Why The Price Difference Between Some NGC And PCGS Coins

There are some people who do exactly what you are saying. Some people play the crack out game which is similar but they are try to get the next grade up with coins that are really close.

PCGS seems to be the one that people want so people take advantage of it. Of course things aren't always clear cut easy because of various factors. Older slabs may have been graded harder. Some slabs maybe over graded. You may send in a coin and it comes back undergraded, etc.

Now you should be buying the coin and not the holder, of course.

Are they both truly MS65, though ?

Can you be sure that a coin graded by NGC as MS65 will be graded by PCGS as MS65 ?

If you can trust both gradings, why pay a crossover fee at all, just liberate it from its plastic and sell it unslabbed ?


I don't like to buy slabbed coins; though I can see the point for rare and very highly priced coins.

Basically , they are what it says they are. It is not like people closely examine coins in NGC or PCGS slabs, or ANACS or ICG slabs for that matter.

If NGC says it is an MS65, it will sell as an MS65. If you crack it, all bets are off. Then, it is only an MS65 if the buyer or person looking at it says so.

Definitely for USA coins and more specifically for modern coins. PCGS is new to the world coin aspect so the jury is still out on how they will be on those.




That is a decade ago and not really relevant imo. Regardless of time frame though you're also talking about a hand full of coins out of millions graded. They're some dogs in their holders, that's true for every company they're human and humans aren't perfect. I doubt anyone would ever be willing to spend the money to actually get a statistically significant sample size for that.

That said PCGS generally is more conservative with their top grades for a coin. Whether NGC over-grades those or PCGS under-grades them is open for debate, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.




I never said it didn't. If either crossed 100 percent of coins that would be admitting the other is better.




Youre entitled to your opinion I hate NGC slabs and the look of the white. The clear looks much better in my opinion especially for silver. I don't see how you can say one is more professional than the other they're both sturdy and well made which is what you want, the only one I would question the quality of the holder on is ANACS who are much easier to crack open.

All my coins are PCGS partly because I do like their holders better so I find coins that match what I'm looking for. It makes it a little harder but I like the uniform look better as well, call it ocd or whatever but from what I've seen I find myself saying "how did that coin get that grade" less with PCGS than NGC. In fairness I don't know what they looked like when they were graded and maybe they were stored poorly of the NGC slab is more susceptible to the environment. That is how I want to do it though if someone else wants to use all three or NGC or ANACS for that matter by all means go ahead you're fine with any of the big three.




I did mention that on any two given coins either can be better than the other. There are always exceptions to every rule but if you had to make a blanket general statement PCGS coins do consistently sell for more than their NGC counter parts just like both sell for more than ANACS.

It kind of is what it is. Like I mentioned I wont dissuade someone from using NGC or ANACS if that's what they like but if someone asks I will mention that PCGS coins do have a premium because the market reflects that right now. Could that change sure, NGC coins could take over the top stop in the future. I don't personally see anyone taking either or those two out unless they implode on their own with their market shares and new collectors coming about in the age of slabs.

But I do believe that if someone asks they should be given that information and make their own decisions off of it. Collector or not resale is part of the equation whether it be once were gone to be sold as an inheritance, or if you fall on hard times and don't have a choice. But I wont ever argue that someone should buy the coins they like that they can afford.

PCGS and NGC grading of world coins approaches an atrocity. They are like Fitch and Moodys as they have to serve both dealer and buyer too, mostly dealer.

"If you can trust both gradings, why pay a crossover fee at all, just liberate it from its plastic and sell it unslabbed"

You can't trust any grading as it expands to accomodate demand. Many coins I see in 65 slabs are far too imperfect to have been considered the same back when I first started collecting. This is particularly true of Morgans.