Trugrade slabs at the show yesterday.

Russ

Finally got a chance to see a bunch in person. One dealer had two cases with the most of the top shelves consisting of Trugrade slabs, about 30 or so. The majority of these were proof Franklins and proof Kennedys.

If this batch was any indication, ACG and NTC has some very real competition at the bottom of the barrel. Every single coin was overgraded and/or overdesignated.

Russ, NCNE

MadMarty

A couple of weeks ago there was a local show here. One seller had all AGC, Trugrade and NTC slabs. I HAD to go and check out. He had 3 (yes count them, 3) 1945 MS66FSB Mercs in Truegrade holders. I have never seen such crap in a slab before. Dings and the bands were smushed flat. Maybe Truegrade's FB designation is if the bands are on the coin they are full, the split is between the top, middle and bottom. What a load of CRAP!

ClausUrch

Thanks for the "Heads up"...I'll keep that in mind.

Clankeye

I saw those too, Russ. I was kind of taken aback. Yeah... they weren't promising.

Clankeye

Russ

Clank,

I was actually surprised to see that they'd made it all the way to our neck of the woods already.

Russ, NCNE

maddogale

Is Truegrade the company that was started by a former ACG "grader"....

ksteelheader

Russ, I've said the same a couple of times in the past weeks, and got flamed by one member for not having looked at enough to make an intelligent decision. I stand by my impression, which is the same as yours.............Ken

sinin1

Moddoggale -> I heard that was NTC but could be wrong (maybe both - after working at a prestigious company like ACG it would be possible as an employee to think - I could do that just as good or better)

wingedliberty

I cam back from the Tampa show, and I saw alot of NTC garbage there. It seems that dealers who carry it, also carry similar trash as well , such as ACG and PCI.

Brian.

Russ

<< <i>and got flamed by one member for not having looked at enough to make an intelligent decision. >>



Ken,

You can safely ignore that individual. Most everyone else already does.

Russ, NCNE

ms71

I don't have to look at "enough" piles of dog$hit to make an informed decision either.........

flaminio

<< <i>Is Truegrade the company that was started by a former ACG "grader".... >>



It wasn't started by a former ACG grader, but they do employ a former ACG grader.

Looks like a new member to add to the "suck" pantheon...

DCAMFranklin

<< <i>Russ, I've said the same a couple of times in the past weeks, and got flamed by one member for not having looked at enough to make an intelligent decision. I stand by my impression, which is the same as yours.............Ken >>




Ken- I wasn't speaking of you in regard to the bias. What you said was that you had "seen about a dozen Franklins in trugrade". Now, I haven't seen one, so I am NOT endorsing their grading practices. However, even if I had seen 100 Franklins in their holder, I don't believe that I would blast them based only upon their grading of one series. Twelve, or fewer, coins is simply an inadequate sampling to determine quality.

I'm not impressed to find that the guy that runs the company used to grade for ACG. However, we all receive our training somewhere. I think many of us have worked for a company in our day job, whose standards were less than perfect, and we would not want our entire professional reputation to be associated with that company. Yes? Perhaps, just perhaps, this fellow hated the atmoshere at ACG, yet used his time there to improve his grading skills. Now, he has created a new 3rd party grading service that we all will have to assess. I'm not sure we can do that with just a 12 coin sampling. Nor can you do that with just one series.

Let's look at some of the things that have been said about NTC. Russ just blisters them for their grading of Kennedy Halves. I've never seen a Kennedy in their holder, so I couldn't pass judgement. Russ has proven himself to be quite adept at grading Kennedy Halves, so I trust his judgement about their grading of the Kennedy, therefore I have never bought one. I believe it was RGL that bought a SMS Cameo Jefferson in the NTC holder and the thought it would cross as a Cameo and make the grade or perhaps one point less. Well, that's not bad. Pepperdoodles bought a tough date CC DMPL Morgan for 16% above bid and thought PCGS would cross the coin at DMPL and perhaps an upgrade. Well, that's pretty good, too. I've purchased Cameo & DCAM Lincolns, from the '50's, in the NTC holder and have found them to be accurately graded. All of this is still a very small sampling. But at least it is from a number of series.

Give this thing some time before you blast them. Just my opinion.


Ken- You must be pretty thin-skinned if you find the above to be a "flaming".

Russ- You on many occasions have said you know absolutely nothing about how to grade a proof Franklin, so your assessment is pretty much meaningless.

relayer

Coins are 1) either slabbed by PCGS or NGC, or 2) they are raw.

DCAMFranklin

ttt

DCAMFranklin

ttt

lordmarcovan

<< <i>Coins are 1) either slabbed by PCGS or NGC, or 2) they are raw. >>



I'd throw ANACS in as a third choice. Beyond that, I'd agree.

coinlieutenant

For those that think that there is only PCGS, NGC, and maybe ANACS I would say that there is some real crap in their holders as well. Even the mighty PCGS overgrades on many occasions. They are probably the most consistant at being good but that doesnt mean their never bad.

Anyway, my point is that alot of these lower end grading services that are crooked will sometimes pull the opposite trick on certian unfortunate collectors. Think about this senario.

Collector walks in with some really nice raw stuff to a less than savory dealer. The dealer also has connections to one of these companies. He sends in the coins asking for LOWER grades than actual, shows the coins to the collector and then buys them at "great" prices for the grade. What sometimes happens is the dealer tries this and then the collector bails and the coins end up on the market, in bad slabs but are actually undergraded. I have seen it happen. Not often but I will always look at all slabs for coins. Again. Buy the coin, not the slab.

Sometimes you might find a diamond in the rough.

John

foodude

maybe we aren't looking at this right, maybe their grading scale goes to 76 or something... mmm (sarcasm)

NBSQLGeek

So no one will be upset with me to buy these and crack them open for my coin albums.