New ANACS Fall Special

I can't get to my coins until Thanksgiving, but I would LOVE to do this!

 

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This is kind of what I was hinting at in my reply.

Constantly discounting your service (three consecutive "specials" with the third being significantly more attractive) will lead to devaluation of your product. If customers are trained to expect a special a month down the road, you likely build a product where individuals will wait for the low cost specials. If you consistently lower the special price ($119 for 10 --> $109 for 10 --> $99 for 10 --> $139 for 15), people may actually start "waiting" for a better deal.

Race to the bottom business models, rarely succeed, especially when you don't control at least 30% overall marketshare. All it does is lower the perceived value of your product.

If ANACS is in a financial bind, this isn't the way to go about fixing that issue. Why? Well, even before Insider's comment that about the financial situation, the pricing structure, back-to-back (to back) specials and the longer turnaround times already had me thinking they might be chasing sales in order to cover expenses. If they really are paying past due bills with future revenue, they may be better served taking out a lending vehicle or line of credit and stopping the discount model.

Honestly, ANACS would be better served by implementing a volume based submission model, where the specials are semi-permanent, but designed to increase volume. As an example:

US coins (basic service; up to $300 value per coin):
1-2 coins: $15 per coin plus shipping fees
3-5 coins: $13 per coin plus shipping fees
6+ coins: $12 per coin plus shipping fees
10 coins: $115
15 coins: $155
20 coins: $195
25-49 coins: $8.50 per coin
50-99 coins: $8 per coin
100+ coins: $6 per coin

Int'l coins: $3 per coin surcharge
Tokens: $1 per token surcharge
Variety Attribution (owner defined): $4 per coin verification surcharge
Special research (varieties research, mint errors, planchets, die hubs): Starting at $10 per coin surcharge; call or email for details

Premiere services (required for gold/platinum group/rare earth metals):

Numismatist: Up to $1200 value per coin, 12-day turnaround, add $5 per coin to your order.
Specialist: Up to $2500 value per coin, 10-day turnaround, add $8 per coin to your order.
Baller: Up to $25000 value per coin, 2-day turnaround, add $35 per coin to your order.

Shipping and Insurance fees: See chart. Free shipping on all orders of 10+ coins.

 

Not really true... if they hired too many graders, the backlog might still occur if it's from a different part of their supply model (receiving or packaging, for example). If I recall, PCGS charges their fees after grading has finished, shipping as soon as funds clear. By contrast, ANACS seems to charge fees as soon as they receive items, then start grading after funds clear. It might not matter to most individuals, but from a cash-flow model, I'm sure businesses must prefer the extra month or so where the money hasn't been collected for grading fees in the non-ANACS model.

Back to the point of hiring too many graders:

Say ANACS originally had seven graders. In response to a large number of on-site (coin show) submissions, they contract an additional eight graders to bring their staff up to 15. If they had to train some of the new graders, they might actually see a slow-down in turnaround time relative to what older customers were accustomed to.

Now, with 15 graders on staff, someone in finance points out that productivity hasn't been maximized, and they need to increase revenue to offset the salaries of the new graders. Assuming the salaries are now sunk cost, someone in marketing decides to attack the issue by increasing volume through highly discounted specials.

The specials result in more submissions than expected, so they decide to hire/train another 10 graders. Now, with 25 graders on salary, the determination is made that they need to either increase current submissions by 50% at current prices or double submissions at a lower special price. Marketing, believing that market share will lead to sustained volume (something taught in virtually every marketing degree program, while few point out that this only works in a market share leading model), opts for the version that results in more new customers.

This continual discounting of their product eventually leads to a perception of the company as a "discount grader." With no reason to submit high value items to ANACS, eventually, the market for marginal low-value coins dries up, and ANACS must begin to release graders from their contracts. The better graders accept release and move on to NGC/PCGS. The lower quality graders refuse to leave, and hire attorneys to enforce their contracts.

As a net result, NGC/PCGS benefit from ANACS being the equivalent of a management training program. They're now able to pay higher starting salaries for better trained graders, since they no longer need to train them or have a "learning curve" break in period. ANACS continues to hire new graders, and the model becomes a perpetual merry-go-round.

