I've been collecting for about 10 years now and have yet to buy any membership for a grading service. What is the price of getting you coins graded? I'd like to know if any of my coins are actually worth anything. Getting them professionally graded would be the best way to find out. I have some real nice lincoln but if the price of grading is more than the coin is actually worth I'd rather not. Please give me a listing of membership fee's and slabbing costs. BTW, just picked up another set of lincolns today 1934- 1983 all in MS quality. I would like to send that set in to see if I have any MS 67 or better. With my purchase today, it brings my 1909-2006 set count to 5! Still looking for a 1909 svdb, I have 5 1909s, 3 1914d, and 5 1931s. I think its time to see what they are actually worth. I have alot of nichel dimes a quarter sets but my lincolns are my favorite. VERY expensive hobby if your a serious collector. Thanks
It's not as simple as saying, "PCGS $15, NGC $18.50, ANACS $10...." there are different prices for different coins and different services. I'd pick a few services that you are interested in, go to the web sites, and look at the pricing to decide if it's worth it to you.
I use NGC. For $100 you get a PF69 clad state quarter ($10) and 5 submissions at the 12 day turnaround. Plus you get a couple other coupons to the comic book and baseball card side of their business. The downside to NGC is that unless you've had your coins prescreened by someone (for cleaning, damage, etc) NGC may not provide grades for all your coins. From that perspective ANACS is better because they will grade a cleaned coin and label it cleaned. With that said I am thinking about letting my membership lapse after this year and just submitting coins to NGC through a local dealer. That's worth the extra few bucks per coin becasue at least you can have confidence that the coin will be graded. However I can't see myself buying too many more raw coins in the future and am principally buying graded coins these days, mostly by NGC. Hope this helped.
I do not know how many you are thinking of slabbing, but at the appropriate NGC dealer you can get minimum of 100 certified 65 or greater for $6 each. I do not remember all of the conditions, but at least 35 (not sure if that is a percent or an absolute quantity) must grade at 65 or better and lower grades will not be certified. I do not know if this is available for private submissions. I assume that PCGS has a similar offer, but I know no particulars.
You don't need to get them graded by a grading company to know what they are worth. Before you buy any more coins I would strongly suggest taking some time and buying some books on grading----ANA Grading Guide and Photograde and PCGS's guide. Grading isn't something that can be picked up overnight but takes long and hard study. But the books will help you get an idea at least of the grades....then you can check out online price guides such as Heritage for the date and mintmark of your coin in that grade and find out what they have been selling for. That will save you a TON of money rather than sending them to NGC. Let me add---I send coins to NGC myself---but only when I'm pretty sure of what it is going to grade and only when it is worth it....such as, I bought a 1926-S Buff nickel graded F15, and worth about $100.....I was pretty sure that it was VF20 and sent it off...I was right and later sold the coin for $250. Speedy
Sounds like what you really want to do is waste a LOT of money. If you insist on sending some in to be graded, pick a few from your sets that you feel are the nicest and send them off. If you do well with the grades you can send more. If not, you know not to waste a ton of money.
Thanks, I have a ton of books and can pretty much spot the lower grades from G- XF. It's when they are MS I get confused. The main thing I look for on MS coins are blemishes, carbon, and toning. I just can't tell the difference between MS 65 or 66 and so on. Thats why I'm wondering if I should send them in to let the pro's do it. Look at it this way, I have a 1931s lincoln I would say is atleast MS65 but but it was really an MS 67 I would atleast know for sure. I can't see myself selling my coins but my safe is almost full and I have to start weeding out the lesser grades.
Which grading service gives the most accurate grade? And which is the most recognized service amongst collectors?
That is normal Even the graders do that----send the same coin 5 times and you might get 5 differnt grades. The chances are that it isn't an 67....few are..... Why not post a few clear photos of the coins on here....we have members that have worked or work at grading companies---others work for large coin companies...and others are just as good as the "pro's". Well that is kindof an opened ended question....there are hundreds of "Grading Companies", but I would suggest the top few... NGC, PCGS, ANACS, ICG. NGC and PCGS are the "top grading companies", and both will are recognized.....My opinion is that NGC is the best and most consistent. Some think that PCGS is. Sometimes it depends on what coin you are sending...sometimes PCGS is harder on a coin than NGC...but most of the time I would say it's the other way around. Many times collectors/investers think that PGCS must be better because their "slabs" seem to sell for more. In the cases where that is true it is not because they are better---it is because the bidders haven't researched the facts and learned that you don't buy the SLAB but you rather buy the COIN. Speedy
If you are on a timeline, and dont have time to learn to grade yourself, consider a consistant and accurate third tier service like UGS for $3 or so. Will you ever sell a UGS slabbed coin for the price of a PCGS slabbed coin? Heck no, but it will give you an idea to base things off of. Personally, for resale, PCGS then NGC are the tops of course. ANACS has a good reputation, but I wouldnt touch ICG.....I am well more likely to break an ICG coin out of its slab and either album it or 2X2 it. As said above tho, learn to grade.....it is what makes the hobby enjoyable. Only way I would send in coins to be graded now is more for the certification of rare coins like '09SVDB, 16D, or 3-legged buffalos. The folks here and the resources cited above have taught me to grade pretty well. Just
UGS???? ICG is just as consistent and tough as NGC and PCGS for pre-1964 coinage, maybe even more so. For moderns they might overgrade a bit but they do good on older coins. Ron: If you would like to submit directly to NGC without buying a membership, go here. http://www.ngccoin.com/ebay_ngcvalue.cfm
I would strongly recommend avoiding any tpg other than NGC, PCGS, ANACS, or ICG. As for a rough estimate ICG costs less than $10 per coin, ANACS costs about $15 per coin, NGC costs about $20 and PCGS is about $30 per coin. PCGS and NGC have membership clubs that collectors must join to submit directly to them that cost anywhere from $100-$200+. The clubs have benefeits (free submissions, usually) that offset most of their cost, but they exist none-the-less. Be aware that the market values the coins of each company differently and that needs to be considered when choosing a service. That said, I recommend that you follow gmarguli's advice and only submit a few of your best coins and see how it goes. Then make your next decision based on the results.
09-S, 14-D and 31-S Unless you have some killer coins of other dates I'd go with the 09-S, 14-D and 31-S. Now do you want them graded, switched or overgraded? That's where you really have to decide. Besides doing a lot of reading and comparing (I prefer the ANA guide) show them to reputable dealers and see what they think. clembo
Up till about 6 months ago i would have accepted that until I found two morgan dollars that were labeled as MS 64 or MS 65 that had scratches across the fields and one had either rust or something like across one edge of it. I did a side by side comparison of slabbed PCGS, NGC, ICG and UGS. All the guesses were + or - 1 grade from what was stated on the slab. So evidently the grading is pretty on target. I'm dont want this to be an arguement like last time when UGS was brought up. My original post said: they are cheap, gives a good idea of grade, but wont sell for near the price of an NGC or PCGS. UGS isnt up to the notoriety of the big 4, and as long as people blow them off with out a try, no service will be regardless of the quality of service they offer.
