Expert Opinion By NGC In 5 Minutes Flat?

Devil's advocate:

Maybe someone else paid $5 for NGC to look at that coin previously so they had an opinion already on file?

A lot of folks agree with NGC, because I see that the coin currently has 44 bids...

203244686901

I don't think five bucks for a non-binding "opinion" is something I would want to pay for. I'll pass on this new ebay service.

I only considered it because it's so valuable and I was curious. The coin is already out of my price range. But for the price, it's not a bad deal.

Indeed that is a quick turnaround, though I think they must be used to doing that since they are ebay auctions.
I also shared my experience a while ago, which had the opposite result: http://goccf.com/t/351505&SearchTerms=NGC,service

I am sure it didn't come back in 5 minutes, but sure it was within 24 hrs

Travelcoin;

The market has a way of moving to money. So in one respect NGC is being practical in getting multiple people guaranteed probably to ask the same question about a sought after coin, and might be actually making more for their coin opinion than they would if they were asked to slab it by the owner. So you can't blame the company for moving to a revenue stream. But they inadvertently may not realize they are helping to legitimize ebay over auction houses and other coin sites for ancient coins. And the money they make can be considered at the expense of depressed prices for traditional dealers using more established paths to sell coins. Poor brick and mortar anything these days. I have no one to pay in my dealings and can pay more for coins I put up for auction than others perhaps as I have no employees. But do we want a world with no employees and all private contractors doing this only? So much changed this year, not just the probably 50% of small restaurants not part of chains having to close eventually. Lines are blurring so much in who has what job, what competition actually looks like. So NGC is just trying to find their niche I imagine to make it through.

Louisville you have some very good points. It's hard for any one of us to stop the evolution of commerce. However, I think there is a niche market out for all vendors. For example, I like to get out of the house and spend some time in my local "brick and morter" shop (who now also lists on ebay). Not sure if ebay will replace legitimate auction houses, but there is a place for both. One thing for sure, is that you will not find "unidentified ancient" too often in a auction house. On ebay there are some greats finds and great sellers that typically beat the hammer price in most auction houses.

In this dog eat dog world you need to adapt or die. In 2000, Netflix offered to sell to Blockbuster for 50 million - they declined and we all know what happened after that.