Thanks PCGS

Johnscott6443

A little frustrated my coins seem to be taking an awful long time to get back to me.
Has everyone been experiencing the same lag times, I suppose it is all based on the new normal.
Regardless thank you PCGS for being the Blue Chip; world-class provider of coin grading services.

Johnscott6443

Entered in error

JBK

Criticizing PCGS on a PCGS forum.

To use your term...."wow".

MFeld

Nothing has happened. Many orders have been slow for well over a year. Turnaround times are estimates, not guarantees. And obviously, the “quality check” process, itself, doesn’t take that long, when the coins are actually being checked. Patience is recommended.

Johnscott6443

I guess expressing one’s honest opinion on a public social media forum is not such a good idea anymore !

Johnscott6443

As a new member to this forum I will take the advice of the sage and pump the brakes.
I don’t want to add to anybody’s stress level, Lord knows we have enough of it today.

JBK

@Johnscott6443 said:
I guess expressing one’s honest opinion on a public social media forum is not such a good idea anymore !

You might do well to read the terms of service you agreed to when you joined.

DollarAfterDollar

There are some sensitive people within the organization so being critical is not recommended. In their year end review the company indicated unprecedented coin volume combined with covid difficulties slowing things to a crawl. There was another long thread with every complaint imaginable that to the best of my knowledge never was responded to.
The situation across the street is just as bad if not worse. As you say, the fact that your order is in "quality check" for over a month when the published turn around estimates suggest that shouldn't be the case, is a head scratcher.
The powers that be indicated that they're working to hire and remedy the issues. In the interim my suspicion is that future submissions will be mailed with no expectation of quick returns.

Johnscott6443

Thanks again I appreciate everybody’s good advice and I will get with the program, so to speak.

TwoSides2aCoin

What happened ? It's a great question. It didn't just happen here. The supply chain broke, but obviously not the demand chain.
A more correct question would be: "What happened @ PCGS ? ".

planetsteve

Also keep in mind that PCGS doesn't collect revenue until they finish the grading process. I'm sure they think of nothing else than turning orders around quickly.

TwoSides2aCoin

Welcome aboard mate.

CaptHenway

Back when ANACS was the only game in town (early 1980's) we got swamped with submissions. Every person can only do so much work in a day, and even though we kept hiring people it took time to train them. When I was training Graders I did not have as much time to grade coins. People in other departments had to train their new help as well.

This was not just the Authenticators/Graders, but also the people who opened packages, did data entry, packaging, shipping, etc. You don't want people who don't know how to safely handle a coin by the edge handling your coins, do you?

And now there is the reality of Covid. Every profession is affected. Some people get sick and leave, or worse. Replacement workers are hard to find, and then they need to be trained, etc. Cut our hosts some slack. Things are rough all over.

joeykoins

"Good things come for those that wait!"
Sent mine out in October. Just got today.
It's the new norm. There are worst problems to stress out about.
Sure, we all get it but PCGS still ROCKS in my book. Besides, when you receive your goods, all will be forgotten. I hope?
Slow everywhere, my man.

This can relief all pain!

TwoSides2aCoin

^ voice of reason... and good humor.

ricko

Anyone, who has interaction of any sort, with any enterprise, of any type, should realize, from personal observation and experience, that things ranging from help to materials are scarce and impacting all aspects of business. This will continue for quite some time. Cheers, RickO

Johnscott6443

Again I would like to thank everyone for their insights and great advice.
Guess I got a little worked up without really thinking it through.
It is true they are the world standard and I see no reason why they won’t continue to be.
Thanks again to all.

jmlanzaf

@Johnscott6443 said:
I guess expressing one’s honest opinion on a public social media forum is not such a good idea anymore !

This is a private forum, belonging to PCGS, not a public forum.

Type2

@joeykoins said:
"Good things come for those that wait!"
Sent mine out in October. Just got today.
It's the new norm. There are worst problems to stress out about.
Sure, we all get it but PCGS still ROCKS in my book. Besides, when you receive your goods, all will be forgotten. I hope?
Slow everywhere, my man.

This can relief all pain!

So what are they and grades and pic. Come on you can’t do this to us….😉

jmlanzaf

@DollarAfterDollar said:
There are some sensitive people within the organization so being critical is not recommended. In their year end review the company indicated unprecedented coin volume combined with covid difficulties slowing things to a crawl. There was another long thread with every complaint imaginable that to the best of my knowledge never was responded to.
The situation across the street is just as bad if not worse. As you say, the fact that your order is in "quality check" for over a month when the published turn around estimates suggest that shouldn't be the case, is a head scratcher.
The powers that be indicated that they're working to hire and remedy the issues. In the interim my suspicion is that future submissions will be mailed with no expectation of quick returns.

It's not just ATS and PCGS. It's also CGC and PSA, for example, with turnaround times in the HUNDREDS of days. Heritage shipping has slowed.

Patience has never been more of a virtue than now. Try to get a doctor or dentist or vet appointment in short order.

Locally, our emergency vet has shut down night hours due to staffing problems. Another vet has shut down all his for a couple weeks for the same reason.

