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Ask Me Anything Session with Brett Charville January 1, 2019 10:00 AM PST - 12:30 PM PST

Attention all CU Forum Members!

Kick off your new year with the new PCGS President, Brett Charville, during a live Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on January 1, 2019, from 10:00 AM PST until 12:30 PM PST. During this AMA session questions will be answered in the order they are received at the discretion of Brett and the moderator.

General Guidelines:
All appropriate and well-intentioned questions are welcome during his AMA session, however, not all questions will be answered. Due to the limited amount of time for the session, Brett and the moderator will be selecting questions that seem to be the most popular or would provide the most valuable information to our community.

Only questions and Brett’s responses will be allowed during the AMA period, all other posts on the AMA thread will be deleted. Comments and non-question related posts will not be allowed while the AMA session is live after the session is over the thread will be left open temporarily to allow discussion. This is important to keep the thread clean and easy to navigate. Failure to follow these guidelines will result in a temporary loss of posting privileges.

Sarcastic or otherwise inappropriate questions or comments will lead to a deletion of the offending post and a temporary ban for the forum member who made the post until the AMA session has ended. There will be no warnings. Depending on the degree of severity, bans for inappropriate behavior during the event may be permanent.

This thread will remain closed until the start of the AMA event.

Heather Boyd
PCGS Senior Director of Marketing

Comments

  • Good morning everyone and welcome to our live AMA session with PCGS President Brett Charville. Here are a few reminders for how this will work:

    Only posts asking questions will be allowed
    Questions can be personal about Brett or the company
    Be civil!
    Please only ask one question per post.

    Heather Boyd
    PCGS Senior Director of Marketing

  • BrettPCGSBrettPCGS Posts: 159 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @claychaser said:

    Given the market impact of CAC, is there any plans to offer some type of "Premium Quality" designation or different PCGS holders for coins that are top for the grade on either technical merits or overall "wow" eye appeal?

    Good first question! Currently there are no plans to offer any type of PQ designation service at PCGS.

    Brett Charville --- I work at PCGS

  • BrettPCGSBrettPCGS Posts: 159 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @atom said:
    Any plans to offer grading on Ancient coins?

    thanks for question! No immediate plans for ancient grading, but it's on the list of things for us to take a hard look at in 2019.

    Brett Charville --- I work at PCGS

  • BrettPCGSBrettPCGS Posts: 159 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @MrEureka said:
    I miss the days when PCGS would deliver my completed orders to coin shows. Saved me a ton of money, and it was convenient. Any chance that service can be revived? It doesn't need to be free, just economical.

    Great thought Andy, adding to the list of things to take a look at.

    Brett Charville --- I work at PCGS

  • BrettPCGSBrettPCGS Posts: 159 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @claychaser said:
    Has there been any internal discussion at PCGS to make a more effective recall or buyback procedure for coins that may not be up to current grading standards? Has PCGS considered having a table at major shows to where customers could submit coins for an informal reconsideration without having to pay a fee, and having an instant buyback for coins under a certain price point?

    No plans to setup a special table or anything of that nature. If anyone feels that their coin would qualify for buyback via the PCGS Guarantee I’d recommend they submit the coins through the office as they normally would. I’m confident that we have the strongest guarantee program in the business.

    One other thing I can say here: Our turnaround time for processing coins submitted via PCGS Guarantee will improve greatly going forward. I like to keep a clean desk.

    Brett Charville --- I work at PCGS

  • BrettPCGSBrettPCGS Posts: 159 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @messydesk said:
    I have a coin needing reholdering, a crossover, a world crossover, and a raw coin for regular submission. I hesitate to submit any of them because of the return postage and handling fees of $140 for the 4 coins. Combining return shipping has been a wish for many for years. Any plans on moving forward with this?

    Hey John good question, but no plans on this in the immediate future. It's a great concept and we love the idea of making things easier and more cost effective for our submitters but we have found that faster turn around times trump holding orders to ship them together. Extremely difficult logistically to have it both ways.

