Lowest coin price for grading.

may

I’m looking to grade some of my coins, so what is the lowest coin price I should grade?ex. $50, $100, $200 (cost of coin) Sorry if you find this confusing. Thank you!

oldabeintx

Depends on your motives, but if you plan one day to sell, I would guess $100 if a multiple submission, perhaps less. I've had fairly low value coins graded for sentimental/preservation reasons and have had coins graded for collection consistency (I like to see everything in slabs).

VanHalen

$200 minimum. Under that and it would be for educational/entertainment purposes.

Smudge

I use the $200 added value rule.

may

Thank you!

3stars

Depends if grading increases the value more than the grading fee. I have bunches of gold sovereigns ungraded since grading fees would add little to their value. For key dates and heavily counterfeited coins, it will help upon selling.

MFeld

What matters most is the difference in value for the coin, graded vs. ungraded, compared to the cost of grading (and if applicable, postage).

For example, you might have a coin that’s worth $25 ungraded, but $75 graded, which might merit the cost of grading. On the other hand, you might have one that’s worth $2000 ungraded and only $2025 graded, which might not merit the cost of grading. It’s not always just about the value of the coin, as some coins benefit more from grading than others.

Fairlaneman

What you paid for a coin makes no difference at all. What a coin will grade out at is the final determination in my opinion. You need to know how to grade your coins to determine if you want to send a 3, 5, 10, 50, 100, 200 or 500 dollar coin in for grading and come out ahead.

I usually send in Mercury Dimes that have cost me 50 bucks or less. Below is one that probably cost me less than 20 bucks.
,

Ken

may

Thank you!

Omegaraptor

As said above it depends on what you're sending in. High grade coins such as the Mercury Dime above benefit most in value from TPG certification, as well as many rare varieties.

On the other hand, common date circulated gold coins are technically "high value" but not really worth sending in.

mfarring

Unless you have a subscription to the service it wouldn't make sense to grade a coin less than $200, like others have said. At least in most cases.

semikeycollector

My level is $300 minimum.

jesbroken

Do your self a favor and take your favorite series or two and utilize photograde until you become fairly able to fairly grade the series. Then go to the many auction houses and view hundreds of graded coins of the same series. Do not note the grades just look at the coins and compare your thought to the actual grade. When you become proficient(not every now and then) go to a coin show and hold the series in your hand and see the difference with inhand viewing and photo viewing, quite a difference. Do not worry about magnification right away, just your eyes. Then you will be far better able to make a rational decision regarding sending lower value coins in for grading. Good luck.
Jim

davewesen

it is a good idea to grade something if you have been buying expensive raw - it would be terrible if after 20 years of accumulation to discover you have overpaid for cleaned or damaged coins.

jmlanzaf

There is no number.

I wouldn't grade a $5000 coin unless grading it added more value than it cost. [Usually do for a $5000 coin]

A common date XF $20 Liberty is hardly ever worth grading despite the $1800 price tag.

But some people will grade a $1 coin because they like to "make" the coin or want to put in a registry set or 1000 other reasons.

Honestly. If you have to ask the question, the answer is probably none of the coins.

vulcanize

it is an individual choice and depends on your motives because sometimes the math probably would not make sense.

Let's take an example of silver war nickels that I was planning to get graded for registry purposes because of a few coupons from our hosts that were about to expire.

The highest I managed to score was an MS 66 with PCGS Price Guide Value of $37 and rest of them being 65's (price ranging from $22 to $30 because of some getting FS designation).

https://www.pcgs.com/pop/detail/jefferson-nickel-1938-date/84?sn=4024&p=MS&g=66&ccid=679

As in the above example, many of my coins don't necessarily warrant the costs (membership, shipping, insurance, grading fees etc.) so for most of those I have used the ANACS $10 per coin service for authentication purposes.

ricko

Two strong reasons for slabbing, resale and authentication. Of course there are many other reasons, some of which have nothing to do with cost. Cheers, RickO

privatecoin

If the value is higher than my combined purchase and grading cost, that's where I draw the line.

MFeld

@privatecoin said:
If the value is higher than my combined purchase and grading cost, that's where I draw the line.

The cost of the coin (as opposed to the difference in value between it being graded vs. ungraded) should be largely irrelevant in deciding whether it merits grading.
Under your method, if someone overpaid for a coin by more than (roughly) $50, they wouldn't get it graded. And that's even if it were worth hundreds or thousand of dollars and its value would be enhanced considerably. On the other hand, if someone bought a coin for roughly $50 less than fair market value, they'd get it graded, even though the added value might be less than the cost of grading.

privatecoin

@MFeld said:

@privatecoin said:
If the value is higher than my combined purchase and grading cost, that's where I draw the line.

The cost of the coin (as opposed to the difference in value between it being graded vs. ungraded) should be largely irrelevant in deciding whether it merits grading.
Under your method, if someone overpaid for a coin by more than (roughly) $50, they wouldn't get it graded. And that's even if it were worth hundreds or thousand of dollars and its value would be enhanced considerably. On the other hand, if someone bought a coin for roughly $50 less than fair market value, they'd get it graded, even though the added value might be less than the cost of grading.

