How the grading services rate in my opinion. Based on the last three shows I attended. Responses s

wingedliberty · July 10, 2003 5:54AM

Based on the last three shows that I attended, this is how the grading services rate in my opinion. I made it a point to inspect as many examples as I could from each service. Your thoughts are welcome.

1.PCGS: Still the leader without question. Excellent consistency and service.
2.NGC: Edging out PCGS slowly. Becoming much better. Very consistent and exceptional service.
3.ANACS: Excellent authentication and counterfeit detection. As good as PCGS and NGC on silver dollars. Excellent for key date authentication and an excellent gurarantee and great service. I spoke to Randy Campbell at the Clearwater show. They did brisk business and I am now very pleased with
my submissions.
4. PCI: New ownership as of several months ago. Brian Bearsly is doing a good job. I saw major national dealers at the Clearwater show with PCI slabs.
Good authentication. They are improving their guarantee. Gold label is becoming more consistent. Better with foreign now. Very consistent now with Morgan and Peace dollars. Will improve dramatically over the next few years.
5. ICG: Still has the stigma of the modern garbage out there as MS/PF70, but vast improvements and innovations in ancients and Canadian and British grading. Superb grading with foreigns and ancients. Good on silver dollars, but needs to improve on type and overcome the modern saturation stigma.
6.SEGS: Garbage and gross overgrading. Alot of PVC garbage in their holders. Terrible!
7.NTC: Satan's cousin.
8.ACG: Satan.

Your thoughts are welcome:

Brian.

poptopsRus · July 10, 2003 5:58AM

Opinions are like XXXXXXXX so here's mine;

PCGS
NGC
ICG (except moderns/proofs)
ANACS
PCI
SEGS
NTC
ACG

paigowjohnny · July 10, 2003 6:00AM

And mine....
1. PCGS/NGC...dead heat
2. ANACS...close second, occasionally a bad day
3. the others

DHeath · July 10, 2003 6:19AM

OK.....I use PCGS, NGC, and ANACS, and look for different things from each, but honestly like all three.
I have no use for the others, but think ICG could turn the corner given time.

Hadleydog · July 10, 2003 6:28AM

PCGS/NGC-either service is fine with me
anacs-although fairly consistant with the big 2, the fact is that the same coin in an anacs holder is worth LESS than if it were in a pcgs/ngc holder
The rest are garbage, and I look at the coins in them as raw and ungraded.

braddick · July 10, 2003 6:29AM

Brain, I agree with all you stated other than to add I don't place SEGS in the same catagory as you (my limited experience with them shows they're not that poor at what they do) and ANACS is not so good with Morgans that are DMPL.

Great report though and I like how you're willing to state it as you see it even if you may cross the lines others have drawn in the sand.

Baley · July 10, 2003 6:37AM

my current thoughts

PCGS (the premier TPG, for all it's faults. Conservative)
NGC (consistency! great for toners and liners and * coins, accurate!)
ANACS (like the grading, don't care for the cheap holder, net grade for problem pieces a big plus)
ICG (i dont collect slabbed moderns so no prob there)
SEGS (great holder, detailed discriptions, grading mixed)
PCI (inconsistent, both over and under, usually overgrades a point or 2)
NTC (tends to overgrade a point or 5, sometimes more)
AGC (tends to overgrade from 5 to 20 or more points)
all others (private slabbers, coin world slabs, etc: just like a raw coin)

cherrypickincoin · July 10, 2003 6:45AM

PCGS: Pros: Superior grading team. Conservative (like me). Superior holder. Better marketability. Cons: Those few MS65 coins that end up in Bowers and Merena MS67 slabs erk me! Slow turnaround.

NGC: Pros: Excellent grading, a little more liberal than PCGS on moderns.. Awesome customer service, backed by ANA. Allows PCGS coins in registry. Pleasing holder. Cons: Some MS70 moderns are really MS69's.

ANACS: Pros: Fairly consistent grading. Net grade system a plus. Excellent with counterfeits, alterations, etc. Cons: Slightly less marketability than PCGS and NGC, holder could use some work.

All others aren't worth commenting on...

