Do you have a dollar value in mind for coins that qualify for grading submission? This dollar value would take into account any devaluation due to problems or Details grading. I've only ever submitted coins twice, and both times were to NGC. I know that PCGS tends to be a little more expensive for some or all of its grading services, but if you had to pick one or the other TPG (or both if you prefer), what is your cut-off amount, taking into consideration the shipping and other costs? I also understand that other TPGs such as ANACS does a phenomenal job at grading, too, but at a reduced fee. However, I'd like to stick to NGC/PCGS for this hypothetical (or actual) question that you may encounter. Thanks in advance!
Rule of thumb is minimum value of $150 however we have all been known to send in sub $100 coin just cuz we want them in plastic. However, if you can get in on a dealers bulk sub it can bring fees down to under $10 a coin so in that case coins valued as little as $50+ can be worth it.
If we discount the other potential qualifiers of authentication/attribution where the buyer would be more comfortable seeing it in plastic for those reasons, then my number would be ~150 as long as the cost of slabbing wouldn't put me in the hole value-wise today. If it does, maybe I wait for the coin's value to catch up, and if slabbing cost increases at the same rate, maybe it doesn't need to be slabbed or maybe I should have bought cheaper.
This is kind of a loaded question: If it is a coin for my private collection, there is no threshold. I prefer PCGS, and get Secure with TrueView. Part of this is it saves me a trip to the bank to see the coins, part of it is my OCD. Now, if it is a coin I would intend to move on, the question gets trickier. I like to net 25% on sales, which sometimes happens in spades and sometimes doesn't happen at all. That said, submissions range from $15-250 and up, so I would use that to factor in the cost of goods. Also, certain coins and exonumia tend to do better in certain holders. I have all of my Civil War tokens in PCGS (see my OCD above), but if I were grading CWT to sell, NGC is a no brainer. Not that one is better at grading or attribution, but NGC has been in the CWT game longer and has a more established reputation.
I'm not a slab guy. Maybe for errors, but not for regular strikes. EDIT: Well of course, that also being I don't live on my own...
Sentimental/a favorite reasons no value threshold. For selling or general purposes I don't put minimum value thresholds on things. The minimum criteria for things that need to be slabbed or should be slabbed from value alone is just simply will grading (if it grades how I expect) increase the value more than the cost of grading.
Getting certain coins slabbed also has a benefit that goes beyond a grade: an independent verification that it's genuine in the first place.
Yeah, the net, marginal increase or even break even amount would be a good way to look at it, especially for selling purposes. If I knew I'd just break even, I'd send it in anyway if I were selling, since it'd likely lend itself to a quicker sale over a raw example. But, what if it's, say, an ultra rare coin which doesn't quite have much demand for it? Perhaps it's a rare coin from a remote and obscure country, which has a high catalog value but no buyers. You'd likely lose money in the short and even medium run, and it'd likely have to be held long. Though, I guess if you're going to send in coins anyway, the total cost of adding one more coin in for submission is probably at a minimum only $19-$20 or so for economy fee. But if it's a rare coin, then one would think it would be valued too high to fall in the economy level pricing.
That's really how I look at it too especially with the internet being the quickest and easiest way to sell things now the certification certainly helps a lot in that arena. I would be perfectly fine with a break even cost for the grading for the added liquidity. You can get lower pricing with bulk submissions, personally I wouldn't want to go through the effort or tie up that kind of capital though in a bunch of coins I had to bulk submit to make like 2 dollars each on. Generally bigger submissions are better as it spreads the cost of the shipping ect through more coins. The fewer the coins the larger the value return you would have to have to break even or come out on top with that factored in. It all just kind of depends what your purpose for submitting is. Is it increased value, liquidity, protection, authentication, your favorite coin ect? That is how I generally do cheaper coins though, as throw ins with submissions I was going to do whether or not it was there. But as far as rarity I guess it really depends what kind of rarity we are talking about. An actually rare coin period, that likely won't make the economy level unless a very low grade, but say varieties or something like a good number can still make the economy. If you're close in value they generally don't say anything if you sort of sneak something in, but in the rare instance something happens to it the value you put on the forum is the max they will payout if the actual market value is higher. I generally don't like to undervalue things on the insurance but if you expect it to be like a 320 dollar coin valuing it at 300 isn't really a big deal.
it makes no sense slabbing something where the slabbing fee is worth more than the coin unless it is your favorite coin and that would be it.
I can think of a bunch of other resasons. Off the top of my head, drunk submitting. It's becoming an epidemic
I've never submitted to ngc or pcgs. Early on I submitted to ICG, haven't again because I learned more about market and how dealers write off this slabber unless they really want the coin. I once slabbed a Mexican early 5 cent piece with ANACS and paid right under 50 dollars at a show for it. That's pretty steep for a plastic coffin from a second tier grader. I'm disinclined now to get coins graded. My budget at a show is around 200, so if I sent coins in there would go coin purchases. I'll stick with coins. Besides, about all my dozens of slabs were not graded by me. I like purchasing coins in slabs under their retail value - the slabbing is just value added at no cost to me
I don't generally buy coins to sell, so selling price and liquidity don't really enter into it. I've got a pair of ~$35 tokens I'm considering getting slabbed just because I can't find decent holders for them. If I were buying for resale, it would depend how far into the coin I am. If there's potentially more money after purchase price + grading fees than selling raw, I would go for it. My guess is that it would be hard to get to this point at less than $200 retail.
I usually say around $75 and up. Sometimes more. But I'll pick up coins sometimes cheap that are $40-50 coins that I have next to nothing in and toss them in an economy submission
I don't submit a lot of coins, and I don't really use a dollar amount to determine whether to submit...it's just one of the factors. Some coins should always be certified. $3 gold coins, S-VDBs, and other highly counterfeited coins are best bought/sold in the slab. Another consideration is this...will certifying the coin make it more salable? Sometimes it's hard to justify the expense and time required, when I can likely sell the coin in the shop during the next 3 or 4 days. So it has to be something special like a scarce or hard to see variety, or a weird error.
I have never submitted a coin to a TGP. I've never had any reason to. I often wonder why people submit coins which aren't worth the price of submission over selling them raw. I have UN-submitted a lot of coins over the years, however.
Regardless of future plans with a coin I prefer to keep everything in its most liquid form just encase something ever happened that forced me to sell.
I have enough in savings (several months' worth of expenses in fully liquid form) that by the time I'm thinking about liquidating my coin collection, I'm in some pretty deep doo doo.
