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I'm working on a set of Lincoln Memorial Cents in NGC MS-65. I've bought 3 coins so far, one in person and two on eBay, and I have to admit, MS-65 is not what I thought it was... All three coins seem to be graded about the same, but the coins are not as "MS" as I expected I guess.

Anyway, I was looking at prices and I saw that MS-65 cents from the late 90's and early 2000's seem to be priced at about $3.50. I know that NGC grading fees are like $15 at the very cheep end, so should I expect to pay at least $15 for a coin with a value of only $3.50 (if I can even find it) or is it more reasonable to expect to pay a $3.50? Personally if I paid the $15 to get the coin graded I would want my investment back at least, but I thought I would check to see what other people are saying.

I really think I am going to have to break down and just submit the coins myself.

Cheers,
David

 

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$15 is for ind orders bulk orders can get it as low as $1 . all TPG's are businesses they are not NFP orgs so they give obscene bulk discounts. Dont get caught int he value trap like the coin before you buy it.

 

I have never heard of bulk order grading fees for anywhere close to as low as $1 per coin. I believe that is just plain incorrect, and by a large amount (several dollars). In fact, I think that the cost to NGC for just the core and outer plastic is easily above $1 per coin, and that doesn't begin to account for overhead of the employees, including graders, etc.

David, if an uncertified coin can be bought for $3.50, why spend multiples of that for slabbed examples or to get the coins graded? That sounds like a plastic collection instead of a coin collection.

 

Mark if you have never heard of it then how can you be sure its incorrect. People dont pay $15 to have common coins graded yet coins worth $5 and less end up in a slab. I wouldn't be surprised if the cost of the plastic was less than a $ you can get shirts for less than a $ but i am pretty sure you haven't heard of that either. It's a business and there is something called promotion and marketing.

 

Your point/argument that if I haven't heard of it , how can I be sure it's incorrect, makes no sense. I haven't heard of 5c or 10c per coin grading fees either, yet I also know that would be incorrect. And I never said that people paid $15 for bulk submissions of "common coins".

More relevant, however, is the fact that I worked at NGC full time for 7 years, so I have some idea of what the materials cost, as well as the lowest grading fees that were charged, even to the largest submitters. I also know many large submitters and none of them get fees even remotely approaching as low as $1/coin - perhaps approximately $8-$10 per coin, but either way, your figure of $1 is way off. Frankly, you threw out a ridiculously low number based on pure speculation, and it was way off.

Lastly, many people do end up paying more to have their coins certified than they are "worth" after slabbing. Some do it because they are unknowledgeable and guess wrong about the grades that their coins will receive. Others, who are experts, submit bulk groups knowing that they will lose money on coins that grade a particular grade or less, but that that will be made up for by the ones which grade higher.

 

Mark, the quality of information here is much better because of your presence. Thanks.

 

i guess this argument is not going to go anywhere you are thinking that because you have worked at ngc you know it all and all the people who pay to have their cheap coins slabbed are ignorant so we will just leave it at that but the cost of mfg a slab is not even a $ and that is a fact not a speculation so lets just agree to disagree since there is nothing to be gained from taking this any further

 

I see a lot of this happening and it allows me to purchase slabbed MS-65 coins for a few dollar or at least for a fair price and not an inflated one just because the coin has been graded and slabbed.

 

ANYWAY....

My goal is to get a collection of MS-65 Lincoln memorial cents. If I'm going to buy a slab, it's going to be NGC, just because I want everything to match... Yes I'm that type of person. For me, it is easier to buy a slabbed coin of eBay then having to deal with bad pictures, poor return policies, and outright fraud. It's just that the coin I bought in person was an NGC slab, and I bought it for less than the book value of the coin. I think the greysheet had it at $10, and I bought it for $4.50. That is obviously well below the cost to get it slabbed, I wanted to know, really, if this is a trend I can expect to continue.

