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 Replies: 25 / Views: 7,506 |
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Valued Member
United States
216 Posts |
I've been told that I should send valuable / high priced coins to PCGS because of the quality of their grading and PCGS-certified coins command high prices on the secondary market.
I've also been told that lower-value coins (say, up to $250 - $500) should be sent to NGC because of the quality of their grading and high grades will command high prices.
So, what type of coins should I send to ANACS and ICG? I was told that these companies are "second tier." Their grading is not always accepted as authoritative and ANACS- and ICG-graded coins command lower prices on the secondary market.
Thanks in advance.
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Moderator
 United States
56855 Posts |
Quote:
So, what type of coins should I send to ANACS Collector coins,the kind you would keep for your own collection. John1  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1648 Posts |
The main issue with using PCGS is related more to those who are just getting into grading as the yearly membership fee as one example is higher, so someone with only a couple coins to grade which are not known to be of high value and the person is also unlikely to regularly grade others through the year would get more out of starting out with NGC. Yes as you pointed out if you have high dollar coins the return value after grading may suggest using PCGS for those, but NGC is an excellent substitute when your collection is more on the low-mid level side or dont have an ongoing amount of coins to send in for grading. If you already are a member of PCGS no need to send lower value coins instead to NGC. Anacs is useful for low-mid value mint errors, personal collection coins, moderns where the value just doesn't justify normal grading etc. Some suggest to not use anacs otherwise as NGC does not cost much to join, discounted the first year if you happen to be a ANA member or wish to join anyway (and is actually 0 if you have a bunch to send in at once by joining with the premium tier that gives $150 credit with your $149 membership. Yes the return value selling with Anacs slabs for higher dollar coins is mentioned to be lower, but the grading fees are lower as well. Anacs also doesn't have a membership fee to join so its another to consider with a few coins only that arent of great value and less likely to need ongoing grading. This however can make a difference when the coin value is quite high. And there are some that would prefer to stay with say NGC and never move to PCGS so there are personal preferences at play such as how they like the slab or the grading process, grading quality and dealing with the specific company. Edited by datadragon
01/06/2023 11:14 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2213 Posts |
I don't know much about this. But if you plan to only send in a few coins to grade, not wanting to become a member of a TPG, you could have a friend, someone in a coin club or local coin dealer that are members you trust to send your few coins in for grading which might save you money, you'd pay the fees and a little extra to them I assume. Some do have a preference which TPG to use. I've heard the general rule of thumb is if a coin is worth less than about $150 - $200 it's not worth grading. IMO if I had a very rare high grade coin I'd go with PCGS, others NGC, but I actually prefer most of my coins raw, ungraded. Edited by livingwater
01/06/2023 11:10 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1648 Posts |
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I've heard the general rule of thumb is if a coin is worth less than about $150 - $200 it's not worth grading Grading costs depend on the tier you use and can be very inexpensive such as moderns. The issue is there is a $10 handling fee added with NGC as an example, plus shipping both ways. These added fees dont justify in most cases sending 1 or 2 low value coins in... but perhaps if those inexpensive coins were added to a batch of other submissions sent in together the added costs are more absorbed by spreading over the quantity of coins when sending many coins together.(Grading cost per coin goes down). In other words you could add some of those low value moderns so long as you were sending in other stuff at same time and can easily grade low value coins worth even under $50. Might consider getting a few collectors together if only have a couple coins as well. This is why you see so many graded come from dealers who have many coins to submit at once. https://www.ngccoin.com/submit/services-fees/ngc/ https://anacs.com/services/ https://www.PCGS.com/servicesandfeesEdited by datadragon
01/06/2023 11:31 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2213 Posts |
Yes of course. Submitting coins in bulk saves money. But will grading a low value coin increase it's sale value enough to cover grading costs? That's up collectors to consider/decide.