MAULDEMALL · July 10, 2003 6:46AM

1) PCGS/NGC
2) ANACS
3) ICG

pci ntc acg segs /I Don't Deal With Except As A Raw Coin

wallstreetman · July 10, 2003 7:12AM

You got ANACS and SEGS backwards! ANACS SUCKS, not much better than ICG!

RYK · July 10, 2003 7:31AM

With respect to rare date gold coins, for me, it is a three-tier ranking:

#1 PCGS, NGC: I like the PCGS holder better. The rare date gold dealers seem to like NGC better--I wonder if it's because they get better grades! Collectors seem to prefer PCGS over NGC.

#2 ANACS, ICG: They seem to do a decent job with gold coins, but coins in these holders still sell for a discount compared to the top tier.

#3 The rest: Coins in the other holders are suspect. I consider them problem coins or raw (at best) coins until proven otherwise. Generally avoided.

Dog97 · July 10, 2003 9:15AM

I've finally had a SEGS experience. I've never commented on SEGS much because I haven't fooled with them much but a while back a member of my club came back from West Fla and passed around some slabs he had bought. Probably about a dozen were AT toned Barbers, IHC & Morgans. I really don't know for a FACT they were AT but they were just overall shiny & mirror like with no luster like a whizzer & were dark ugly pukey green & red color.
The old woman sitting beside me would remark "ooooh that's pretty" and hand me another one. Finally after a little while I said "notice any of those are AT?" I got a quick "if they were AT they would have gotten a body bag." I said "well look who's holder they're in." Then I got the deer in the spotlight look.
It was weird to see so many AT coins in slabs @ the same time.
Most people actually trust ALL grading companies & can't grasp that they are not all equal.

sinin1 · July 10, 2003 9:21AM

I like to cherrypick ICG because they are occasionally right or very close

and most people figure they overgrade modern stuff so they value the ICGs much lower

dorkkarl · July 10, 2003 9:26AM

for grading only:

(1) my opinion
(2) all other slabs lumped together equally

K S

K6AZ · July 10, 2003 9:34AM

1) PCGS/NGC
2) ANACS
3) ICG

Anything else is garbage in my opinion, and I have seen some very recent gold label PCI Morgans that were garbage.

Baley · July 10, 2003 9:39AM

were the coins actual garbage, truly not worth owning at any price? or just overgraded?

I would buy a coin in any slab for face value, and sometimes more. it depends. If I see a coin in a PCI slab for sale at a price less than the coin is worth raw, in my opinion, i will buy it and break it out.

but then again, I'm not at a level in my collection that just because a coin is not in the "right" slab, it's not worth owning at any price.

tgilliams · July 10, 2003 9:54AM

PCGS/NGC - Tie through MS/PR69DCAM, PCGS tops in 70's.
ANACS - Third
ICG - A poor 4th, 70'S are junk for the most part.
PCI - Not far behind ICG
SEGS - No experience, only positive thing is FS Jeff's step counts.
NTC - GARBAGE.
ACG - Always fun to watch the dreamer's build the ultimate Registry Collection for under $10 per coin.

jdimmick · July 10, 2003 11:00AM

My Opinion

1) PCGS Consistent and conservative. Very marketable at resale or upgrade time and usually brings strong premiums (MY collection is 100% PCGS)

2) NGC Seeing nicer coins by the day. (I am not a gold Buyer, but I honestly have to say that NGC gold is more appealing to me if I were a more aggresive gold buyer. NGC still has the tendancy to slab a cleaned coin more so than PCGS would. (Still have some of those lightly cleaned coins around. ) Still dont like NGC copper as well as PCGS even with the new Guarantee!

3) ANACS Authentication as good as the top two. (Still a lot of overgraded, and cleaned coins. (Mostly silver, Merc's walkers, barbers, etc) However, I like ANACS early copper

4) ICG MS grades still at least point to point /half over graded. Some circulated pieces arent too bad.

I dont consider the other services as graders, thier simply expensive holders?

Merc · July 10, 2003 11:10AM

PCGS and NGC grade about the same. I have to look at the coin and decide for myself if the grade should be what the holder says.

ANACS good for circulated coins. Uncirculate coins can be undergraded and overgraded.

