Opinions On ICG

9 bucks is cheap so it depends what you want to put in plastic. If you want to know if something is authentic then go to the pre grade and ask. ICG is a smaller outfit but they have some good graders on staff so if you have questions, ask them at the show. They are not nearly as well known as the BIG two but they also dont charge near as much either allowing cheaper coins to be graded. Personally I like raw coins when examining them, but slabbing sure can help when selling. Ulitmately to answer your question....they are a second tier grading company. Sometimes too loose in their grading which is why some dealers look down on their slabs. I see a lot of marketing done through them...aka special this or that coins. Its because they slab cheap I'm sure. Hope that helps.

U git what you pay for, sometimes less.

if you can go to the FUN show, randy Campbell gives you approx. grades for free. he's at a couple of coin shows in my area.

This one is a bit tricky to answer. When ICG first came out, they were the bees knees; a fantastic response to the big 2. Over the years they lost some of their luster to some looser grading standards, especially in moderns. The staff now has completely changed over as of a couple of years ago and personally I don't know where they are at now. I guess, if I had some lower value coins that I wanted authenticated and protected/displayed in a slab, I wouldn't mind using them.

1. If you think you have a coin worth grading, then the $9 might be a waste.
2. If your coin is really worth grading, then it would pay in the future to have used one of the top TPGS's
3. You didn't mention if that fee includes a slab. If so, does it get done there or do you have to wait for it to come back to you?
4. Why not just use the $9 towards a coin you need or want.

I would agree about only using them on less expensive coins. It is nice to have walk through capability at a show and prescreening as well. I am not a big slab buyer but have have some ICG holdered coins which imo are properly graded. I also have returned some slq's that were overgraded ICG's and went for bluesheet prices...aka you get what you pay for.

If you don't know the grade and the $9 includes slabbing I would definitely pay it because you will have a grade and more importantly the coin will be protected. No holder - it's up to you.

I have bought several coins graded by ICG because of how the coin looked to me and compared it to the same graded coin in PCGS and NGC holders and because in fact they sell for less money. I have even bought 1 each of the same date & grade Morgan dollars from all the top 4 grading services to compare. Truth of the matter is I have compared same grade coins from all the services and ICG compares with the purported top 3. Also I am a collector not a professional grader but I have seen many PCGS & NGC graded coins that I wouldn't buy at the grade given and some that are terrible looking.

I personally am buying the coin not the holder(crack the coin out and what do you have), but that's precisely what people are doing with PCGS and NGC especially. For example early release and first strike. According to the US mint they produce many coins before they are released or shipped in order to get a substantial amount on hand. That means if the mint is at all efficient the first strike coins will be stored first or on the bottom of the produced coins as more and more are struck. Common sense then dictates that the first coins released are taken from the top of the stored coins and are possibly some of the last coins struck. The mint though has improved quality control to the point where most of the coins are really nice and changes the die fairly often so a first mailed or released coin could actually be a first strike from a replacement die but not from the original mintage.

Think about it, one of the last coins sold or mailed to the public is likely to be the first coin struck.

Just saying.

Stick with PCGS or NGC...they're easier to sell. Ultimately, one should follow that tired old cliche, "buy the coin, not the holder." I'd rather have the nice coin in a PCGS holder. Who actually seeks out ICG graded coins? I don't know anyone that does.