How much professional mobility do full-time coin graders have if their jobs get eliminated?

Longacre

Personally, I think the more broad-based and well-rounded skills that you have, the more marketable you are in the marketplace in the event that you lose your job. If you get too specialized (or get too ingrained in the particular methods and processes that a certain company uses), your value to other potential employers goes down.

Given the recent tragedy at ANACS, how much professional mobility do the full-time graders have who were termined by management? Is their only other employment option to work for another coin grading service? Or do they gain portable skills in the grading room that can be applied to other businesses/industries? I am just curious what the terminated employees' next career steps are likely to be given their specialized skills.

fc

this is slightly or on topic to your post:

do they truly get 100,000+ salaries? it seems if you lived in NYC
or LA, sure you would get paid accordingly to the cost of living..

but do coin graders actually make the big money that is tossed around
here? maybe the top 1-3 graders do, but all the rest?

seems 60-80 thousand would be normal in my mind. not the large
amounts tossed around on this board.

291fifth

Some of these folks may be buried in their present homes, making relocation either difficult or very expensive.

I would guess that, once you get beyond the very top graders, the salaries at grading companies are unimpressive.

sinin1

I would think PCGS or NGC would want them

as it looks to me that the top 4 is soon to be 2 top and rest 3rd tier

slipgate

Maybe antique appraisals - if they have a good eye for coins.

BAJJERFAN

Well there is always the dealer route as many of these guys were dealers previously. I imagine that a skilled graded could do well cherrypicking raw coins at a show.

ziggy29

If you are well-known in the industry to be good at what you do, if you're willing to relocate and your salary requirements are reasonable, I would certainly think one of the majors would be interested in you.

Bear

I believe that world class graders that are available

for hire are about as rare as hens teeth. The major

grading services are always looking to pick up good people.

Many of the top graders are dealers and are not available for

the TPG. I would imagine that experienced graders would be

earning north of 150,000 per year. I would thing that being

nearsighted would be an asset in spotting a coins defects. Of

course being blind as a bat would be best. Then you could grade

without being biased,by actually seeing the coin.

BAJJERFAN

<< <i>I believe that world class graders that are available

for hire are about as rare as hens teeth. The major

grading services are always looking to pick up good people.

Many of the top graders are dealers and are not available for

the TPG. I would imagine that experienced graders would be

earning north of 150,000 per year. I would thing that being

nearsighted would be an asset in spotting a coins defects. Of

course being blind as a bat would be best. Then you could grade

without being biased,by actually seeing the coin. >>



Maybe you could start braille grading service and call it paw paw coins or paw pawed coins.

MrEureka

Maybe you could start braille grading service

Based on what I've seen in the marketplace, this would most likely not be the first such service.

fcloud

I would think in the short term they could cherry pick and and sell those coins. In the long run they could start their own businesses, or work for one of the other services. What ever happens I wish them the best of luck.

tahoe98

in the future possibly an opening in the CAC crowd

mozin

I have no idea how many full-time coin graders there are at PCGS/NGC/ANACS/ICG combined. Are there as many as fifty? Forty? Thirty? Twenty?

I would not believe an experienced grader at one of the big four grading services would make less than $150,000 per year. Starting pay is probably over $100,000. Some of the top graders should be making over $200,000 per year. Otherwise, they would be staying as crackout dealers.

ricko

Seems like a very narrow field.... that being said... there is always openings for inspectors in the Quality profession.... and I believe the grading skills could be applied there.... Salaries are somewhat different however. Cheers, RickO

LickThoseStamps

Based on my observed spread of grading results, I assumed that the grading has already been outsourced to India. Sometimes the graders receive good images, sometimes they don’t.

If they lose this job, there are plenty of other outsourced opportunities.

TheCaveTroll

<< <i>Personally, I think the more broad-based and well-rounded skills that you have, the more marketable you are in the marketplace in the event that you lose your job. If you get too specialized (or get too ingrained in the particular methods and processes that a certain company uses), your value to other potential employers goes down.

Given the recent tragedy at ANACS, how much professional mobility do the full-time graders have who were termined by management? Is their only other employment option to work for another coin grading service? Or do they gain portable skills in the grading room that can be applied to other businesses/industries? I am just curious what the terminated employees' next career steps are likely to be given their specialized skills. >>



Former graders tend to be very good doctors/crackout artists. Their 100k+ salaries are based on being competative with what they could make in the open market applying their skills as a crackout guy. Remember, these guys entire job is to dicern the suble differences between grades and that skill directly translates into sucess upgrading coins.