and I'm feeling the pain

I've been considering this move since I joined a year and a half ago to really have a true NGC competitive registry. The pursuit of points and my own excitement watching my registry grow prevented me from taking the plunge earlier and as time went by I continued collecting either PCGS or NGC coins basically looking for the coin I wanted regardless of the holder. The decision to remove PCGC coins from World Sets didn't really affect me since I don't collect them, but the plight of other members did to some degree. I feel a sense of community and camaraderie with collectors here and what affects them affects me also. I find it hard to think of any member here as a fool, insufficiently_thoughtful_person, bonehead, loser or whatever other adjective you like to use to describe another person's reasons for collecting or their habits. To me each collector has a unique outlook and experience that is special and reflected in their collections, so it's all good and interesting. Why other members would feel the need to disrespect other members in that way is beyond me but I guess there will always be those that look at things that way.

Similarly NGC has singled out a group of collector's and changed the rules just for them, which I feel is patently unfair, so with that providing the impetus I removed all my PCGS coins, modern or otherwise, from my competitive sets and moved them to Custom Sets. This decision is partly based on my own desire to have a true NGC competitive registry and the other is a sense of solidarity with other members. When the rules change and NGC disallows them in Custom Sets then I will remove them entirely. But for now I can see them all in one place and decide which I'd like to upgrade and what few I will crossover. There are a few of my PCGS coins that have appreciated to a point that acquiring another example in a NGC holder would be too expensive to justify so I may have to cross those over and I suppose that is what NGC had in mind to begin with. They made a business decision to take advantage of a captive audience of paid members that they have right under their own roof. If that turns out to be a good or bad decision only time will tell. I have to agree with other members who voiced the opinion that this is, after all a NGC registry, so I can't see what all the fuss is about. PCGS coins, at least some of them, are no longer accepted, adapt and overcome, don't quit. That says nothing about NGC only about yourself.

I removed 45 PCGS coins in total around 4700 points and retreated around 500 positions in the overall rank. I rebuilt some of my sets and removed others taking the opportunity to clean house. As a result I've recalibrated my mind and I'm wondering whether competition is really what I want out of coin collecting, I may remove all my competitive sets and share from the Custom side by the time I'm finished. So I guess when it comes right down to it, I enjoy sharing my collection, being able to see where my collection stands against others, my great buys when I come across them , the education, fellow members thoughts and acquisitions and most of all the journals. These aspects have added to the overall enjoyment I receive from being a member of NGC's Collector's Society and focused my collecting in ways I couldn't have imagined when I first started.

I just put myself through the pain I think most World Set collectors went through and it didn't feel good by any stretch but at the end of the day I feel adjusted to the new reality. I agree that in the future NGC will remove all PCGS graded coins from its registry and not being one to wait for the other foot to fall I have made the decision to purge, now all I need is an antacid. When and if NGC in fact removes PCGS Modern Coins from its registry I'll have already made the adjustment and gotten over the pain. If they don't, I can still take some satisfaction in the fact that I have a true NGC competitive registry which may be another thing NGC is after.

All the best friends and here's one of the purged,

Merlin8*