Recent new arrivals gave me a pause to think about the grading...

Originally I wanted to cover both arrivals and grading issues in this journal, but let's take it one step at a time.

Here, in Poland we have only one authorized dealer, and with about ten thousand miles of red tape involved with sending coins 50 or more years old abroad by private person (company/institution is not so much bound in red tape...) it makes it impractical to make direct submission...

Most of You will probably close this journal as it may appear dull and boring... but bear with me for a while...

Now the dealer being the only practical choice can set prices pretty much as high as he wants, and so he does...

One latest arrival in particular made me realize how much overcharged we can get...

Originally NGC's grading tiers are very precise, World/U.S. coins and other splits...

With our dealer it's so much simplified

coins valued 0-299$ - 30$+23% tax/piece

300-2999$ - 45$+tax

3000+$ - 55$

That doesn't seem SO bad, but who sends a single coin to be graded, say You have 5 world, regular-issue coins struck after 1970 valued under 2000$,

they can easily fall in world modern tier at 16,5$ each

so 5x16,5 = 82,5$ but here they fall under second tier...

5x 45$ = 225$ + TAX =>276,65$... not so pretty no more...

Turnarounds here are another matter entirely, as posted on official NGC site, turnaround (est) for world modern and standard are 10 days, and current are about 20 work days

(2-4 weeks) sounds bad... only till You hear that here turnaround is about 6-9 weeks, (in reality more like 9-12 weeks), mainly because they ship only once a month, whether or not they rearrange submissions to match lowest price tiers is beyond me, but it kind of makes You wonder huh?

Drawing to a closure, one of most recent arrivals, Polish Second republic 2 Zlote from 1936 just begs for NCS... see photo (more detailed photo's available in the set view)

Since it's the only coin I have that could benefit from conservation, the official price for conservation and regrading in this case is 5+15+35 = 55$ (minimal fees of NSC and standard world tier) BUT as I don't live in U.S. ...

This particular coin is worth ~75$ in MS62, but FMV for MS65 is about 500$, so if it grades same ms62 after conservation, the process would cost 105$,if upon arrival it has higher grade than 62, the charge for the process will be.... 128$

Well that's about it... more than a bit dull, but I hope it gives some perspective on grading from outside United States

Happy collecting to all!

EDIT: For some reason this one didn't made it to Chat Boards (too long/boring?), but if You have a thought to share on this, please send me PM ;]