segs good or bad ? 2nd question .

Dimmuraynes

Thank you for all of your help. The reason i was asking is i came into a 1911s 5.00 Indian at MS64 and am hoping i could trust it. It has a really good strike and luster looks way better than some that i have seen in pcgs ms63. Would it bring the same as pcgs if still in segs slab if it looks ms64 ?

K6AZ

I've seen some good bargains in SEGS gold. The answer to your question is that coins in SEGS holders are heavily discounted in the market. If you have one you feel is accurately graded, you can maximize your selling price by cracking it out of the SEGS holder and have the coin certified by PCGS or NGC.

roadrunner

I might tend to value SEG's opinion on the authenticity of seated (and some bust) coins, but other than that, this is not a reliable service imo, esp. with regards to grading.

roadrunner

ColonialCoinUnion

Ditto. The market will assume there is something wrong with it or it would have already been in a top-tier holder.

Doesn't mean there isn't the unusual exception, whereby you pick up a hidden gem in SEGS holder for a bargain price, but more realistically you'll end up with an overgraded coin that was no bargain. I'd run the other way.

BillJones

SEGS, like all of the other "second tier" grading services, has assumed a second-class status in the market. SEGS graded coins, even when they meet the market-accepted standards that have been set by PCGS and NGC, sell at discount prices.

It’s really hard for a new grading service to crack the top level of the market, which is currently dominated by PCGS and NGC. SEGS in its early days tried to be painfully accurate by describing every defect that a coin had, often to excess. Sometimes a SEGS holder would mention a defect like a minor scratch on a Fine or VF graded coin that most dealers and advanced collectors would view as normal for the grade. This made it harder to sell SEGS coins, and dealers tended to avoid them.

Then SEGS dropped the excessive comments and also seemed to lower their grading standards. This left a perception in the market, rightly or wrongly, that if a coin was in a SEGS holder it was either overgraded or had something wrong with it. I know that when I see a scarce and valuable coin in SEGS holder, this was flies into my mind. “Why is THIS coin in THAT holder?”

New grading services face an uphill battle. If they grade their coins tight, dealers won’t submit material to them because they might get better grades and a more marketable product from PCGS or NGC. On the other hand, if the new service grades their coin loosely, they will get that reputation; and collectors and dealers will only pay discounted prices for them. It’s a Catch-22, and to date no new comers to the coin certification market have been able to solve it.

lathmach

I only own a few slabbed coins. I just don't do slabs.
I do have a specialized collection of the Liberty Seated Quarter Dollars, that includes a large number of die varieties and die states.
If I were to have my coins encapsulated by some chance, I would have SEGS do it, as I would want the variety listed on the label.
None of the others services would get the attributions correct.
None. Period.

Ray

BillJones

For what it's worth I think that NGC and ANACS do a pretty good job with die variety attributions. I've seen very few mistakes when it comes to attributions in their holders.

vega1

Don't buy it as a SEGS MS64, buy it as raw. It will never bring as much as if it was in a PCGS 64 (or even maybe 63) slab since almost everyone looking at it would discount its grade as innnaccurate (right or wrong) sight unseen. If its a nice coin, and your buying it for your collection and not to resell, and you like it, and you agree with the grade, buy it. If you have any doubt, that doubt will only grow and turn to buyer's remorse later and you will never be happy with it. My 2 cents.