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W.K.F.'s Journal

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What is Better, NGC, PCGS or ANACS? or buying from The HSN?

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W.K.F.

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In my opinion only two of the above are worth owning...& HSN is one place that should be exposed as to who & what they are...

Greetings Collectors,

 

The argument continues as to which of the third party graders are the best? All three of the above have changed their slab's appearance, as the three have done several times before in the past, with PCGS having changed more times than the other two. But as I have said before in previous posts, always buy the coin and never just buy the holder the coin resides in? Or the grade that slab & coin has been assigned.

Again in my opinion, there are good coins to be found that are undergraded pieces in all three of these graders. But I will say that the vast majority are found in mostly OGH (old green holders from PCGC & the fatty holders from NGC and lastly the original holders of ANACS, which is a much smaller slab than all the others. I have mentioned this before in that my best coin I have ever found, that was under graded, came from another 3rd party grader maybe not known by some of you called PCI. I bought a $5 Indian gold coin that was in a PCI holder with a grade of AU-53 or 55 as its been so long ago, I know it was one of those two grades, but don't remember which one. What I do recall is that the coin was purchased at a show, and was a coin I already had done a good bit of grading research on, and to me, this Indian was vastly undergraded. So I cracked it out of its slab, and sent it to NGC, and it came back as an MS-62. It was such a gorgeous coin with details equal and better than any MS-62 I've seen, I thought I actually had a great chance of getting an MS-63 grade from the crack out. This 4 or 5 jumps, grade wise, was a nice day for sure.

My point of this post is to harp on what I've harped on for well over 15-20 years. And that is to always buy the coin rather than the slab and the certain grade that's been assigned to the piece. If you can study a series long enough and know that series like the back of your hand, I am sure there are those that could make a very good living to just canvas every coin show, and concentrate on coins in these older holders from all three graders. And of course look for those coins you know really well. Or at least well enough you can spot a slabbed coin in an undergraded holder.

The last part of this post is about a show that many of us watch, including myself. And that is the one with the tall well dressed man, that usually has a good looking female companion, that generally knows very little about coins in general. But the time I spend watching is short because of the crazy high prices charged for coins makes me physically ill. And graded by a third party grader that few astute collectors would ever take a second glance at. That is unless it's in one of those very early and very small old holders. With those holders of old from the very first 3rd party grader named ANACS.

But this Coin Collecting show that primarily sells newer slabbed ANACS coins may be one of the biggest rip offs on the planet. They are always comparing their prices to other insufficiently_thoughtful_person dealers on the net who have the gall to rip off every Numismitist they can. And the way they talk in this show, they always sell out at these exorbitant prices. I watched the show tonight for all the time I could stand, and that was for maybe 8-10 minutes. They were selling the 2013 Satin Finish Silver Eagle for $149.95 plus s&h and also selling the First Day Of Issue 2014 Proof Silver Eagle for the crazy price of $169.95 plus s&h. Now both of these coins were in 70, but I would bet $500 that none would cross to being 70's at NGC or at PCGS. And the show does everything to build up their wares, and say how much cheaper they are, than any others on the planet. When all they are, are well established TV coin dealers that are no more honest and give no better deals than one would get selling their scrap gold to some stranger operating out of a hotel.

There are three laws I live by, and there are these same three laws I have always taught my children. #1 Never steal from anyone. #2 Never lie to anyone and #3 Never promise more than you can produce. And I live by these three things and have taught them to my children because I firmly believe in the "Law of Reciprocity" which means, what goes around, comes around! If you ever do one of these above things to ANYONE, or surround yourself with those that do, or even patronize those that do like this certain TV coin sales show, YOU WILL ALWAYS LOSE!

In my opinion both NGC and PCGS try and do the best jobs. But for certain coin series, I prefer one for a certain type coin, and for another series or type of coin, I prefer the other. I NEVER choose the third one unless the coin resides in a very old 1st generation holder, AND is one that appears undergraded. If you study the series well and then you study the coin even closer, both NGC and PCGS are your best bets. I own both and have bought the third, but the third only long enough to get reslabbed into an NGC holder. I would hate to live on the difference between the "Top Two".

Happy Collecting!

WKF

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