PCGS submission question

Billk9989

Question for PCGS experienced submitters:

I have about 40 coins for my submission. I am guessing that about 30 of them will come in at <$300. The rest will hopefully come in higher. When a grade or half grade can make the difference between a $100 coin and a $500 coin putting the coin into the correct pile matters. And I simply don’t have adequate experience on the close calls.

I am in no hurry to get the coins back and I’m not concerned about the insurance values that I put on them. So my question is, are there adverse consequences if I just submit all of them Economy and let PCGS tell me which I owe more grading $$ on?

In the end, I want the coins properly graded for what they are, independent of the submission tier, and I am happy to pay what it takes. My sense is that the submission tier and grade received are independent - these are professional numismatists who are going to do their thing, regardless of which pile the coins are in. The problem here is my lack of experience in knowing which pile to put them in.

291fifth

Show photos of a sample of the coins and state what grade you think they are. Wait for comments before spending any money on slabbing.

djm

Yes list them all as economy. The price is the price before grading.

MFeld

@Billk9989 said:
Question for PCGS experienced submitters:

I have about 40 coins for my submission. I am guessing that about 30 of them will come in at <$300. The rest will hopefully come in higher. When a grade or half grade can make the difference between a $100 coin and a $500 coin putting the coin into the correct pile matters. And I simply don’t have adequate experience on the close calls.

I am in no hurry to get the coins back and I’m not concerned about the insurance values that I put on them. So my question is, are there adverse consequences if I just submit all of them Economy and let PCGS tell me which I owe more grading $$ on?

In the end, I want the coins properly graded for what they are, independent of the submission tier, and I am happy to pay what it takes. My sense is that the submission tier and grade received are independent - these are professional numismatists who are going to do their thing, regardless of which pile the coins are in. The problem here is my lack of experience in knowing which pile to put them in.

The downside in submitting all of the coins under economy service would be possible loss or damage on the way to or at PCGS, before being graded. Of course, that would only matter if some of them actually were worth more than $300.

ifthevamzarockin

@Billk9989 "I simply don’t have adequate experience"

@291fifth said:
Show photos of a sample of the coins and state what grade you think they are. Wait for comments before spending any money on slabbing.

The advise 291fifth gave is very sound.
You wouldn't want half of your very first submission to come back with less than favorable results.

Billk9989

@291fifth said:
Show photos of a sample of the coins and state what grade you think they are. Wait for comments before spending any money on slabbing.

Sure. This is more of a process question, but here is a coin that I got back from my recent submission. Many of the coins in my new submission are Franklins, almost all are FBL, quite a number look better to me than this one. Not a flattering photo but it will give you a general idea of what I have.

Billk9989

@MFeld said:

@Billk9989 said:
Question for PCGS experienced submitters:

I have about 40 coins for my submission. I am guessing that about 30 of them will come in at <$300. The rest will hopefully come in higher. When a grade or half grade can make the difference between a $100 coin and a $500 coin putting the coin into the correct pile matters. And I simply don’t have adequate experience on the close calls.

I am in no hurry to get the coins back and I’m not concerned about the insurance values that I put on them. So my question is, are there adverse consequences if I just submit all of them Economy and let PCGS tell me which I owe more grading $$ on?

In the end, I want the coins properly graded for what they are, independent of the submission tier, and I am happy to pay what it takes. My sense is that the submission tier and grade received are independent - these are professional numismatists who are going to do their thing, regardless of which pile the coins are in. The problem here is my lack of experience in knowing which pile to put them in.

The downside in submitting all of the coins under economy service would be possible loss or damage on the way to or at PCGS, before being graded. Of course, that would only matter if some of them actually were worth more than $300.

Great point. Hadn’t considered that. Would you say that it’s a rare thing for them for them to be lost or damaged while at PCGS? Or is it something that is a more realistic concern? I’d be willing to take the risk if its a rare thing.

291fifth

Since your coins are raw I would submit all of them at the economy level. For things like FBL Franklins the value is realized when the coin is slabbed by a MAJOR TPG. When raw or in the "wrong" holder they have little value. An example:
I have a 1962 FBL Franklin that is slabbed by SEGS as MS64 FBL. (It is in a specially marked holder for the 40th anniversary of a now disbanded coin club I was a member of.) The coin is undergraded ... it is at least MS65. I offered the coin to the owner of SEGS at a recent Michigan State Numismatic Society show. He didn't even want to look at it let alone make an offer.
I also offered it to a local dealer I have known for nearly 40 years. His offer was for $12.50 (about silver melt value at the time). I still have the coin and have no interest in selling it anymore.

Send your coins to PCGS by Registered Mail. Value them at what you think they are worth but make sure you can back up the value claimed if anything should happen to the package. Shipping is not risk free. It is just part of the process that is necessary.

