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Grading slow downs due to US Mint coin grading
logger7
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I spoke with a dealer who had a submission at PCGS and one of the workers handling bulk submissions for him said that due to all the modern coin slabbing they were running around the clock with their slabbing machine. Do they also have graders who work more than 8 hour shifts?
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It's the same thing EVERY year at this time. Why does this surprise anyone? Your question also makes no sense. Graders don't run the slabbing machines. They can do their shift and have thousands of graded coins ready for slabbing and shipping.
Here are the exact orders and turnaround times from my REAL orders at this time last year. It was much faster.
So the bottleneck being the slabbing? Good to know.
Some pretty harsh words being exchanged for such a mundane topic.
I edited my post to remove the whack I gave DB.
I have an Economy submission that has been sitting since 12/8/16....PCGS is considered the top grading company...yet timely service is lacking.
What? They give you a couple options for faster service...
Some submissions DO NOT warrant higher priced options....Its not cost efficient....
but that "doesn't work with their business model" or some other lame excuse.
I've been keeping track of PCGS coins graded per day and week since Aug.1 2016. Their numbers are all over the place; there have been a few weeks under 40,000 and a few weeks over 100,000. The highest weekly total I've seen is 131.7K from 1/9/17 to 1/15/17. Last week it was down to 63,000.
It seems to me they have the capacity to "slab" a lot more coins than are being graded. My guess is the weeks with huge totals is when bulk submissions are pushed through. I think the slowdown is caused by a lack of expperienced graders for the non Modern stuff. You can't just hire someone off the street and teach them how to grade older material with all sorts of potential problems in a few weeks.
I've been keeping track for 10 years or there abouts. I'm glad someone else is also interested. I think the big numbers you saw in November and December were due to the Chinese Mint contract getting under way. I may be wrong, but I assume those coins were graded and slabbed in China. PCGS hired local folks in China. Bulk Modern seems pretty easy to train someone to figure out if it is 68/69/70. I make the "graded in China" assumption based on the fact that the total from Friday into Saturday during that time period were at their historical avg of 4K or so (when China is closed) and ramped up to 20k-30k on Sunday into Monday when US is closed.
China has slowed down now as I think their Mint releases coins on a different calendar schedule than the US. The slowdown now is US Silver Eagle which are showing a gain of about 10K-20K each day if you look in the pop reports (94K for 2017 already). That rate may put a strain on other areas of the supply chain (slab, verify, billing, ship)
edited to fix typo
Since I can post to this topic without being too far OT . . . .and have not considered my question to be important enough for its own thread . . . .
Can anyone offer any ideas . . .
I had an order sent Econ received at PCGS on the 11th of Jan. I would love to have them to take to a show on Feb 10th.
Any chance I will have my coins back by then . . . in your opinion ????
Drunner
Not likely. Sometimes if they are close to being done they will try to swing it for a dealer though. If you really need them you could step up the fee. I wish they had a bump up expedite fee, but what they usually do is just start over on a higher grading level.
my reg tier orders have been 30 days or more. for many months.
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Typical turnaround is 2 calendar months for Economy ... Check in on Nov 1st and it will get done in early to mid January.
I currently have an ecomomy sub that was checked in on Dec 2nd and I am expecting it in early February (a few weeks).
Express is typically 1 calendar month but can take longer. Honestly express is not worth the extra money IMHO, as those subs dont get done very quickly at all (certainly paying 3x the grading fees for express is not worth it).
Grading in each service level is random order, not first in first out, by the way -- which can lead to a lot of variation around those average turnaround times. You may see an occasional post on the CU Forum about how fast the grading is (like someone got an economy sub done in 3 weeks -- it's rare but does happen occasionally (but not so much lately)). You will often see people with subs checked in multiple weeks after yours getting graded before yours! That's simply what happens in reality.
if you want to know how I know that last statement about random grading order is true, I have sent two nearly identical subs (economy, us, lincoln cents (non varieties)) in the same shipping box (with sequential Submission numbers) a slew of times over the past few years, and one typically gets finished up to a MONTH before the other one. The only way that can happen is random order. If it was first in, first out, those two subs would be done within a day of each other.
The best strategy is just to know this in advance, submit and wait 2 calendar months and try to stay relaxed. Eventually they will get done. It doesn't not speed things up to agitate anyone or call customer service. You just have to CHILL. Try to find other things to occupy your mind while you are waiting (like binge watching a multi-season Netflix series). ; )
How do I know all this ... By having submitted nearly 2000 coins over a 3 year period in probably 300+ subs.
It's just coins! Not a big deal. Breathe and relax. Meditate!
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If they were only doing classic US coins which we all love mainly, the company would be smaller and struggling. Around 100K silver eagles in January already--do the math, that is probably around $1 million in revenue! Classic US coins account for a smaller piece of the pie by the year especially with the growing Asian market.
I think shareholders of Colectors Universe stock should get an automatic 2 week bump on the waiting time.
It's probably obvious I own shares of CLCT.
$10/coin for bulk? No way. More like $4 or $5 tops with a special label.
I'd bet Duncan got moved to the head of the line when he owned almost 20% of the company. Those with a few K shares, not so much.
I've received my US economy submission back that they received on 12/8. I'm overall happy wth the grades they came up with
Yep, your sub checked in on 12/8 is done ... while mine checked in on 12/2 (about 1 week prior) is still waiting.
Random order. Not first in, first out.
Not a huge deal. I know that sometime in February, mine will get done.
I think the longest a US Coin, raw grading, economy sub has ever taken (for me) is 3 calendar months. That's about the upper limit.
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While the order appears random to you, I am sure they have a procedure. I don't think they blindfold an intern, spin them around 3 times, and tell them to go into the holding vault that contains the boxes spinning on a carousel and pull out a box for grading.