Green label to blue label...Upgrades?

MadMonk

I'm wondering what the buzz is on upgrades from green label PCGS to blue label PCGS.
Also which submission option is safest/best

Dog97

It depends there's only about 6 kinds of green labels.

merz2

MadMonk
I'd hold off right now.There is some bad things happening at the FUN Show with upgrades and crossovers.Let the dust settle and then take a closer look.

Singapore

I 've read the buzz about PCGS being strict on the grades at FUN - I had the opposite experience. Cracked out a coin I thought was undergraded and they upped it two grades.

An n of one, mind you, but a fact nonetheless.

Singapore

Actually, I realized after posting that I didn't answer your question.

While I can't speak to the 6 types of green labels Dog97 is referring to, in my limited experience, coins in the green labels (the ones in use before they switched to the current labels) seem to to be graded 1 or 2 points more conservatively than current stuff.

That could be due to a change in policy, or it could mean nothing other than grading is subjective. Maybe the coins I've seen aren't representative of others. I have no idea.

Whether or not these older coins were graded more conservatively, I believe that there are many people in the biz who think that they were - which may in fact influence others to buy them thinking they might be undergraded, etc., encouraging cracking out, re-submitting, etc. creating some kind of numismatic self-fuflilling prophesy.

Dog97

Ok here's a quick rundown on the basic green slab types you might encounter and how they compare. While it is true certian early green holders were undergraded, this only applied to certian series, and then only to PQ coins. Just because any coin is in a green holder does not mean it will magically upgrade by 3 points. The series PCGS was tight on were Morgans, Walking Liberty Halves and Mercury Dimes & Peace to a lesser extent. In other words the coins that were "hot" investments during the 80s and PCGS was trying to develope a sight unseen market where the coins could trade like stocks. Series such as Barbers, Proof 3¢, JFKs, Ikes, Franklins & commems were graded right for the most part but seldom seen.

Small green holders without stacking guides (rattlers)
THE crackout artist's holder. I could always crack one of these & get an upgrade + get an added FB on the Mercs. Prooflike & DMPL Morgans often lost the designation if they were borderliners but gained a numerical point. A 65 DMPL became a 66 PL. A nice 64PL could easily become a plain ms66. I loved the ticky & scuffy ones with light tone because when you dipped them the marks disappeared because the ticks only broke the tone, not the actual surface of the coin and you ended up with a very nice mark free coin. All the good ones have already been cracked and the ones you see hyped on eBay as upgrade canidates either have such a small price jump in the next grade they aren't worth fooling with or were graded right to start with. They have been passed around from dealer to dealer to collector to dealer to collector back to dealer for the last 15 years and have been picked over more than a dead cow carcass at a buzzard convention so unless you get some that have been stashed away don't bother.

Frame within a frame, slightly thicker, preferated green insert. Some have a white label with green background.
These are hyped on eBay as old green holders and even though they are old they are graded right for the most part.

Non preferated green insert.
These are hyped on eBay as old green holders and they are old but slightly overgraded, both with the numerical grade and designation. You don't want to crack one of these!

I never fooled with regrade or crossover service. If I wasn't 100% confident the coin would upgrade raw after I cracked & dipped it I didn't fool with it.

Wanna make $$$ with the green holders? Buy up all the overgraded dogs, DMPLs that aren't really DMPLs & junky junk and send them in under the REHOLDER SERVICE. For $5 per coin PCGS will take it out of it's old green overgraded over designated holder and put it in a nice new blue holder that everybody think is graded under PCGS's lately supertight tight, unfairly undergraded new market standards that they will gladly pay a prem for it as compared to other service's holders. Easy $$$, no risk, no downside. Sell it yourself on eBay & cut out the greedy dealer and don't allow any returns because after all, it's in a 3rd party holder.

In the meantime myself and several other grumpy old collectors will be here to tell that aint a 65 by a mile & buy the coin not the .......
I'm not letting out any classified secrets, what I just told you dealers & serious collectors have known for years.

jamesfsm

I agre with Dog with one caveat. You do sometimes see old tyme collectors sell older slabs that have not been picked over. Just take your time and be cautious.

stman

<< <i>In the meantime myself and several other grumpy old collectors will be here to tell that aint a 65 by a mile & buy the coin not the ....... >>



You talkin about me.