Yes, but remember most of us are not dealing with coins worth thousands of dollars. That line is pretty much black and white for the low budget guys like me.

jmlanzaf

@MFeld said:

@privatecoin said:
If the value is higher than my combined purchase and grading cost, that's where I draw the line.

The cost of the coin (as opposed to the difference in value between it being graded vs. ungraded) should be largely irrelevant in deciding whether it merits grading.
Under your method, if someone overpaid for a coin by more than (roughly) $50, they wouldn't get it graded. And that's even if it were worth hundreds or thousand of dollars and its value would be enhanced considerably. On the other hand, if someone bought a coin for roughly $50 less than fair market value, they'd get it graded, even though the added value might be less than the cost of grading.

I know what you are saying, but people have far worse criteria...or no criteria at all. At least he's considering the value.

MFeld

@privatecoin said:

@MFeld said:

@privatecoin said:
If the value is higher than my combined purchase and grading cost, that's where I draw the line.

The cost of the coin (as opposed to the difference in value between it being graded vs. ungraded) should be largely irrelevant in deciding whether it merits grading.
Under your method, if someone overpaid for a coin by more than (roughly) $50, they wouldn't get it graded. And that's even if it were worth hundreds or thousand of dollars and its value would be enhanced considerably. On the other hand, if someone bought a coin for roughly $50 less than fair market value, they'd get it graded, even though the added value might be less than the cost of grading.

Yes, but remember most of us are not dealing with coins worth thousands of dollars. That line is pretty much black and white for the low budget guys like me.

Fair enough.

spyglassdesign

Most of the others have already covered it but it really depends on the goal. If it's resale, then the cost of grading plus shipping, you have to make sure you can still profit. If it's for sentimental reasons/preservation, then the bottom of the barrel is the limit. I've talked to people that don't send in anything less than $500,and others that will send anything in.

If doing it for resale, I've realized that one or two at a time is a losing proposition. It's more cost effective to send multiple at a time because then you can spread the cost of the shipping across multiple coins. It really brings your overall cost per coin down. So for instance if shipping is $42 across 10 coins, it's $23 (or whatever the grading level is) plus $4.20 instead of $23 plus $42.

For me it usually a value add proposition, or to confirm if something has been cleaned or not if I'm on the fence. Your needs/goals may be quite different.

Cougar1978

Cost plays a big role. Like if I have a newly auc pickoff raw 1932 Mexico Gem BU peso with $29 in it yes it might make 66 but just sell it raw cost plus much simpler. No wait, no extra cost, no worrying about theft in transit. The grading costs increase cost basis so would need sell it for more make that worthwhile. Now a $300 Cost item a different situation. My best result a rattler WLH in 64 that I cracked, sent in and got 65.

I wonder if there are players who say will pick a nice non CAC MS65 big ticket coin (Pcgs, NGC) send it in to CACG it makes same grade (cross) but gets higher CPG vs non CAC. For instance a MS65 1927 Saint is $3500 CDN CPG CAC vs $2500 non CAC. Do about a dozen like that the player with that angle really banks huh. Of course the catch u gotta then find somebody who gonna pay the money. Tough or slam dunk? Plus I wonder - Will they charge u for the ones that don’t cross?

BillJones

$200 used to the rule of thumb, but I think it’s higher now given the increased grading fees and shipping. I think the number is going toward $400 to $500 now.

I had an item graded that was worth $3,000. It cost well over $100 to get it done, and I submitted for grading at a show, to avoid half the shipping charges, to be delivered weeks later.

oih82w8

I focus on already slabbed coins for my collection. On raw coins that I keep, I would self slab them.

oldabeintx

As a collector we know that someone will eventually sell our coins. It's tough for a collector to sell so-so raw coins at a decent price, even tougher for our heirs. If one has a large number of $100 coins and sends them in as Economy, I'm guessing that the math works out, or if not the hassle of selling them will be far less. I wouldn't want, say, $2,000 worth of $100 coins to languish in my son's sock drawer.

Dave99B

I've had lots of $40-$50 common date Barber Quarters graded, only because I wanted my entire VF set certified by our host.

Dave

jmlanzaf

@oldabeintx said:
As a collector we know that someone will eventually sell our coins. It's tough for a collector to sell so-so raw coins at a decent price, even tougher for our heirs. If one has a large number of $100 coins and sends them in as Economy, I'm guessing that the math works out, or if not the hassle of selling them will be far less. I wouldn't want, say, $2,000 worth of $100 coins to languish in my son's sock drawer.

But if you are spending $40 to slab $100 coin, are you sure you can't sell it raw for $60?

DollarAfterDollar

You'll get a million different opinions with a question like this. I'd say anything over $100 (Grey sheet) if it grades as you expect. The reason for that is at auction (in a good local auction) it will get near full value but without the slab when the time comes for you or your heirs to liquidate it's value is too subjective to know.

Grade them with a grader friend and get a value consensus.