Best Of

In addition to the above you have the registry bias. If a collector wants a coin for the PCGS registry they have no choice but to buy a PCGS graded coin or play the crossover game, which can be costly. That aspect plus the absence of CAC approval on your coins, this last one can really make or break the value of an NGC holder.

I personally think that NGC is the better grading company currently vs PCGS (due in part to the problems with gradeflation that was shown a couple of posts above), but the market is still skewed, and the registry is still a big part of that.

Seems the auction fees weren't accounted for in the "realized" prices given. Doesn't everyone understand, there is a 10-20% cost involved w/ most every transaction in this hobby?

my dealings with GC have been very satisfying. i have no doubt you got the actual fair market value for these coins within reason or some small margin of error. maybe you could have gotten more at another auction house, maybe less. there is no way to determine this.

I had to change my response when I reread you post.
Why didn't you reach out to them about the opening bids?
Maybe they would have worked with you....
I do feel bad for you but you could have prevented this from happening. I don't see it being GC's fault at all.

You may have fared better on eBay, starting them at $.99

Ebayer since 1998. Nowadays if you're a seller you need to come to terms with the fact that by listing items there you become a de facto approval service.

What slab was the 1828 dime in and what was the price for that compared to pricing?

The NGC slabs do not help with resale in my opinion.

@allnewsanchor said:
Okay, veteran numismatists... lesson learned the hard way. But I have one more serious question.

Why does it seem, in the coin investing community, that NGC is the Rodney Dangerfield of the new Big 3? So many have now told me the NGC slab holds them back from better prices. Can someone tell me, rationally, why that is? When I started collecting rarer coins 30 years ago, I was told our host and NGC were roughly equivalent. Each is "the official grading service of" this or that. Not only do I live within an easy drive of NGC headquarters, but I have a coin club friend who has worked for them for years, including some as a grader.

So why the discrepancy? Favoritism? Greasing of the palm? Grudge against one vs. the other? PCGS is markedly superior?

Thanks to all who weighed in on my previous post and to all of you who might enlighten me on this.

While I don’t pretend to have the answer to this, my opinion is what a few others responded with already. NGC is absolutely great in many series; and have overgraded compared to market others. For example, a coin in a certain series may have 3 PCGS at a grade level and NGC has 54. This may impact the market and make those three pieces much stronger even with the same grade.

While there is some science to this; another factor really is the coin itself. There are $400 and $4000 VF30s in the colonial series that I focus on. The grade is the same, but the individual coin is really what speaks. CAC sticker was going in this direction, but even with multiple grading services over multiple series, at the end of the day, the coins often speak louder than grade. When they dont, there is often a reason.

NGC has a different grading standard than PCGS, and the market seems to agree and disagree with their standard depending on the series.