Edited by livingwater
01/06/2023 11:52 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1648 Posts |
Quote:
Yes of course. Submitting coins in bulk saves money. But will grading a low value coin increase it's sale value enough to cover grading costs? That's up collectors to consider/decide. You can determine that a bit by just looking up the graded values on NGC or PCGS prior to any considering of grading them such as https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide/united-states/ Further they provide a census of how many are graded in each grade. Generally its modern coins where only the top grade or two has decent value while other lower grades are of lower value than potential grading fees, so generally grading such modern coins is going to be speculation and its here where I would advise caution until you are experienced, understand how to look at census to see how many may grade in such high condition, and able to have a general idea of what a top grade coin looks like so you dont end up with lots of graded coins worth less than the fees to grade them. Also realize modern coins many times are found on places like ebay already graded, so long as its not the top pop example it usually may be found at a great price below what you would pay to grade one yourself and without speculation as to its final grade. Top pop modern coins are not considered good investments as millions or billions are made and likely other examples will come out with same or even higher grade over time unlike older coins where most top examples may have been discovered. Edited by datadragon
01/06/2023 12:04 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5391 Posts |
Best way ,buy the coin not the Holder .
I have seen brutal grading from all of them .
Ask your self this ..,why are so many coins
Submitted , resubmitted, cracked out ,
Crossed over , CACed etc . ?
A premium rare coin that is in the grade will sell for
the right money in any holder .
Grading is the crutch many collectors use instead of
Learning A / How to grade B/ The current standards
C/ Evolving with both A&B.
Another question to ponder , are PCGS and NGC the top
2 Grading firms ? Or are they simply the 2 best marketers
of what they offer?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3323 Posts |
Rules I personally live by based on my limited observations:
1. Is it a coin that will bring decent money from a registry set builder? Send to PCGS because NGC sets will accept PCGS slabs, but not vice-versa.
2. Is it a coin that needs variety attribution to sell well? Again, send to PCGS for the same reason as #1 (if they will attribute the variety - see their list.) If PCGS doesn't attribute, send to ANACS who will attribute nearly anything. The ANACS slabs sell for a little less in general, though.
3. Is it a coin that will sell outside a slab for about the same price as in? Don't send it to anyone.
4. Is it a coin I plan to keep? Don't send to anyone.
I may be looking at this rather simply, but it's all my brain can hang onto.
"Nummi rari mira sunt, si sumptus ferre potes." - Christophorus filius Scotiae
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2213 Posts |
Bump111, I like your thought process.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3323 Posts |
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Bump111, I like your thought process. I appreciate the kind words. I am by no means an authority on this, but I've read the conversations here, done my research on the coins I consider selling and I have several that I want to send in for grading when the time is right - seems to be an appreciable delay with PCGS at present. To date I've sent only three coins to be graded. Two were sold at a nice profit while the third came back at a lower grade than I expected. The grade negated any profit I may have realized, so I still have that one hoping the price goes up in the future. My personal favs are and will remain raw coins. I'm also considering the service that some auction houses offer where they handle the grading and auction. That would seem to be a time saver and, hopefully, a wash when the coin is sold. If anyone has other experiences I'd be happy to hear about them. "Nummi rari mira sunt, si sumptus ferre potes." - Christophorus filius Scotiae
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5825 Posts |
My personal preferences:
#1 - NGC (At this time PCGS turnaround time is ridiculously long otherwise I would have given them the #1 spot)
#2 - PCGS (Rightly or wrongly they still get more respect than NGC)
#3 - ANACS (But only for mid-value coins, particularly if 20th/21st century)
#4 - ICG (I'd skip them)
(#5) - CAC (New kid on the initial grading block; who knows?)
