How do I get my coins Certified? Part 2
Ok, if you are cheating and have not read part 1 yet, some of this is going to be harder to follow. This article starts with the assumption that you have identified coins that could benefit from grading. It is now time to send them in…
What is grading and how come only a few companies do it? Grading is the process of having experts look at your coin and determine its grade, authenticity, or any problems with your coins. While this may sound simple on the surface, it really does require a trained expert to accurately identify these aspects of your coins. It does not matter what a coin dealer tells you about your coin, or for that matter any entity that is not PCGS, NGC or CAC. Even if what they are telling you is accurate, the coin will only realize its potential value if they are graded by one of these companies. Why just these 3? Well, the most important issue is integrity. That integrity is determined by collecting community based on accuracy, which in turn is supported by market values. In other words, a grading company needs to demonstrate to the coin market that what it grades coins to be is supported by the money people are willing to pay for the coins that are graded.
Many collectors miss this point in selecting a grading company. eBay is full of coins graded by less reputable grading companies with outlandishly highly graded coins that do not come near the market prices of the same coins graded by the companies above. So once you do identify coins that are worthy for grading you must pick one of three grading companies listed above to send them to for certification. While they differ a bit in the submission and processing procedures they are do the following.
All three of the sites provide on-line submissions. But that does not mean anyone can send in coins. You must be a paid member for the privilege of being able to submit coins to the companies. This membership comes in two forms. Collectors and Dealers. Any collector can pay a fee and send their coins to one of these companies. Those fees usually only cover the privilege of being able to submit the coins and not the actual grading and processing fees. The companies do this primarily they can, but it also discourages those not familiar with coin grading from sending in a lot of junk. Think of it like if you are willing to pay a membership fee you will at least try to have some understanding of what you are doing.
So now you fire up the interweb and fill out your submission form. Now you have to decide which grading tier to use. Essentially the more an item is worth and the faster you want to get it back, the more the grading fee. The lowest cost grading tiers are usually reserved for coins worth less than $300, from there is a graduated tier based on value and processing time. Make no mistake, you can use any tier you like, but if you use the wrong one you could be paying more than you need to. How are you supposed to know how much your coin is worth BEFORE it is graded? Well now you are starting to see the value of using a dealer. One of the things we do as dealers, right after we decide which coins are worth grading, is what kind of services the coin needs to maximize its value. This can include special holdering instructions, conservation requests, and which tier to submit under.
Once you have determined this you can start listing each coin on a submission form. While each service does this a little differently the jist is that you list each coin by denomination, date, method of manufacture and an insured value. Remember the value is up to you but making it higher or lower than the actual true value can lead to paying more than you have to. As a rule of thumb, we use the PCGS Price guide for our values at our guesstimated grades. Once you have listed all your coins you must package them up for shipment. While you can send them to the grading houses pretty much anyway you want, it is VERY important to make sure you send them insured. Companies like FedEx do not insure coins, so you have to purchase insurance from a third party. But what you do not want to do is send your coins without insurance. Not that the system is flawed, but with the post office handling billions of pieces of mail every day, things happen. While I have never lost a package going to or from the grading companies, there have been times where having the insurance sure gave me a sense of relief when things are delayed or did not go as planned.
Now I need to say this somewhere and this seems like as good as a place as any. If you use one of the 3 companies mentioned there is nearly a 0 chance of them losing your coins. When packages arrive, they are opened in the presence of video cameras and are inventoried on the spot. If the submission form does not exactly match the contents of the box, the order is placed on hold and the submitter is notified immediately of the discrepancy. And needless to say, there is no one in the room replacing the coins you sent in with lower value pieces. We get this question so much. “What if they just keep my coins and substitute them with others?” Easy answer, they would have been out of business a LONG time ago if they did that. These companies live and die by their relative reputations in the marketplace. They make millions of dollars a year grading coins, not stealing your coins. Let’s just say it is not a supportable model to be substituting submitted coins. If you are worried about that, you have no business submitting coins.
So once your coins are inventoried and confirmed they go into the grading queue. But more on that in Part 3. But for now, all you have to do as a submitter is wait. For how long? Anywhere from a few months to a few days depending on the grading tier. Generally, the higher value coins get graded faster than the lower value coins.