    Brett Charville --- I work at PCGS

  • BrettPCGSBrettPCGS Posts: 159 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @claychaser said:
    When submitting for bulk service, why can't we place the coins in flips?

    The rules state that they must be in tubes or mint packaging. But for many coins, only MS or PF 69 or 70 will be worthwhile, and I am concerned that a coin could pick up a small tick when placing and emptying the tubes. I for one would be willing to pay a small per coin surcharge to use flips instead of tubes.

    GREAT question. You are welcome to submit high grade bulk coins in flips. I have identified that improving our guidelines for submissions like these need improving and we are working on it.

    Brett Charville --- I work at PCGS

  • BrettPCGSBrettPCGS Posts: 159 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @TurboSnail said:
    Will you consider to revolutionize a new generation of holders with RFID tags ?

    Yes, it's one of many techs being looked at in terms of holder improvements.

    Brett Charville --- I work at PCGS

  • BrettPCGSBrettPCGS Posts: 159 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @OPA said:
    What are PCGS's plans on holders and labels for the: 2019 Apollo 11- 50th Anniversary coins? (from the 5 oz pucks to the 1/4 oz gold)

    Great question! Really exciting plans in the works, just need a little more time before we reveal.

    Brett Charville --- I work at PCGS

  • BrettPCGSBrettPCGS Posts: 159 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @claychaser said:
    Will PCGS offer a 5 or 6 coin multi holder?

    For proof sets 1936-1955, the current way to get one that's graded by PCGS is for 5 or 6 slabs to be rubber banded together. I much more attractive presentation would be for the 5 coins to show their individual grades and cert numbers in the holder.

    And, matching proof sets could be assembled with either the same grades, or same look (e.g. blast white, or toned) for nice presentation.

    We already have these in Asia, where there is more demand for them. https://www.pcgsasia.com/article/pcgs-launches-multi-coin-holder?l=en

    I'm admittedly unsure what our stateside offerings on these are. (My first actual real day of work is tomorrow after all :D ). Great question, added to the list of things to take a look at.

    Brett Charville --- I work at PCGS

  • BrettPCGSBrettPCGS Posts: 159 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @messydesk said:
    As there are many more people looking at coins in PCGS holders and data on PCGS's website than are employed by PCGS, what possibilities do you see for PCGS to effectivly crowdsource retaining the integrity of the PCGS brand and holder?

    We are working on improving the process where collectors/submitters can submit meaningful feedback to the CU retail price guide and CoinFacts.

    Brett Charville --- I work at PCGS

  • BrettPCGSBrettPCGS Posts: 159 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @BustDMs said:

    @BrettPCGS said:

    @claychaser said:
    Has there been any internal discussion at PCGS to make a more effective recall or buyback procedure for coins that may not be up to current grading standards? Has PCGS considered having a table at major shows to where customers could submit coins for an informal reconsideration without having to pay a fee, and having an instant buyback for coins under a certain price point?

    No plans to setup a special table or anything of that nature. If anyone feels that their coin would qualify for buyback via the PCGS Guarantee I’d recommend they submit the coins through the office as they normally would. I’m confident that we have the strongest guarantee program in the business.

    Can you share with us how many coins PCGS bought back in 2018? The total value?

    Approx 200 coins and approx $1m. Individual claims and the value per claim will always vary from year to year. These numbers were higher than usual in 2018 as we cleaned up a backlog of Guarantee submissions.

    Is there a set annual budget for buy backs?

    No

    Brett Charville --- I work at PCGS

  • BrettPCGSBrettPCGS Posts: 159 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @amwldcoin said:
    Does PCGS plan to make the PCGS price guide more accurate? Where does PCGS get their pricing information for price guide?