Cheers,
David

 

Nice try, but I don't think or claim that I know it all - not even close, in fact. I do, however, have a much better idea than you do about what NGC charges for bulk submissions, as well as the cost of their materials.

In order to clear up any speculation a bit further, though, I just placed a call to NGC and inquired as to their lowest grading fees. I was told that the lowest fee for any item that is prescreened and given a numerical grade, was $7 per coin and that was for a very select type of modern coin and minimum grade. Other fess are higher than that. Please feel free to call NGC yourself and report back with some information of your own.

 

David, if you do the legwork, are patient and a little bit lucky, you will occasionally find sellers who are willing to sell such coins for less than the cost of slabbing. Over time you will hopefully learn which sellers are more likely to handle and sell them at those levels and then you can concentrate your efforts more in their direction. Best of luck and enjoy the search.

 

As i said before you can live in the world you want to. $7 might be the lowest fee they charge for what you mention but there are countless promotions that dealers take advantage of. I have bought many coins from dealers slabbed by NGC for under $5 and I have been told by the dealers that they paid $1 to get it in there. You dont know me yet you claim to have a better idea than me. You can have your opinion about that too frankly sometimes people need to tell themselves just that to make themselves feel good

 

I'm fine with readers deciding for themselves whether your "information" is accurate or not. And, in order not to derail this thread further I will not post again to it, so if you want to, you may have the last word.

 

this was my advice to the forum. the physical cost of the slab should never be considered in buying the coin IMHO. the readers can decide if they feel its worth anything and something they wish to incorporate in their decisions. I practse this and will stand by it as far as my collection goes. no hard feelings with anyone who disagrees

 

I've never heard of any TPG charging $1 a coin for grading. What you may be thinking of is that NGC & PCGS charge $1 per coin for bulk submissions where you don't meet the minimum requirement of slabbed coins. For example, you submit 100 coins with a minimum grade of MS65. You must get 35% to slab or you pay a penalty. Assume 50 slab, then you just pay the grading fee on those 50. Assume 25 slab, then you pay the grading fee on those 25 plus $1 per coin on the invoice, or $100 in this example.

The lowest bulk submission cost for any coin at NGC is $6.50, not $7 like Mark stated. Here are the fees for Lincoln cents.

Lincoln Cents
Grade / Price
66 RD and below / $6.50
67 RD / $12.00
68 RD / $15.00

I'm not sure what promotions you are referring to, but I've never heard anything remotely close to $1 a coin and I do a lot of submissions and have a lot of contacts at all the TPG. However, I do know of a MASSIVE submission that a TPG charged the submitter $5 a coin. I'm not talking a few thousand coins when I say massive, I mean massive! I also know of another TPG that charged a company $3 per coin for a large submission, but the person who authorized that submission price did it to try and buy their overall submission business and they actually lost money on that deal.

 

I have bought numerous NGC slabbed coins for less than five bucks, so to answer you questions it does happen and rather frequently as far as I see.

 

Meanwhile back to the original post. For one thing if you insist on purchasing coins from ebay, expect anything. Regardless of what anyone may say or think, slabs can be opened and the coin replaced and then resealed. If that is the case you could have a slab stating MS70 with a coin in VG8. I saw one like that at a coin show where someone did it for a joke. I could not see how it was opened.
I suggest you start going to coin shows if available. If not only purchase a coin you can see in person or accept you may receive anthing.
As to a coin in a slab selling for a dollar or there abouts, really common. Many people just have to have a coin in a slab and pay for that. Then when that coin becomes available due to many reasons, dealers leave it in the slab but full well know they will not get back the cost someone paid for that slab. Such slabs appear when someone dies, is desperate for cash, robberies, etc. If not broken out, the slabbed coin ends up for sale for whatever anyone can get for them.
I suggest you go or try to go to coin shows and you'll see this all the time.

 

ngc coins...

please continue to post mark...............love the info that you provide.

steve

 

Don't pay a premium because its in a slab, that piece of plastic and the opinion of the grader add nothing in my opinion.