Is it worth it to break out NGC coins to send to PCGS
Grantu
Posts: 188 ✭✭✭
I have a somewhat multi-part question about NGC crackouts. Now I’ve been collecting for long enough to know that PCGS and NGC are THE grading companies and it usually isn’t close. Now I am in no way trying to bash the other grading companies, I am purely speaking from a value perspective. Through the years I’ve come to realize that there is even a difference between PCGS and NGC. Now sometimes on some lower value coins like common date stuff it doesn’t really matter that much. But I’ve come to notice that auction sale prices and listings on higher dollar coins (usually 400 and up) the difference can be like 8 to 12 percent of a coins sellable value sometimes. Let’s say for example I have a 1878 cc Morgan Dollar in MS 66 NGC (which I wish I had but I don’t) in non CAC. In NGC holders theses are going for 3200 or so on Heritage Auctions and I have stumbled across some going for around 4 grand plus in NGC and other places. Now in PCGS non CAC there are numerous auctions for them at 4700 to almost 6000. So I began to wonder-from a purely value based perspective why wouldn’t someone crack out an NGC Morgan and send it to PCGS if they are 100% SURE it will get the same grade? Is this a sufficient way to resell coins? Especially when their value can increase by over 10 percent sometimes by just simply paying the $68 fee plus shipping and handling by simply changing the holder. This seems like a good Idea for a Morgan set collector on a budget or a collector trying to make some money by reselling at a profit. Now one personal example of this that led me to this question from a coin I now own is-I have just recently purchased an 1854 DDO FS-101 AU 55 Type 2 Gold Dollar. Now I absolutely love this piece so getting a great deal on it wasn’t all that mattered to me. I purchased the coin for under NGC’s market value of $650. Now when I searched the coin up on PCGS value view under the varieties designation it said it was worth $1,800. I’ve bought and sold coins as a hobby for years now so I know that doesn’t mean I can sell the coin for $1800 right now. Now there were only a few auctions I could find ranging from $700 to $1350. But in the end I couldn’t help but having a couple questions go through my head-
1.Are the two companies price guides just really different for this coin?
2.Does NGC not account that the coin is a variety into its value when I search the registry number?- which I don’t think is likely.
2b. Why doesn’t NGC think this coins market value should increase compared to a non error coin? After all it is an error DDO gold coin from 1854, not the 2000s. Haven’t seen much of them around so I thought $650 was pretty low. Or are they such a minor variety that it doesn’t matter?
- Is the coin just worth that much more in a PCGS holder over NGC? If so should I crack it out and send it to PCGS? Thanks for entertaining my questions. I may be wrong on some or all of these assumptions so please don’t hesitate to comment.
Comments
You are suggesting, maybe hoping that a NCG 55 will be graded by PCGS at a 55 also. What if PCGS graded your coin at 53, or even a 50? How would that affect the value of your coin compared to what you paid?
I have long wondered what the respective grades would be for the same coin in a PCGS slab vs. a NGC slab. Or ANACS or other TPGs
Are there any statistics as to results of cracking out a NGC coin (or ANACS or ICG) and submitting to PCGS? Does PCGS keep track of this? Is this information available? if so, where? Does PCGS grade the coin the same or lower?
Sorry that I can't answer your question, only ask more.
Source: https://www.pcgs.com/statistics
Success means that it met the submitter's "specification", and crossed.
The submitter has a great deal of latitude with respect to the "specification" (i.e., current, any, details, and other).
Reference: https://www.pcgs.com/crossover
I am not aware of any other statistics that are available to the public.
Perhaps someone else will chime in ...
I appreciate the comments to no end. They have definitely helped but have also led me to more questions. I know the crackout game can be risky. One question I still have is, If my coin was graded by PCGS in the same grade would it be worth $1800. Because according to the price guide this coin in the same grade of 55 is worth almost 200% more?
Source: https://www.pcgs.com/prices
It really depends on the coin itself, and how badly a potential buyer wants it at time of sale. This is especially true with a PCGS population of 14.
Source: https://www.pcgs.com/pop/detail/gold-dollar-1849-1889/51/0?t=5&p=MS&pn=1
In the subject case, you can review recent auction activity, that influenced the price guide value, here. FWIW, the current value of $1,800 seems to be heavily influenced by the auction record of $1,710 in DEC-2020.
Metro D
Thank you for the links. Would be interesting to know the stats on the TPG submitted for crossover and the success rate on each of the TPG service/coin submitted. I would specuate that the greater number of unsuccessful attempts come from the second and third tier TPGs.
Agreed.
More detailed information would certainly be interesting.
Thank you both for the amazing insight. So I’m kind of getting the felling that the more I move up into this area of expensive coins where coin prices aren’t as set as much as some lower value coins. They can fluctuate with the right buyer at the right time? Anyways, I think this is just a wonderful coin but I don’t trust my grading ability well enough yet to even think about a crossover right now. Maybe in the future is there a way to post the coin here to get opinions of what other collectors think about a potential crossover?
Not my area of expertise. As such, I will not be of much help.
That said, the collective knowledge of the members here, and their willingness to offer assistance, is amazing.
When you are ready for some feedback, just start a thread in the 'U.S. Coin Forum', which gets more views, and include some good images.
Best of luck.
Thanks!