Submit your own coins to TPG or use a dealer? Which TPG do you use?

As much as I like my coin dealer, I can just "tell" he doesn't like to submit coins to TPGers.... I've only had him do three in the past four years (to PCGS) I have a feeling people are taking advantage of him. I see boxes and boxes come in to the store and when I ask if they're for sale, the reply is, "nope, they are customer submissions"

I'd like to start doing it myself.... not for profit but for the enjoyment and (hopefully) a little education. I have a stack of books on the subject but I'd like more hands on. Any dialog on experiences, thoughts, etc. would be great...

I have my eye on ICG or should I just push the issue with my dealer?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

If you have a good rapport with the dealer and you bought the coins there, continue to use his services.

Or, join the ANA - which gives you NGC submission privlidges.

 

Don't waste your money on getting coins graded. UNLESS... you can't tell it's a counterfeit or not. Or you're turning the coin for a profit and grading it brings more profit from sale (after accounting for all costs of course).

Otherwise, use that money to buy more coins.

 

There are plenty reasons to have coins graded other than just telling whether it's counterfeit or resale. There are also plenty of reasons to not bother where it is a waste of money. It is expensive to have coins graded, which as pointed out could be useful for buying more coins, which is always a good thing...

That being said, you need to figure out your reasons for grading, and then that will help you pick what to do. If you want to build registry sets you don't have a choice but to grade with PCGS or NGC. If you want to preserve a coin - toning will drastically slow down while in a holder - it's a good idea. If you simply want to have your coins in plastic, then don't bother grading and go with the many snap-lock plastic holders that are out there.

PCGS and NGC are generally considered 1 and 2 respectively for consistency and industry standards. They also bear the highest price for their services, and you have to have a minimum $50/year membership just to be able to submit directly. They will however bring the best return when going to sell over any other TPG. The submission forms can be confusing especially when considering varieties so you may want to stick with going through your dealer.

Anacs is considered 3rd, with their recent gradings closer but still a point or so difference on average from PCGS/NGC. However they will attribute a lot of the errors and varieties the others won't, and for that reason are used by a lot of error collectors. They are also I believe the cheapest, where if you are simply a member of the ANA you can submit for $10 or $12 a coin directly. Their forms are a little less daunting and might be good to start with if doing yourself. Most bang for the buck.

ICG is the last of the major TPG's. I've heard they've gotten much better recently but again are also a bit behind the others and your resale value will be substantially less than the others. For example, last year I bought a 1974 Ike slabbed by them as PR70. It's not by any means, but I bought it simply for the fun of it, for it being the only "70" label I have for that series. It cost me $40, which is the going rate for a PR68 from PCGS. Personally I've never used them and don't plan on it.

Hope this helps.

 

Why do you want to submit coins to ICG?

 

Preservation really isn't a good excuse for sending to a TPG. Good quality generic shells or airtites are much cheaper and do as well as the TPG holders.

 

Sodude.... I am getting a little better at grading. When I attended a large coin show here in the midwest, many of the ICG coins looked very well graded to me. Many of the dealers were also very impressed with their grading as of late. In contrast, I saw an ICG proof set on ebay yesterday - all PR70. As Doug said if they are known for higher than actual grades, then they are NOT for me. I'm not in this for the money... I'm just very interested in the grading part of the hobby - still new enough to think it's cool to see a grade on a slab I guess

I used to really like PCGS but I've personally seen some CRAZY stuff from them recently. That whole rumor about AU58 through MS62 all being mushed together? Well, I'm starting to believe it... Plus their costs are high.

Unfortunately I don't know what to do. I'm 3 coins shy of a complete PCGS MS Peace set, and I have a good start on a PCGS Morgan set. Really disheartened right now... I wanted to stick with PCGS (that's the OCD in me)

 

Nearly all coins purchased for a collection are eventually sold. ICG, ANACS and SEGS have terribly small market shares and even less respect among an enormous swath of the collecting community. Frankly, sending submissions to these three companies can make a coin less liquid than if it were raw. Send the coins to PCGS and learn how to grade.

 

I see many Morgans +VAM no in ANACS slabs. If you just want them to confirm that your coin is 1) genuine 2) problem-free 3) a VAM variety then what's so bad about ANACS considering they are apparently not as expensive as others? You can always consider your ANACS63 to be a 62 only ;-)

 

NGC; they are the cheapest and fastest of the big two and have better customer service.

The local shop refused to get coins graded for me in the past. My first submission was through the ANA with good results.

 

Sage advice given here. I personally have only sent to PCGS. Out of about 30 coins sent, I was pretty dang close on grades. And the couple Genuines, that I was sure were problem free, became a lot clearer after studying the coins more when they came back. I won't make a claim to who is "better", but I will say submit to NGC or PCGS. If your going to throw money at grading, at least give it to a company that is widely respected in the coin community.

If your grading is on par with ICG examples, I suggest putting more work in learning how to grade. I'm not bashing every ICG graded coin, but on a whole, they are not as good as they could be.

 

I prefer the PCGS slabs but the extra expense and time means that NGC gets most of my coins for certification. Also they have an advantage that they do not sell any coins unlike PCGS/Collector's Universe/David Hall Coins, etc..

Whenever I did a PCGS order they would almost invariably took an extra day or two to log-in the no problem order and took as much time on their expresses as NGC takes on the early bird. Plus they ship in that big blue boat box adding to shipping costs. NGC images all coins now too without charge, not great images but good to verify them. All in all I much prefer NGC.

 

I use pcgs and none other.