    I think in light of how many thousands of coins we cover we already do a pretty darn good job, especially relative to other price guides currently in the market. You'll always be able to find specific examples of where we need to improve pricing, but that goes for any price guide. That being said, continuous improvement and consistency on pricing is something we're ALWAYS going to be looking to improve. General info on how we determine our pricing is already laid out in the Rare Coin Market Report magazine we publish every other month.

    Brett Charville --- I work at PCGS

  • BrettPCGSBrettPCGS Posts: 159 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @BustDMs said:
    Many “named” collections have been going to NGC for certification. Do you have any plans to be more competitive in this area?

    Will you be offering more options for “named” collections to be identified on the slab inserts?

    Great question, and it's an area I haven't gotten to look at yet. Will add to the list of things to explore. thanks!

    Brett Charville --- I work at PCGS

  • BrettPCGSBrettPCGS Posts: 159 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @messydesk said:
    There is a lot of value placed on coins in old holders simply because they demonstrate that a coin has not been futzed with. Many of these holders are in bad shape, don't possess the same security features as new holders, or are simply aesthetically unpleasing. What makes sense to me is to offer reholdering of these coins in new holders with the old tag, thus preserving the integrity of the coin having been in an old holder with the benefit of a new, more secure holder. Is this something you would consider?

    It's a great concept, and I believe something that has been discussed previously, but I think unfortunately it would create too much confusion about the authenticity of said holders. I'm not saying it can't be done, but probably not high on the list when it comes to holder improvements at the moment.

    Brett Charville --- I work at PCGS

  • BrettPCGSBrettPCGS Posts: 159 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @messydesk said:
    What measures does PCGS currently take and plan on establishing to reduce what the marketplace perceives as inconsistent grading over time?

    Here’s my general thoughts on grading standards:

    PCGS has their own established grading standards.

    NGC has their own established grading standards
    CAC has their own established grading standards.
    The ANA has their own established grading standards.
    Every person on the boards has their own personal established grading standards.

    Thankfully for all of us, when it comes down to it, most all of these grading standards are quite similar and I know PCGS' grading standards have remained very consistent over time. But naturally, we all come here to discuss the often minute differences that have cropped up over time regarding grading standards.

    PCGS has the most market accepted grading standards in the world, it’s what has allowed PCGS to be the undisputed market leader in third party authentication for decades.

    That being said, we can ALWAYS look for ways to improve consistency, and we will. I have a strong grading background and look forward to working directly with our grading team to find process improvements in the grading room on both turnover and consistency. We have the best grading team and most consistent standards, but we can ALWAYS improve. Continuous improvement is the name of the game while I’m at PCGS, and we’ll be relentless in our pursuit of improvement across the board.

    Brett Charville --- I work at PCGS

  • BrettPCGSBrettPCGS Posts: 159 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @atom said:
    As you are fielding these questions and requests, would it be possible to share your “Action List” with timeframes so we all can get a sense of the changes coming?

    Great idea but unfortunately it's very difficult to give too much time frame guidance when I'm just getting started. In talking to over 300 submitters and customers over the last few weeks, with many more calls to still be made, we're overflowing with great ideas. And that's an exciting thing!

    My undoubted first priority is to improve customer service and the overall customer experience when interacting with PCGS. While there's dozens of things in the works beyond that, I'm hesitant to give a time table at this time.

    This concludes our AMA. Thanks for everyone who participated! Looking forward to seeing many of you at the FUN show!

    Brett Charville --- I work at PCGS

  • BrettPCGSBrettPCGS Posts: 159 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @MrEureka said:

    @BrettPCGS said:

    @Mark said:
    Will you (please) do more of these AMA sessions?

    We'll see, I was honestly hoping for a lot more questions about my dog Pablo. He's a good boy and he just did pretty well on our 34 hour drive to California.

    I know we're not supposed to respond to your answers but sorry, you can't mention Pablo without posting pics.

    Brett Charville --- I work at PCGS

This discussion has been closed.