Acquiring Coins to Send to PCGS

TigersFan2

I've ben collecting coins for 40 years, but only a year ago did I finally see the value in PCGS. For the past year, I've decided that every coin in my collection that's worth more than $50 needs to be PCGS graded. Although I like having the reputation of PCGS bring certainty to the value of my coins, my real reason is more practical. My wife has zero knowledge or interest in coins. If I pass away first, I really don't want her taking a bunch of raw coins to a dealer in town and getting pennies to the dollar on what they're worth. So by having the bulk of my collection in PCGS, she can readily know the grade and approximate value of the coin and be in a position of strength if she decides to liquidate my collection via a dealer or Ebay.

And I also like how a PCGS coin is protected from accidental handling or poor storage.

Anyway, I joined the Collectors' Club a year ago as a Platinum Member and will renew again next month. I've sent 28 coins in and 26 came back with grades. I feel good about this as some of the ones I felt more iffy about I sold on Ebay and bought comparable PCGS coins on Ebay to replace them.

Anyway, sending coins into PCGS is very exciting. I found I love the anticipation of waiting for the grades, then seeing the grades and how they compare with my grading, then getting the coins back in the mail.

My issues are...

(1) I'm not a high end collector. Other than a few $10 and $20 gold coins I've treated myself to, all the other coins in my collection are lower value. I have several Morgans and a few other coins in the $200-400 range for value.
(2) The lower value coins don't leave much margin between buying raw then paying the $25 or so to PCGS for grading and still be well enough under the value of the PCGS graded coin. For lower value coins, it usually makes more sense to just buy the PCGS coin that someone else has sent in for grading. (With higher value coins, you obviously have more margin between the raw vs. PCGS value to justify sending it in for grading.)

So my big question is how do many of you acquire the coins you send of to PCGS to get graded?

I go to several of the local coin shows, but like I said, there's not a lot of margin between a raw vs. PCGS coin when the coin is worth $50-200.

Has anyone ever had any luck going to pawn shops and looking through their silver coins for any semi-key or key dates? I haven't tried that as I think the pawn shop dealers are too smart to let a key date sit with the junk silver coins.

I've rejected putting out an advertisement that I'll buy coin collections. It would probably make the IRS think I have a business rather than a hobby and there are definite personal safety/security risks.

I expect the coin shops know the value too well and have coins priced accordingly, but I do have my assessment of the grade/quality in my control.

I do try to cherry pick Ebay auctions, but the risk is high to get a cleaned coin. I have gotten a few very good deals this way, but they're few and very far between.

winky

good luck.

PQueue

Good idea. You are in for a big surprise when you learn you little you your collection is worth.

TigersFan2

I know how much my collection is worth. I've had a spreadsheet for the past 20 years in which I inventory my entire collection and assign values. 7.2% of my coins are PCGS coins that are 70% of the total value. And I believe I'm very conservative about my raw coins in that I value most of my low-grade common date silver coinage at melt value and my 1965-present coinage at face value. My raw coins are then my "feel like a kid" hobby coins that I enjoy filling holes in my Dansco albums. Anything of numismatic value I'm collecting in PCGS now. Currently working on completing a PCGS complete set of Morgans, Peace Dollars and $2.5 Gold Indians.

CoinJunkie

<< <i>So my big question is how do many of you acquire the coins you send of to PCGS to get graded? >>


The vast majority of coins I send to PCGS for grading were previously slabbed by NGC, ANACS, or ICG.
That takes a lot of the risk out of it vs. raw coins, particularly raw coins I can't view in hand before
buying.

oih82w8

<< <i>

<< <i>So my big question is how do many of you acquire the coins you send of to PCGS to get graded? >>



The vast majority of coins I send to PCGS for grading were previously slabbed by NGC, ANACS, or ICG.

That takes a lot of the risk out of it vs. raw coins, particularly raw coins I can't view in hand before buying. >>



I have sent in a few (no more than four) raw coins in to PCGS for grading. The majority of coins I send in (like CoinJunkie) have been previously slabbed by a Third Party Grading service.

