Why grade a silver eagle?

I have a question. I'm trying to find a way to "offset" my coin habit. I'm just one of those people that tries to make a buck on EVERYTHING they do I guess.

I like the silver US Eagles. They are relatively cheep and are a great looking coin. So one of my books I'm working on filling is a Dansco Eagles+Proofs.

I've looked at several of the grading services and although PCGS is the most expensive they also bring the most money on eBay. So, here's my math, maybe somebody can shed some light on what I am missing. I'm also not going to take a lot of costs into account: shipping cost, selling cost and other major costs.

If I were to buy a 2005 Green Monster for $7000 (I know, I can't get one that cheep) I would have paid an average or $14 for 500 coins. And I'll also assume that I had them graded by PCGS and every one of them came back MS69 (and I know that's impossible too)

With 500 coins the $200 membership fee is only $0.20 per coin.
So the cost.

Coin: $14
Membership: $0.20
PCGS Grading: $14 (http://www.pcgs.com/grading_list.chtml - U.S. Modern)

I should be able to sell that coin on eBay for $25.......

That brings me to a loss of $3.20 + eBay, Paypal and shipping costs.

Anyhow, why in the world would anybody have a silver eagle graded?

Thanks

 

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You forgot the shipping costs. PCGS makes you pay for the return shipping which for 500 coins would cost you $125.35 and about the same to mail the coins to them, assuming you buy insurance.

Don't forget to add that additional $250.00 into your losses.

Also, by the way: Welcome to the forum!!

 

The thing is that PCGS gives a % off the total when you send in bulk.
I'm not sure how much it is off but someone here might know for sure.

Speedy

 

Don't have them graded. If you ever try to sell them most dealers will only give you a little above spot silver prices for them because they are only bullion coins.

 

haha, right. It just doesn't make sense I must be missing something. At any one time there are hundreds of eagles on ebay graded by PCGS, then there are the other grading companies and then theres the thousands of other coins. You guys know a lot more about it than me. I've only been messing around with coins for almost 2 years now.

The % off thing does make a bit of sense.

 

welcome to the forum .. and keep up the heavy thinking .. its how learning by accident achieves its highest percentage

 

I think many of the MS69s are the dropouts from boxes where the person submitting was looking for MS70s to produce their profit.

 

I would have to agree that one sends a coin in expecting the highest grade.That is the only reason for doing so. I personally like MS 69 coins, they are affordable compared to the MS 70's. It is purly a matter of choice. For every graded coin I own , I have 200 that are not. I enjoy them all.

 

learning by accident is far better then learning from an accident.

there are many coins that are a waste of money to get graded. you should see the "stuff" that i see pass through my dad's hands. many world coins made of gold and silver are just barely worth above bullion and they are slabbed and highly graded. someone must have thought there would be a market for this "stuff" guess they got it wrong.

-Steve

 

I would never pay to slab/grade a silver eagle. But occasionally you can buy them slabbed for about the same price as purchasing the coin plus an airtite. To me, this is worth buying.

 

If you sent at least 100 SAE's to PCGS you would qualify for a bulk rate. The pricing for bulk submissions is a little tricky, but MS69's should only cost $10.00 a coin to slab. Hope this helps!

Tom

 

Howdy,

Variations on a theme. I buy from the mint every year as I get things at retail, such that it is.

There are various items they sell each year and while I buy 3 of most evertying (me and the grandkids), there are some I buy more.

This past year I bought 5 3 pc silver anniversary sets and 10 of the 2006 burnished silver eagle.

Needlesstosay, I hit the jackpot on these two purchases. In both cases, it would probably be worthwhile to have them graded, or at a minimum sell them on ebay. I think they're selling for ~$400 and $100 respectively raw or graded MS-69. However, if you get into MS-70 the price of poker skyrockets.

just mumbling,

rono

 

If you find one in MS-67 to 70 it is worth mega bucks.

 

"Why grade a silver eagle? "

I see only two real answers -- profit or registry -- and neither one is a good answer as far as I'm concerned.

 

If you purchased a "Green Monster" box of ASE for $7000.00, then sell the 25 individual "tubes" of 20 coins per tube at $300.00 each, the "profit" would be $500.00.....right? Less any other "costs". Just a thought. Probably wrong some wheres along the line! LOL

swick

 

Why grade silver eagle ....profit ..pure unadulterated profit.

17,500 - one green monster box purchased and graded.

80 MS70 at $175 each = 14,000
320 MS69 at $40 each = 12,800
80 ms68 at $25 each = 2,000
20 MS67 at $20 each = 400

Total:29,000 - 17,500 cost = 11,700 profit.

 

Guys?????

If you all remember my old post....

PCGS does NOT give Silver Eagles MS-70 grades

Here's the old post...

LINK

 

That's exactly why anybody would ever get anything graded... if you're just collecting and have no intention on reselling your coins there is no reason to get any of your coins graded! Only exception that makes sense to me is if you have a coin of questionable authenticity and are willing to pay for an expert opinion on whether or not it's real. Grading is completely subjective as you can easily prove by sending the same coin to multiple graders (or even the same coin to the same grader, multiple times!), so what is the opinion really worth? Especially if you're only collecting for your own benefit and not for the sake of reselling at a profit?

I just don't understand what makes a theoretically perfect coin any more valuable than a coin that's almost perfect but you need a magnifiying glass to tell that it's not. If you can't tell, why should you care? If even the so-called experts can't tell all the time, why should you care? Far too high a value is placed on grading. I'd never pay a single cent more for a graded coin than that same coin in the same grade would cost raw, ever. In fact the only reason I'd ever buy a graded coin is if the coin is counterfeited often enough to make it worth paying for assurance of its authenticity (say, for a trade dollar).

I'm starting to agree with the kind of people that assert that the so-called reputable graders are no better than the ones that are not... they all take advantage of people's belief that a slab with someone's opinion on the grade makes the coin worth more. Not standing up for companies like SGS, but how are any of the major graders people consider reputable any better? Because they conform to a higher subjective standard? So what? What makes that worth anything? Use your own eyes to decide if a coin is worth its selling price, and stop relying on someone else's purely subjective opinion, and you'll get the coins you want for a lot less money. It may sound like a cliche to say "buy the coin, not the slab," but it's a cliche for a reason.