PCGS turnaround times are the least of my concerns.

jesbroken

We are grateful to have this forum and we thank PCGS for creating and maintaining it at a great expense I am sure. They do monitor it and will react to negative posts of many different types. Welcome to this forum and just imagine how content you will be when your coins are returned. I have a submission in now and will be submitting another 8 in the next 2 weeks. If it is May getting them back, sobeit.
Jim

WaterSport

For the record the OP said it was a 40 day turnaround...It's now 60 unless those coins are a modern submission he is talking about.

BStrauss3

@Johnscott6443 said:
I guess expressing one’s honest opinion on a public social media forum is not such a good idea anymore !

This is not a public social media forum, it's provided courtesy of PCGS.

Would you go to one of your mother's friends' houses and tell them their furniture is ugly and their kids are stupid? I think your mother raised you better than that, although facts are not in evidence.

BStrauss3

Anyway, back to the original question...

/1/ Submission time estimates are up. There has been an increase in volume, transportation has slowed down, people are out ill, and extra precautions due to that-which-shall-not-be-named have impacted turn-around times.

/2/ There is a lag between when the package is received and when the coins are logged into the PCGS' system and begin their grading journey. They sit securely and quietly on shelves in the vault and are processed in largely in the order received. This time does not count in the estimates.

/3/ There have always been submissions that require extra steps, errors and world coins are often in this category. If they need to have someone come it and verify (or send it out to an expert), if they need to run extra tests, like specific gravity / XRF to check composition, et al - that adds to the time.

/4/ There is always a bump at the beginning of the year as huge volumes of current year bullion coins are submitted for grading. Have you ever seen a picture of a python after swallowing a large meal (https://www.google.com/search?q=python+digesting&tbm=isch)? Yep. Looks like that.

Johnscott6443

Thanks Bstrauss3
You seem proud to be a ANA 48 year/life member
Yet you wouldn’t think to use that experience and history to mentor you would prefer to talk down to someone.
Nice !

Johnscott6443

Thank you for your second comment that was informative and helpful.

BStrauss3

@CaptHenway said:
Back when ANACS was the only game in town (early 1980's) we got swamped with submissions. Every person can only do so much work in a day, and even though we kept hiring people it took time to train them. When I was training Graders I did not have as much time to grade coins. People in other departments had to train their new help as well.

Yes, this is the classic problem of a scarce skill in ANY domain.

I can hire skilled coders easily (if I'm willing to pay top dollar). But it takes a month for them to find their way around my codebase. I used to stock up easy tasks so I would have them for new hires.

/1/ Fix the wording of an error message. You have to figure out how to FIND where it's generated, be able to make a change that actually compiles cleanly (this was always surprisingly difficult) then be able to promote it into production.

/2/ Fix an edge case (I used to love these - say the error message is "thing over 30 characters" and it's tripping on exactly 30, instead of greater than 30.

After a month, I could trust them to make changes that had been laid out by a more senior person and begin learning the internal data structures (in our application, you would make a tiny change upfront and what came out the back end would be, um, substantially different than expected).

It would take six months to get somebody to the point where I could just hand them a problem report.

If coin grading as a business was THAT easy, any fool could do it and we would see 100s of successful competitors to our hosts. Guess what? It isn't that easy to run a credible coin grading business. You need good, trained, people in every step of the way.

skier07

I can’t speak specifically for PCGS but a lot of California businesses are operating with skeleton crews right now and with people getting Covid it makes the underlying problem even worse.

dbldie55

ATS appears to take 2 months from when the package is received to opening it and getting it into the system. Then the grading time-line starts. PCGS got my two submissions into the system within 3 days of receiving them. Works for me.

MFeld

@dbldie55 said:
ATS appears to take 2 months from when the package is received to opening it and getting it into the system. Then the grading time-line starts. PCGS got my two submissions into the system within 3 days of receiving them. Works for me.

What counts most, by far, is when the order is actually shipped back to the submitter.

BryceM

My hospital is down to a day or two worth of certain surgical supplies right now. The whole thing is a mess, everywhere.

fathom

The even more frustrating aspect is that as we speak assets are going to rotate to the uptrending marketplaces.

There.... I vented,

BAJJERFAN

@jmlanzaf said:

@DollarAfterDollar said:
There are some sensitive people within the organization so being critical is not recommended. In their year end review the company indicated unprecedented coin volume combined with covid difficulties slowing things to a crawl. There was another long thread with every complaint imaginable that to the best of my knowledge never was responded to.
The situation across the street is just as bad if not worse. As you say, the fact that your order is in "quality check" for over a month when the published turn around estimates suggest that shouldn't be the case, is a head scratcher.
The powers that be indicated that they're working to hire and remedy the issues. In the interim my suspicion is that future submissions will be mailed with no expectation of quick returns.

It's not just ATS and PCGS. It's also CGC and PSA, for example, with turnaround times in the HUNDREDS of days. Heritage shipping has slowed.

Patience has never been more of a virtue than now. Try to get a doctor or dentist or vet appointment in short order.