Stooge

I'm just the opposite...I would say about 99% of all the coins I sub have been raw. I get them at shows in 2x2's, Mint Sets, crack outs, & rolls mostly. There are gems to be found if you look hard enough.

perfectstrike

Gotta go with Paul. Mint and proof sets, original rolls and cherry picked 2x2's.

David

TigersFan2

The vast majority of coins I send to PCGS for grading were previously slabbed by NGC, ANACS, or ICG.
That takes a lot of the risk out of it vs. raw coins, particularly raw coins I can't view in hand before
buying.

And I expect that it's about quantity... Looking at many NGC, ANACS or IGC coins to find that rare one you know would grade much higher.

CoinJunkie

<< <i>The vast majority of coins I send to PCGS for grading were previously slabbed by NGC, ANACS, or ICG.
That takes a lot of the risk out of it vs. raw coins, particularly raw coins I can't view in hand before
buying.

And I expect that it's about quantity... Looking at many NGC, ANACS or IGC coins to find that rare one you know would grade much higher. >>


I'm not necessarily looking for undergraded coins. Mostly looking for coins I want in my collection
that aren't overgraded/overpriced. (Aesthetically, I have a strong preference for PCGS holders.)

david3142

TigersFan, what are your collecting goals? It is not worth the expense to slab $50 coins but I understand your reasoning. Is the slabbing purely a succession plan?
There are certainly still raw collectors out there, so you could post an ad in the forum to sell some raw coins.
Unless you are a very good grader and selectively submit coins, you are going to lose money getting raw coins slabbed. If you want coins in PCGS holders, it is best to buy them that way.

To answer your question about acquisition, I used to regularly attend shows of all sizes in the Maryland/Virginia/DC area. I have since moved to NY and there are rarely shows here, so I primarily buy at auction and from fellow forum members.

TigersFan2

It is not worth the expense to slab $50 coins but I understand your reasoning. Is the slabbing purely a succession plan?

I like PCGS coins for many reasons...

1). The certainty of what I have, the grade, damage, etc. which translates to better knowing the value. I think we'd all agree that assigning a value to a raw coin can be more subjective than assigning value to a PCGS coin since there's more latitude to our opinions about the raw coin. For example, a raw coin we're more likely to discuss damage or cleaning whereas a PCGS coin we probably won't discuss that.
2). If something happens to me, my PCGS coins are far easier to sell at a higher price than raw coins. She's not going to learn about coins so I'd rather make it easier for her. My health is good so I don't expect to die any time soon.
3). I like the preservation aspect of PCGS coins. Until a year ago, I had my raw coins in 2x2 mylar flips in plastic pages in notebooks. I noticed a few of my silver coins had green PVC damage that I was able to correct with a little acetone. I now have my raw coins in Dansco Albums. I trust a PCGS slab more for protection.

About your opinion about it not being worth the expense to slab a $50 coin... Some of it depends upon what I paid for the coin now or 20 years ago. Most of my raw coins I purchased 15-20 years ago when prices were much lower. I've sent 28 of my raw coins to PCGS this past year and 26 got grades. But I also sold many raw on Ebay and in turn bought a similar PCGS coin to replace it. Often I did buy a PCGS coin up a grade or two, but on average, I paid $35 more for the PCGS coins than I received for the raw coin (after Ebay, PayPal and shipping fees). So in hindsight, I perhaps could have come out better or about the same if I had sent those coins into PCGS, but I was so nervous about getting "no-grades" that I viewed the Ebay route as safer.

I would love to purchase people's collections just to enjoy reselling it on Ebay or pulling out anything of value to send into PCGS. But there are many security issues to throw advertisements out on the internet for a willingness to purchase collections.

I have 156 PCGS coins now in all grades. It's taught me a lot about grading and what gradable coins look like. I feel more comfortable now to go to local coin shows (they seem to only occur in the spring around here) and look through what people have and try to buy some raw stuff for low enough prices to make it still reasonable to send to PCGS.

Sure, like you say it may not make much sense to send $50 coins off, but I do find it very exciting all the anticipation to see what the grade is and then the excitement to open the box and get my coins back. We do a lot of things in life that make no economic sense.

