; Check their web page for specials.&nbsp; However I found their imaging service inadequate and did not opt for it on submittals subsequent to my first one.</p><p><br /></p><p>Second one I used was PCGS.&nbsp; Was a little put off by their membership fee in order to use them but they are the best at marketing their services and probably the most regarded in the slabbing world.&nbsp; Sent them what I thought were some of my best quarters and halfs.&nbsp; They offer separate submittals for grading and conservation so I went straight to grading.&nbsp; Couple of what I thought were my best Washington quarters came back ungradable PVC residue to my disappointment.&nbsp; On subsequent orders I made sure I gave silver coins a really good acetone bath before sending them in and no more rejects.&nbsp; Turn-around time was reasonable.&nbsp; Most recently I used them on a few gold eagles / double eagles to reduce potential uncertainty concerns in selling them.</p><p><br /></p><p>Sent some similar key Washington quarters to NGC and opted for their conservation service in conjunction with grading.&nbsp; Again a little discouraged right off the bat that one has to join the club in order to buy services.&nbsp; I declared the coin value at the AU-58 grade for conservation service fee and to my dismay, they came back XF, but with conservation service charged at their 4% fair market value on my AU-58 estimate.&nbsp; Not going to break the bank but really trims any margin on trying to sell these coins for more than what I have into them.&nbsp; Took three months between sending and receiving the order, I did not use NGC again but this one time.&nbsp; Their imaging service was fair, not as good as PCGS, and harder to capture images.</p><p><br /></p><p>I sent most of my orders to ICG.&nbsp; As I mentioned in my initial post back in May, I was immediately impressed by them: they called me to discuss my order on a couple of occasions, they had the best pricing, and the quickest turn-around time.&nbsp; But I was disappointed with their imaging service.</p><p><br /></p><p>The only example I can offer of sending similar coins to multiple graders is on some Franklin and Kennedy half dollars.&nbsp; Many years ago a mail-order vendor had a promotion of getting a free proof silver Kennedy when buying a proof Franklin.&nbsp; I bought three.&nbsp; The ones I sent it to ANACS and ICG this year came back PF-64.&nbsp; The pair I sent in to PCGS came back PF-66.</p><p><br /></p><p>This project pretty much exhausted my supply of coins I consider worth paying the premium for slabbing as compared to the coin value.&nbsp; In the end, it was a net gain.&nbsp; Lost money on many (purchase price plus slabbing was more than selling price) but did well overall by having professional grading by which to measure and get fair selling prices.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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