Edited by kanga
01/07/2023 10:27 am
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Valued Member
United States
191 Posts |
As someone just starting to use TPGs, I appreciate the insight and opinions of the contributors to this subject.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5825 Posts |
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I've heard the general rule of thumb is if a coin is worth less than about $150 - $200 it's not worth grading. Mostly true but getting coins graded that are also special to you is often done. In my case I've got a slabbed set of US coins from my birth year. All business and proof coins from that year and they are all graded MS/PF 65 or 66. Let's just say that it's an older set from WWII. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
517 Posts |
I use all of the "top 4" TPG's as each has its niche in my experience. PCGS is acknowledged as the top slab to sell in the Marketplace and I use them for any of my higher value coins. They are to my knowledge the only one of the top 4 who guarantee their assigned variety attribution, which is important for rare varieties like early copper (I collect low grade early large cents). Also in my experience PCGS is a little more lenient on slightly "cleaned" examples. I own a number of countermarked coins and find NGC to be the best to certify and slab them. They don't guarantee their variety attribution so I don't send them varieties to certify. They are tougher on suspected cleaned coins in my opinion as well. ANACS is actually really good with early copper and variety attributions but they only guarantee them to the extent they will correct the label and reholder at no cost- a problem if you bought an expensive misattributed coin! I do send them any problem early copper for their slab. They are less expensive but also valued below PCGS and NGC in the marketplace. ICG is cool in that they offer an "educational/ counterfeit" holder- the only one of the top 4 and I believe in the industry. I have a number of examples in these holders for education and sharing. ICG is also very good at determining and attributing fakes and I recommend them if there is any doubt in your mind your example is genuine. They are also much lower cost for certification. All 4 guarantee authenticity, which is a key to me in the current climate of the hobby- there are many very deceptive counterfeits out there and the guarantee can be very important. |
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Valued Member
United States
164 Posts |
I personally only submit coins to ANACS. There's maybe a dozen out of about 200 submissions that I've done that I would even consider crossing over. Even then, it would only be for the benefit of selling some of the higher dollar coins. In my opinion, PCGS and NGC are no better than ANACS, and I just cannot justify paying 2-3x the cost to slab coins just because I might be able to get a better return. The only thing that PCGS and NCG obviously have over ANACS is the popularity of their registry sets. Conversely, ANACS is the best of the three when it comes to attributions. If you're just looking to protect and preserve your coins for your own personal collection, there's really no justification for spending tons of extra money. Quote:
Another question to ponder, are PCGS and NGC the top
2 Grading firms? Or are they simply the 2 best marketers
of what they offer? This is really all it is in my opinion. On the one hand, one of the most common phrases you'll hear in this hobby is "buy the coin, not the holder". Meanwhile those two seem to maintain a level of prestige above ANACS that I'm not convinced is fully deserved. Both have concerning issues with service and credibility lately. Not so much on grading quality but business model and practices as well as turnaround times. For the most part, it's just the same explanation every time, "they sell for more". If you're worried about return, perhaps $250 per coin value is a reasonable cutoff to where it starts to matter. If say ANACS generally returns 10% less than the other two, a $200 coin in a PCGS/NGC slab may only return $180 in an ANACS slab, but you already spent that extra $20 on grading in the first place. I don't know what specials the other two run, but ANACS frequently runs pretty great specials. Right now they're doing Silver Eagles for $10 as their "Coin of the Month". Between the "Coin of the Month" and Seasonal specials, you can pretty much get any US coin valued under $500 you want graded for about $10-12 each over the course of the year as long as you wait to submit each type when the appropriate special comes around. These are always economy turnarounds, but I've never had to wait more than maybe 8 weeks. If you're in a bit of a hurry, here's a comparison of their express services:  ANACS - 5 days ($5k max value): $30 NGC - 6 days ($10k max value): $80 PCGS - 15 days ($10k max value): $70 If you are willing to spend $70-80 a coin, ANACS does a 2 day turnaround with max value of $10k for $59. Edited by chirrrs
02/07/2023 08:30 am
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Replies: 25 / Views: 7,506 |
Posted 01/06/2023 10:35 am