Locally, our emergency vet has shut down night hours due to staffing problems. Another vet has shut down all his for a couple weeks for the same reason.

PCGS turnaround times are the least of my concerns.

At the local clinic the wait time to see one of their neurologists is more than 6 months.

BAJJERFAN

@BStrauss3 said:

@Johnscott6443 said:
I guess expressing one’s honest opinion on a public social media forum is not such a good idea anymore !

This is not a public social media forum, it's provided courtesy of PCGS.

Would you go to one of your mother's friends' houses and tell them their furniture is ugly and their kids are stupid? I think your mother raised you better than that, although facts are not in evidence.

Sheesh, he wasn't THAT critical.

alefzero

Expanding the grader pool puts more stress on the finalizers in making sure consistency isn't compromised as a result is my expectation. A lot more are going to imaging for TrueViews and that could bottleneck easily. Add in Covid protocol modifications in the office cycle. There are a lot of reasons things slowed down during the pandemic. I have heard similar at NGC, though not sure how the two currently compare. Frustrating as hell for us but also for them. Just hoping the Regular submission I dropped at the September Long Beach show will be ready to pick up at next month's Long Beach show.

MFeld

@alefzero said:
Expanding the grader pool puts more stress on the finalizers in making sure consistency isn't compromised as a result is my expectation. A lot more are going to imaging for TrueViews and that could bottleneck easily. Add in Covid protocol modifications in the office cycle. There are a lot of reasons things slowed down during the pandemic. I have heard similar at NGC, though not sure how the two currently compare. Frustrating as hell for us but also for them. Just hoping the Regular submission I dropped at the September Long Beach show will be ready to pick up at next month's Long Beach show.

It sounds like you’re hoping for “Long Beach Show Service” - drop off your submission at the Long Beach show and pick it up at the Long Beach show 😉

davewesen

the quoted times are 'business days' which is 5 day work week, minus holidays, minus days graders are gone to big shows.

on every one of your posts on the upper right, there is a whell you can hit that will give you the option to 'edit' your post. I suggest you edit some if you want to continue to be allowed to post here because on Monday when they come back to work, you may find yourself banned.

One of the first posts is rules and conduct, and one says something about saying bad things about PCGS or other grading services.

mlittle

Three cheers for PCGS!!!

FredF

Go check out our host's sports card business (PSA) - they shut down all submissions for months and are only open for their most expensive tiers right now. We can talk supply chain and covid but remember that stuff is driving demand for collectibles (sports collectibles are much hotter than coins, but we see it too) because people can't buy experiences. So people are buying things as collecting is something you can do at home. Patience is the only answer here.

Cougar1978

It is what it is. I just do my submissions, don’t worry about subm stuff.

Joey29

Does anybody have any information on the turnaround time for express submissions from personal experience? Please advise if possible. Thanks

joeykoins

@Type2 said:
So what are they and grades and pic. Come on you can’t do this to us….😉

Thanks for asking. I placed all pictures in my "Great Relief Submission" thread.

cameonut2011

I would edit my posts OP. If not they will delete your account and your thread.

moursund

@davewesen said:
the quoted times are 'business days' which is 5 day work week, minus holidays, minus days graders are gone to big shows.

on every one of your posts on the upper right, there is a whell you can hit that will give you the option to 'edit' your post. I suggest you edit some if you want to continue to be allowed to post here because on Monday when they come back to work, you may find yourself banned.

One of the first posts is rules and conduct, and one says something about saying bad things about PCGS or other grading services.

Good idea to avoid blatant criticism of our hosts... But I hope that constructive comments and some expressions of frustration would be allowed.

streeter

Well, if you need to complain, the weekend is the time to do it. I don't understand what you hoped to accomplish.

Discretion is the better part of valor.

Herb_T

Just keep submitting orders….they will space out on the return. My wife and I have about 9 orders in with 90 coins….patience is required. I should add when I want some back quickly I send them in Express service!

derryb

the world is slowing down, get used to it.

Barberian

The turnaround times MAY be improving. I haven't seen any "90+ business days in 'grading'" posts lately. For example, I submitted coins on July 9th and received them back five months later. I was very pleased with the results. The Trueviews were a bit dark but I could lighten them up to look like the coins in hand under good lighting and was pleased with the edited photos. Also, keep in mind that their turnaround times are AVERAGE times and services like Trueview photos and proper attribution take additional time.

Joey29

@Herb_T said:
Just keep submitting orders….they will space out on the return. My wife and I have about 9 orders in with 90 coins….patience is required. I should add when I want some back quickly I send them in Express service!

How quick did you get them back with the express service?

parallax1

@Joey29 said:

@Herb_T said:
Just keep submitting orders….they will space out on the return. My wife and I have about 9 orders in with 90 coins….patience is required. I should add when I want some back quickly I send them in Express service!

How quick did you get them back with the express service?

I have 2 coins in express currently. I am at 15 business days and one went through restoration and is at the "being imaged" QA stage, while the other is still in encapsulation.

bp777

As long as i get my coins back, i really dont care how long the wait is.