Again, all of that is speculation, based upon my observations of similar businesses in non-similar business segments.

 

My my, you ARE a fellow Econ major, aren't you?

 

@NorthKorea ANACS could use your ideas! You have me curious about another thing. ICG charges when the coins are shipped. I'm going to find out about the NGC policy. I stopped calling PCGS to get answers about anything regarding their services.

 

I'd like them to include foreign coins in these specials. It will increase their order volume and increase their revenue. Win-win situation for them and us collectors of foreign coins.

 

I've often wished this too, though I assume the grading process is more time consuming, considering the vast array of foreign coinage.

 

I just received my invoice from ANACS and they are only charging me $10.00 for each of the Dan Carr tokens I included with the submission. They are not the strike overs, but the 1 ounce blanks broadstruck with original 1916 designs and sizes in the center of the rounds.

 

The thing I've often wondered is their definition of US Mint coins. Technically speaking, a lot of the so-called foreign coins are US Mint coins, either by contract (Cuba, certain Panamanian issues, Hawaii coins) or territorial/occupational status (certain Philippines issues, certain Panamanian issues). I don't know whether those are included in the special or not, even though they *should* be.

 

Just got my grades today from my submission last month. Mostly as expected, but a few surprises...not in a good way.

 

I thought you thought most of the coins were cleaned... so what could be worse than a details cleaned grade?

 

I had one come back as cleaned that I saw no evidence of, and another that I tried my hand at "fixing" by mixing it around in a bag of dirty wheaties, but it didn't work. I figured I hadn't messed with it enough, but I was up on a deadline to send it in, so I sent it. I think I might crack it and keep working on it.

On the other hand, most of my cleaned coins came back with a slightly higher grade than I expected. They are still details coins, but got a little bump. I had a 1917 SLQ T1 that had some kind of oil on it when I bought it and I couldn't get it all off before I submitted it, but they gave that one a clean grade. A little lower than I thought, but clean grade.

Overall, I am glad I only paid $10 each for grading since most are worth less than $100, or even $50, but it was fun to do. All but 3 of them were inherited coins, so I don't have but $200 invested in these coins before grading fees.

 

If they're coming back as "scratched," I don't think you'll be able to wear out the damage without losing a significant (two or three full grades?) amount of value.

 

Two that came back scratched were from heavy cleaning back in the 1970's. Grandpa must have used a brillo pad. The half dollar that was cleaned and scratched has very light hairlines in one spot on the obverse where someone took an eraser to it. That's the one I tried to fix but ran out of time.

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Easy to see when someone has a good business mind... This is all good stuff.. Since everyone knows I am new, my first thought was, (what is ANAC) ? Only been browsing of course for about a year now and only really heard of 2 grading corps. The 2 big ones and thought this other company was some old grading corp. THey obviously have a lousy PR team, and in trouble..
Makes one have to wonder how secure your and confident your grades will be if they go out of business... Somebody has to back those grades at some point, they get bought out, etc... if not, can the grades then be questioned if the paperwork isnt bought out ?
Has this happened before...

 

Thanks for the info on this special.

ANACS will be set up at the Las Vegas Coin Show next week and I confirmed with them that you can submit under this special directly to them at the show, so no cost for shipping to/from that way. Getting some coins ready to submit now

Seems odd that the special is 15 coins for $139, then $10 extra for additional coins... but if I had an additional 15 coins to add, shouldn't I just submit under another "special" deal at $139, instead of paying $150 extra???

I was thinking of maybe submitting 75-90 coins or so under this deal, but really either way, it's a pretty good deal!

 

I was thinking of dropping the coins off the ANACS at the Grapevine, TX coin show on October 1 (Only day they are there) . I see that special ends on Sept 30 so guess I better mail them in to get the deal. Well that's a bummer.

 

I'd call and ask them if you could just drop off at the show a day late... worst they'll say is no.

 

Good suggestion. I will give them a call on Monday. Thank you much.

 

As of today, my submission under the first special is at 29 business days and counting. Maybe ANACS is trying to compete with PCGS for turnaround times.