I just joined PCGS for a better look at populations than can be gotten through auction sites.

Now that I'm a member of both NGC and PCGS, I can truly compare the services.

I'm not experienced enough in the grades to really compare grading across the services. I'm sure that there are some variances. It's possible that one service grades more easily than another. Certainly auction houses see much better results for modern coins from PCGS than from NGC.

But I don't think it's in NGC's best interests to grade so easily. Eventually, collectors catch on, the grading service becomes another has-been, slabs sell for raw value only (at two grades below stated value), and the service dies out.

What else is going on? Look at the grading fee structures!

NGC allows us small-timers to grade pretty cheaply. My submission costs, postage and all, rarely exceed $17/coin. But PCGS is pricey ... UNLESS you grade in bulk.

Minimum bulk order: 100 coins. Additional bulk benefit: minimum grades (as long as 60% of your order exceeds), else no charge. Imagine, at NGC, grading 60 coins for $600 plus postage!! It's a fabulous deal, and it explains why there is so much modern PCGS floating around out there, while NGC is pretty skimpy. It also explains why PCGS slabs resell, but not NGC.

Think about it. An NGC slab means the collector is small-time. What do we small-timers do? Grade our favorite coins, and sell only in financial straits or to upgrade. A PCGS guy is often a dealer, selling to collectors who don't have the time or luck to find the coin we need raw to grade ourselves.

There just isn't enough market data out there to support modern coin valuations, and this PCGS/NGC "rivalry" further distorts the market. Dealers have to unload inventory, just to cover cost. But a true collector won't sell at any price, unless absolutely necessary ... or unless at big enough price ... or unless to a like-minded collector. I suspect many of us NGC-ers trade instead of sell. I certainly have.

I'm particularly watching 2010 D MS dimes right now. I've talked up my dimes in past journals. I've got a homemade 67 FT and 68 FT. (I sold my 66FT for basically pennies.) The 68 FT is pop 1. There are no PCGS better than 66 FB.

Talk about distortion, when mostly PCGS slabs are for sale! I imagine collectors "play possum" on grading new-issue coins before registry cut-off, to artificially inflate prices and make it harder for competition to keep up with their top pops. But I doubt dealers can afford to do the same. So is the dearth of PCGS dimes > 66FB to mean that a 68FT is a 1-in-a-million? Or does it mean that NGC really inflates its grades?

If NGC practices grade inflation, well, PCGS does it just as much. There are some real 66 dogs out there. I've only ever had my dogs grade as high as 65 at NGC.

This is all old news to many of you. But I'm still new at this. If I can really swing the cash in early 2011, I may try getting a few boxes of new MS coins and grading 100 via PCGS. It'd be a great way to build an EBay store .

AND IN OTHER NEWS. I've got some conservation coins in the system right now. There's no way (that I know) of checking on their status with cleaning or grading, so I'm just sitting on my hands ... More on that in a later journal.

All the best, y'all!