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 Replies: 8 / Views: 10,891 |
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New Member
United States
16 Posts |
Hello everyone,
I'm sure this is a topic that's been brought up multiple times, but I had a few questions of my own, as I'm still a little new to currency collecting.
I've signed up for an Associate membership with PMG and sent in a few notes for grading. I purchased their Standard grading service, and the notes are on their way back as I type this. Overall I was mostly satisfied with the service turnaround time and the fairness of the grades assigned to my notes. I suppose my only complaints were the cost per note for the Standard grade service and the fact that the next grading tier down advertises a turnaround time of 77 days!
I've looked into CGA's services and I must admit it seems tempting. They advertise much lower costs and guarantee their turnaround times for all grading tiers. Plus they require no membership fees, which is nice.
So what does everyone think of CGA? I'd like to hear some unbiased opinions on their grading accuracy, the durability of their holder, customer service, etc... I'm not interested in reselling my notes, but would like to have them professionally graded just in case I ever needed to. I know the company's reputation was questionable a few years ago, and understand they are under new ownership as of 2009. Has their reputation in the community improved since then? Or should I just stick with PMG for future submissions?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3184 Posts |
If I'm correct CGA had some issues/scandal at one time. Stick with PMG and PCGS
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Valued Member
United States
486 Posts |
My opinion, The new CGA is every bit as goods as PMG and both seem to be better than PCGS, I have hundreds of notes that have been collected over the years but only own one TPG note. I do check on a lot of TPG notes thinking that maybe some day I should have some of the better notes graded, but I've not seen any of the TPG notes that would grade different than what I have graded them myself. Most times if PMG or CGA say a note is XF whatever number, I usually agree. Not so with PCGS, they are usually on the higher grade side even if the note is a low grade. So it seems that if you want to have a low grade note graded higher than it really is have PCGS grade it, if you want the note graded correctly have PMG or CGS grade it. Rather than spend or waste money on a grading service I use that money to buy more notes. Sooner or later they all make mistakes, but PCGS seems to make way more on the high side than their share, and if you study each service you will sooner or later say to yourself, how could a note like that grade VF, when that happens many more times than once you will understand what I'm saying. Bill Collector |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1812 Posts |
I used PMG to holder 2 extremely rare error notes, only because when it comes time to sell people will purchase the holder and not what's inside, kinda like PCGS and NGC on coins... CGA is equal, if not better than both PCGS & PMG, but since they are quite cheaper to certify, many will look at them as inferior... Unlike coins, Currency is unique as each note has a serial number, and a few years back I came accross a currency dealer that had numerous CGA Certified notes on ebay, many of them high value... He had photographed each note prior to selling them, then found the same notes in PCGS & PMG Holders graded higher with no mention of the notes being trimmed to even the borders, and others that were expertly repaired... He proved this with photos of the same note and serial numbers in both his CGA holder and the PCGS/PMG holders being sold by the persons (dealers) he had sold them too... Had I known years later I would find my way to this forum I would have copied the photos for others to confirm... |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
616 Posts |
My experience with PCGS has been different. So far every dealer I have talked with names them #1. I talked to a PCGS grader at the National Money Show about quite a bit and was very impressed. Later I was looking to by a bill that everyone there would have graded CU. He found 3 issues in about 90 seconds. Couldn't be totally sure until he got under there examination setup. I took the bill back to the dealer it took him about 2 minutes to find the most obvious problem when I pointed to it. But he did acknowledge it was indeed there. I came away with a new perspective on currency grading once it was explained, including certain things that I have heard people grade down for that aren't counted against an example by TPGs.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1812 Posts |
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New Member
 United States
16 Posts |
Thanks for the replies everyone. Some more questions:
- I hear rumors that CGA went through some tough times a few years back with some scandals. Anyone have more details on these allegations? Have their standards improved since of the sale of the company in 2009?
- I've also heard some auction sites will only accept notes graded by PCGS and PMG. Is this true? If so which are they, and is CGA excluded because the rumored scandals?
Thanks,
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3184 Posts |
Don't quote me but you could post on the PMG and PCGS forums and ask about the scandals but if I recall the scandal was that CGA employees were grading their own notes, tisk tisk!! I'd have to look around but you can find forum talk about the scandal
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Valued Member
United Arab Emirates
242 Posts |
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Replies: 8 / Views: 10,891 |
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Posted 11/02/2012 9:59 pm