MFeld

@Billk9989 said:

@MFeld said:

@Billk9989 said:
Question for PCGS experienced submitters:

I have about 40 coins for my submission. I am guessing that about 30 of them will come in at <$300. The rest will hopefully come in higher. When a grade or half grade can make the difference between a $100 coin and a $500 coin putting the coin into the correct pile matters. And I simply don’t have adequate experience on the close calls.

I am in no hurry to get the coins back and I’m not concerned about the insurance values that I put on them. So my question is, are there adverse consequences if I just submit all of them Economy and let PCGS tell me which I owe more grading $$ on?

In the end, I want the coins properly graded for what they are, independent of the submission tier, and I am happy to pay what it takes. My sense is that the submission tier and grade received are independent - these are professional numismatists who are going to do their thing, regardless of which pile the coins are in. The problem here is my lack of experience in knowing which pile to put them in.

The downside in submitting all of the coins under economy service would be possible loss or damage on the way to or at PCGS, before being graded. Of course, that would only matter if some of them actually were worth more than $300.

Great point. Hadn’t considered that. Would you say that it’s a rare thing for them for them to be lost or damaged while at PCGS? Or is it something that is a more realistic concern? I’d be willing to take the risk if its a rare thing.

My guess is that it’s very rare. One consideration for me would be how much over $300 any pleasant surprises might be worth. If I were thinking a couple hundred or less, it would be a smaller concern.

Have you considered submitting roughly half of the coins, in order to get a better feel/grade feedback, rather than all of them at once?😉

jt88

Just send them as priority and list them all economy, no need to waste any more time trying to figure out something is not that important. PCGS will grade them correctly.

Billk9989

@291fifth said:
Since your coins are raw I would submit all of them at the economy level. For things like FBL Franklins the value is realized when the coin is slabbed by a MAJOR TPG. When raw or in the "wrong" holder they have little value. An example:
I have a 1962 FBL Franklin that is slabbed by SEGS as MS64 FBL. (It is in a specially marked holder for the 40th anniversary of a now disbanded coin club I was a member of.) The coin is undergraded ... it is at least MS65. I offered the coin to the owner of SEGS at a recent Michigan State Numismatic Society show. He didn't even want to look at it let alone make an offer.
I also offered it to a local dealer I have known for nearly 40 years. His offer was for $12.50 (about silver melt value at the time). I still have the coin and have no interest in selling it anymore.

Send your coins to PCGS by Registered Mail. Value them at what you think they are worth but make sure you can back up the value claimed if anything should happen to the package. Shipping is not risk free. It is just part of the process that is necessary.

Right. I’m doing my submissions to PCGS. And for the Franklins I’m not submitting anything that I’m not totally confident will grade MS65 or better, and even on some of the 65s if they are common or if I don’t think that they are attractive 65s I won’t submit them.

MsMorrisine

yeah, it's always a judgment call.

mail rarely gets lost but it does get lost. I put what I think they are really worth and go from there.

DollarAfterDollar

The price set is your insurance value, nothing more. If you think a coin is AU58 and PCGS thinks it's MS 65 it might be worth 50 times the value you set AFTER GRADING, but that's their job, not yours.

MsMorrisine

I'd just go back to putting down what you think they are worth and go from there.

Billk9989

@MFeld said:

@Billk9989 said:

@MFeld said:

@Billk9989 said:
Question for PCGS experienced submitters:

I have about 40 coins for my submission. I am guessing that about 30 of them will come in at <$300. The rest will hopefully come in higher. When a grade or half grade can make the difference between a $100 coin and a $500 coin putting the coin into the correct pile matters. And I simply don’t have adequate experience on the close calls.

I am in no hurry to get the coins back and I’m not concerned about the insurance values that I put on them. So my question is, are there adverse consequences if I just submit all of them Economy and let PCGS tell me which I owe more grading $$ on?

In the end, I want the coins properly graded for what they are, independent of the submission tier, and I am happy to pay what it takes. My sense is that the submission tier and grade received are independent - these are professional numismatists who are going to do their thing, regardless of which pile the coins are in. The problem here is my lack of experience in knowing which pile to put them in.

The downside in submitting all of the coins under economy service would be possible loss or damage on the way to or at PCGS, before being graded. Of course, that would only matter if some of them actually were worth more than $300.

Great point. Hadn’t considered that. Would you say that it’s a rare thing for them for them to be lost or damaged while at PCGS? Or is it something that is a more realistic concern? I’d be willing to take the risk if its a rare thing.

My guess is that it’s very rare. One consideration for me would be how much over $300 any pleasant surprises might be worth. If I were thinking a couple hundred or less, it would be a smaller concern.

Have you considered submitting roughly half of the coins, in order to get a better feel/grade feedback, rather than all of them at once?😉

Hmm, my first reply got lost, so I’ll try again:

We are on the same wavelength on a test case submission. And yes I have a number of Franklins that could be a pleasant surprise.

