Grading Coins That Were Just Released

I'm with you, pal.

Problem is, while being brand new, it must be perfectly centered to get a 10.

I bought a box of Upper Deck golf cards once and about 4 packs all the cards had some kind of roller marks on them. I contacted them and sent pictures. They sent me out 10 free packs and one of them had a Tiger Woods autograph in it.

I think it depends first on what the product is. The proofs and uncirculated coins I would agree in many cases it would seem that most 'should' generally grade a 69 or 70, however the reality is that there have been some coins here and there where that was not the case...take a look at the 2021 morgans. https://www.PCGS.com/prices/detail/...tive/ms?pn=2 Clearly a 2021-d in 70 was a rare coin looking back and if you have one your very lucky, and 2021 cc seem to range from a MS66 to MS70 which would double the value over the 66 and likely far more over time. I received some 2022 liberty medals that were not close to 70s, a 70 might have been a nice purchase if the mintage was much lower. With other proofs/uncirculated some can have extremely high mintages and in those cases it really doesn't seem beneficial to grade for value. Some registry set collectors and people who collect the series may like to have one regardless and a 70 is considered the best example.

Circulated coins in the top pop grade are worth so much because as nick10 mentioned they are rarely going to come out of the mint looking perfect. In those cases a top pop grade may be a nice one, although because modern coins are generally made in too large mintages, the high value initially always will go down over time as more top grade examples are found. Older coins are already likely not going to see many more examples show up and so top grade example values are more stable and better investments generally.

I have at least 5 sets each of 81 and 82 Donruss golf cards. My dad won them at an auction. Since those were the first cards they contain many "rookie" cards and also because them being the first year the QC on them was, to quote Charles Barkley, turrible.