Also, my Platinum PCGS membership renews next month so I'll have the certificate for 8 submittals. I only have 5 candidates at the moment to submit.

david3142

You sill didn't answer the first question. I understand the benefits of having slabbed coins and I agree that it's very fun to await the grades and unpackage the coins, which feel new again when they return home.

I think you should post this question in the general US coins forum since it will get more responses and this isn't a registry question anyway.

TigersFan2

Sorry, you asked what my collecting goals are? That's hard to explain because I've been collecting for over 40 years and I've collected about everything. I even tried adding a Canadian coin collecting to my collection about 20 years ago. But I'm trying to narrow it down and I'm trying to build the following PCGS collections...

1. U.S. Circulation Type Set
2. Morgan Dollar Circulation Set
3. Peace Dollar Circulation Set
4. $2.5 Gold Indians Circulation Set.

What I'm starting to realize is that as I get down to just needing semi-key and key dates for my Morgan set, I may be best to spend my time at shows and purchase raw then submit to PCGS myself.

david3142

Thank you for clarifying. I think those are great goals - I am also working on a set of Morgans and my Type Set is pretty much complete (in a Dansco 7070) but I still like to upgrade it.

I would definitely not recommend purchasing key dates raw. First of all, you will be hard-pressed to find them and if you do, there's usually a reason the coin isn't in a holder. Finally, unless you are very good at grading and counterfeit detection, your odds of making a big mistake are much greater than your odds of finding an underpriced/undergraded score. I would really extend this to even the commons in anything higher than 64. I started assembling my collection of Morgans about 13 years ago with a small budget and bought most everything raw. Dealers will still charge you what they think the coin grades so you might as well buy them already slabbed. Over time the nice coins make it into slabs so it's much harder to find nice raw coins now than it was then.

TigersFan2

Great advice. I agree that the dealers are smart enough to get a higher value coin graded than sell it raw. Yes, the raw ones likely are raw for a reason. But there's still a significant number of collectors who want all their coins raw and in Dansco albums and don't want to pay "extra" for professionally-graded coins. Perhaps these collectors are building collections of questionable coins, but then again it shows that there's still a lot of coins out there that are of grading quality that haven't been sent in. I've even seen internet posts from collectors who say if they buy a slabbed coin, they break it out to put it in their PCGS folder. But I agree that the more expensive the coin, the greater the risk of buying it raw.

I had 53 different Morgan and Peace dollars that I had purchased back in the late 1990s (all raw of course) to build my collection then. Mid-2014 I read an online article about Chinese counterfeits and became all scared about what I had. I bought a coin scale that measures to the 0.1 of a gram and started weighing my dollars. I would have bet money that several would have come in light. They all weighed 26.7g and down as low as 26.0g for the lower grade ones. But I was too concerned about the uncertainty of raw coins so I sold them all on Ebay and started buying PCGS Morgan and Peace dollars. Of course it's addicting and I've been buying too many other PCGS coins as well. It's too easy to buy the MS65 or MS66 Jefferson Nickels or Wheat Cents for <$15.

The best thing about buying PCGS coins is the education. I see what damage-free graded coins look like and it gives me a better understanding of coins. Back in the late 1990s, I purchased a raw $2.5 Gold Indian off Ebay and sent it to ANACS for grading. It came back "Polished, AU Details, Net EF40." This made me stupid in coin collecting because it gave me the false knowledge that damage isn't that bad as it just reduces the grade one level.

One word of advice to you. Consider buying stock in PCGS' parent company (CLCT). It's paying a dividend of 7.5-8.0% and it doesn't take owning many shares until your annual dividends pay for your PCGS annual membership.

lordmarcovan

<< <i>

<< <i>So my big question is how do many of you acquire the coins you send of to PCGS to get graded? >>


The vast majority of coins I send to PCGS for grading were previously slabbed by NGC, ANACS, or ICG.
That takes a lot of the risk out of it vs. raw coins, particularly raw coins I can't view in hand before
buying. >>



This.

Although I do submit raw ones too.

Actually they're ALL raw by the time I submit them, because I crack the slabbed ones first.