The pictured coin was in a recent submission that, among other non-Franklins, included a half dozen Franklins - a test case so that I could see how PCGS thinks about Franklins that I can see in hand. All came back at 65FBL or better, so I think that I am pretty much on target up through 65. Beyond 65 the air is rarified, and I don’t know what I’m doing. I have coins that look to me to be quite a bit better than the pictured one. For example, I have a couple of other 59PFBL that look nicer to me than the pictured one, and if they were to get a 66 there would be a major price difference. I actually have some that I might put a 67FBL on, and the PCGS guide would say way over $1K and even up to $2K, but at these grade levels great experience is required and I just don’t have it, so PCGS probably won’t go along, lol. So yes, you are right on the nub of my dilemma with your comment about the possibility of pleasant surprises.

How would you think about the submission process and declared value? Let’s say that I have a coin that at the lower grade is listed in the PCGS guide at $200 and at the higher grade is at $1000. And it is 60-40 low-high. Would you recommend Economy and an insured value of 0.6 x 200 + 0.4 x 1000? I have owned these coins for well over 40 years, so it makes little sense to use my basis for insurance purposes. On my previous submission I put an insured value on each coin that represented the best case it could be. That was dumb.

MsMorrisine

@Billk9989 said:

Hmm, my first reply got lost, so I’ll try again:

it was there, I saw it too.

MFeld

@Billk9989 said:

@MFeld said:

@Billk9989 said:

@MFeld said:

@Billk9989 said:
Question for PCGS experienced submitters:

I have about 40 coins for my submission. I am guessing that about 30 of them will come in at <$300. The rest will hopefully come in higher. When a grade or half grade can make the difference between a $100 coin and a $500 coin putting the coin into the correct pile matters. And I simply don’t have adequate experience on the close calls.

I am in no hurry to get the coins back and I’m not concerned about the insurance values that I put on them. So my question is, are there adverse consequences if I just submit all of them Economy and let PCGS tell me which I owe more grading $$ on?

In the end, I want the coins properly graded for what they are, independent of the submission tier, and I am happy to pay what it takes. My sense is that the submission tier and grade received are independent - these are professional numismatists who are going to do their thing, regardless of which pile the coins are in. The problem here is my lack of experience in knowing which pile to put them in.

The downside in submitting all of the coins under economy service would be possible loss or damage on the way to or at PCGS, before being graded. Of course, that would only matter if some of them actually were worth more than $300.

Great point. Hadn’t considered that. Would you say that it’s a rare thing for them for them to be lost or damaged while at PCGS? Or is it something that is a more realistic concern? I’d be willing to take the risk if its a rare thing.

My guess is that it’s very rare. One consideration for me would be how much over $300 any pleasant surprises might be worth. If I were thinking a couple hundred or less, it would be a smaller concern.

Have you considered submitting roughly half of the coins, in order to get a better feel/grade feedback, rather than all of them at once?😉

Hmm, my first reply got lost, so I’ll try again:

We are on the same wavelength on a test case submission. And yes I have a number of Franklins that could be a pleasant surprise.

The pictured coin was in a recent submission that, among other non-Franklins, included a half dozen Franklins - a test case so that I could see how PCGS thinks about Franklins that I can see in hand. All came back at 65FBL or better, so I think that I am pretty much on target up through 65. Beyond 65 the air is rarified, and I don’t know what I’m doing. I have coins that look to me to be quite a bit better than the pictured one. For example, I have a couple of other 59PFBL that look nicer to me than the pictured one, and if they were to get a 66 there would be a major price difference. I actually have some that I might put a 67FBL on, and the PCGS guide would say way over $1K and even up to $2K, but at these grade levels great experience is required and I just don’t have it, so PCGS probably won’t go along, lol. So yes, you are right on the nub of my dilemma with your comment about the possibility of pleasant surprises.

How would you think about the submission process and declared value? Let’s say that I have a coin that at the lower grade is listed in the PCGS guide at $200 and at the higher grade is at $1000. And it is 60-40 low-high. Would you recommend Economy and an insured value of 0.6 x 200 + 0.4 x 1000? I have owned these coins for well over 40 years, so it makes little sense to use my basis for insurance purposes. On my previous submission I put an insured value on each coin that represented the best case it could be. That was dumb.

I think you should decide based on your best guess as to value and your comfort level. Keep in mind that the price guide levels might not represent what such coins are actually selling for. If you haven’t already done so, I’d suggest checking auction archives on some of the ones you think might be the most valuable.

Billk9989

@MsMorrisine said:

@Billk9989 said:

Hmm, my first reply got lost, so I’ll try again:

it was there, I saw it too.

Right. Poof! Right before my eyes. No idea what happened.

In any event I’ll do what you folks suggest and put down what I think for insured value and let PCGS sort it out. Now if I just knew what I think... ;-)