ICG: good on older coins

All others: Red flag coins. Something is wrong with the coin or it is overgraded. Some are fun to look at for me to find the problem. Sometimes a good coin can be found in one, but you really have to know what you are doing.

tcmitssr · July 10, 2003 11:27AM

In terms of my area of interest, classic commemoratives, I would rate PCGS and NGC equal through the MS 65 grade. Higher grades than that, in general, I would deduct a half point to a point after most NGC grades from 66 through 68. The upside to that though is that there are some real nice coins to be found in those grades with NGC holders if you are careful and know what you are doing.

All the rest of the services, again only in classics, aren't worth a darn thing.

wallstreetman · July 10, 2003 12:00PM

For those of you who think PCGS and NGC are equal, I say "when all else fails, use your head"! Why do you think PCGS sells for more, wake up!

wallstreetman · July 10, 2003 12:02PM

NGCs biggest joke, GOLD!

fcloud · July 10, 2003 12:08PM

PCGS
NGC and ANACS tie

all others.

Buy the coin not the holder.

numonebuyer · July 10, 2003 1:10PM

If you are looking to sell, you want to own PCGS slabs. That is all you really want to say. You will get the money associated with the grade from PCGS slabs.

Next in line is NGC. A few will argue the grade a little. You will hear "PCGS would have graded it a..."

Every other slab will generate a debate on grade at the time of selling. You will hear "There is no way PCGS would have graded it that high..."

Funny how we debate this, but PCGS is the standard barer.

Tell the truth buyers. You like to cherry pick the rest so you can crossover and sell in PCGS slabs.

General comments... I wish that ANACS would change the size of their slab. Why do they have to be the odd man out? Give me a break.

I have just two negatives for PCGS. 1) I wish they would slab instead of body bag. The only thing I like about PCI is that they will slab a cleaned coin and mark it as cleaned with that red border on the slab. 2) I find the PCGS slab to be a little boring. It may be high quality, but boring. I wish they would incorporate SEGS slab edge label. That is really cool when looking through a box of slabs. It is the only thing I like about SEGS.

So, my rankings are:

1. PCGS
2. NGC
3. ANACS
4. all others
5. ACG

Numonebuyer

OnlyBuffalos · July 10, 2003 1:54PM

When selling key date or semi-key date Buffalos, PCGS almost always yields a significant premium over other TPGs. NGC is next in yield, followed by ANACS.

One can make a decent profit by selectively buying non-PCGS Buffalos, and submitting them to PCGS. In grades XF40 through AU55, PCGS, NGC and ANACS are very very close in quality in my opinion. The gap seems to widen both above and below the 40-55 band between PCGS and the others.

BigE · July 10, 2003 2:02PM

Same old story, dip the beautiful toning off an original early commemorative with no knicks and send it to PCGS and you will get the same high grade out of it as NGC who will grade it as is the same------------BigE

mdwoods · July 10, 2003 2:03PM

1. PCGS Still the best and the most marketable too. In a class by themselves for red copper.
2. NGC & ANACS. Not quite as strict as PCGS, but consistent to their own standards.
3. ICG & SEGS Both do a decent job for certain series, but not across the board.
4. The rest
5. ACG

Tassa · July 10, 2003 2:21PM

1. PCGS
2. ANACS
3. NGC

docday2003 · July 10, 2003 11:43PM

<< <i>In terms of my area of interest, classic commemoratives, I would rate PCGS and NGC equal through the MS 65 grade. Higher grades than that, in general, I would deduct a half point to a point after most NGC grades from 66 through 68. The upside to that though is that there are some real nice coins to be found in those grades with NGC holders if you are careful and know what you are doing.

All the rest of the services, again only in classics, aren't worth a darn thing. >>

Not even ICCS ( the conservative Canadian grading company with the stellar reputation)?

dorkkarl · July 11, 2003 3:25AM

<< <i>For those of you who think PCGS and NGC are equal, I say "when all else fails, use your head"! Why do you think PCGS sells for more, wake up! >>

maybe because pcgs people are stupid?

K S

How the grading services rate in my opinion. Based on the last three shows I attended. Responses s

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