At What Point Is It Worth Sending In For Grading?

Depending on which service you choose and specials, etc. you are talking $10-30... so the graded & certified coin has to be worth at least that much more than raw.

Rules of thumb: $200 or gold (because of the # of fakes out there)

But like all rot it's only rough. I sent a $3 coin in to fill out my last ANACS submission because everything else in that set was slabbed and I didn't like the look of the coin in a black everslab.

A decision to send a coin for grading could be based on justifying the cost spent on grading fees and return shipping, such that a profit can be made on those expenses, if you should decide to sell.
Some collectors adopt their own rule of thumb as regards potential value; say around $100.

The fact that an independant third party has graded it takes a lot of the risk out of a sale, especially if the buyer is not able to personally inspect the coin, before deciding to make a purchase.
Ultimately, when it comes to selling, it is the potential value of the coin that will help you decide if you should TPGrade or not.


A decision to send a coin for grading could also be based on the need to authenticate it, or to have it properly protected. In the case of protection, the slab should be airtight. In these cases as well, the potential value of the coin should be high enough to justify the costs of TPGrading.

Another of the downsides of slabs is that in terms of storage and display, they do not fit into a larger collection in which most of the other coins are not in slabs.

All we can really do for you is give you some guidelines enough to make your own decision to TPG slab or not.

That's an odd price scheme you have CotW. Why doesn't NGC start at $300 like PCGS? Why not coins over 3/4 mill to NGC? And damn, only up to $500 to ANACS, what's the beef there? I would go at least a grand to make them feel loved.

Well I doubt I have a single coin worth a couple hundred bucks, but thanks for the information. Like I said, I'll probably make my first slab purchase from the LCS.

Hi, I share the same doubts of SpaceMaNy0 about grading services. Are they even available for Cuba?
Also, there is some disturbing info about the accuracy of TPGs under "Numismatic Guaranty Corporation" in Wikipedia, which makes me wonder if it is a smart choice at all.

Numismatic Guarantee Corp (NGC) is considered one of the top two (with PCGS) in the industry. If you are going to have doubts about them, you may have doubts about them all.

That being said, none of them are 100% because grading is subjective and the grade on the label is simply their opinion. Remember to always buy the coin and not the label.