I knew WINNERS would get bumped!

When I analyzed NGC's public announcement about making World Coin Registry Sets "NGC Exclusive," NGC went on to say how "most" of the sets were ALREADY NGC exclusive and how "FEW" people this change would actually affect.

Meanwhile, we've seen countless journal entries and topics on the Message Boards with upset Collectors Society members. I think I've read one posting from a member who was ambivalent about the change, and one collector who was excited about the change.

Now the actual fallout occurs, just as I knew it would and predicted in my earlier entry.

I went through just a handful of my World Coin Registry Sets, and viewed the number 1, 2 and 3 ranking sets, and found some top (winning) sets loaded with PCGS graded coins.

This of course meant that when the change took effect, the people who had JUST WON "Best in Category" awards (and perhaps had won them for several years running) might very well lose their #1 place and therefore their award was more like a consolation prize, out with the old.

Now, 2nd and 3rd ranking sets might end up on top, simply by virtue of the fact that they do (or don't) have PCGS graded coins in their sets. Is that what really makes a competitive set, particularly when it's PCGS graded coins, rather than NGC graded coins which, for some reason, seem to command a premium in the marketplace?

For so many years, as I've developed my love for numismatics, the lesson I've heard repeated ad nauseum was "Buy the coin, not the holder." Obviously, that didn't necessarily apply to some funky grading company that no one has ever heard of. However, when it comes to the likes of NGC or PCGS, getting the coin in the grade you desire, you really can't go wrong with either.

So, as Jackson so eloquently put it, "the deed is done." PCGS coins have been stripped from the World Coin Registry Sets.

Here's the $20,000 question: How many people with PCGS-graded World Coins who dropped in their rankings, or lost their sets altogther, have contacted NGC directly, other than through these Journals or on the Message Boards? Specifically, I am curious how many folks took the time to contact NGC via email, made calls to NGC, or even took pen to paper and wrote letters of complaint about making the World Coin Sets "NGC Exclusive?"

Not a rhetorical question; I am genuinely interested.

If you haven't communicated your discontent to NGC directly, why not? I am a general fan of the direct approach.

I for one have a handful -- five specifically -- of Silver Chinese Pandas which were graded by PCGS, and which have vanished from my Registry Sets, lowering my points score in several sets, and which I find generally disappointing.