Coinbuf

Good news that your son is showing improvement and progress.    It will be a shame to lose the historical holders, I very much like the old fatty holders and gen 3 holders are getting harder to find.

In addition there is the Denver mint tours, I enjoyed doing that last summer.

Ouch that certainly does suck, hopefully you can put them under a stack of books and press them mostly straight and flat again.

Interesting journal entry and certainly some food for thought, as long as folks continue to get bailed out be it by a government or a church the lesson is not learned.  I read Gary's reply and I 100% agree that its the right thing to help others when you can, but its somewhat naïve to think that all those people will pivot in place and change their ways.  That will not happen we need look no farther back than the 07-09 timeframe when the housing market crashed because of these very same irresponsible behaviors, you would have thought that people would have learned from that but sadly no.  There are numerous contributors to all of this, lack of emphasis on history in our schools, massive immigration without assimilation, most folks today have no idea just how difficult a time the great depression really was because we as a society are too far removed from that time.  And perhaps; imo; the greatest factor is the people have become accustomed and even reliant on government bailouts.  People have become dependent on the government to the point that being prepared is just not even thought about.  Those are just some of the reasons why many people in our society have and will continue to make poor choices when it comes to financial maters, lessons not learned lead to the same failures over and over again.

SEGS slabs are tough as iron and nearly impossible to crack without cutting, all the others I can do just using a hammer and patience.  I go around the entire exterior of the slab hitting each side several times along the side, just keep rotating and hitting it will eventually give a nice healthy "crack" and the two sides will come apart.  You will need to use some decent force on a PCGS or NGC slab and it helps to use a beefier hammer than you have in the pics  Be sure to use a towel underneath so the coin doesn't fall out and get damaged and sometimes small plastic shards will fly so I cover the slab with a cloth while I do this.  The easiest method by far is to use a bandsaw or other similar power tool, four cuts and easy as pie the coin is free.  As mentioned some brands and generations of slabs are quite easy to break while others are not.

6 hours ago, Revenant said:

I doubt it. I think most people want who they want in terms of grading. I think NGC folks might be more open to using PCGS than the other way around. In either case, I think most will just be holding on to their submissions until things are more settled.

For collectors that is indeed very true, and dealers also may have a preference, however if this continues in Orange county for longer than the current expected delay dealers may have little choice but to send some coins NGC's way in order to keep inventory moving.  That of course assuming that NGC doesn't get shut down in the near future also.

So PCGS just announced late today that the state of California has issues an emergency order declaring nonessential businesses that operate within the county to close, effective immediately, through March 31, 2020.  Thus they are shut down no grading until April 1, I wonder if this might drive a few more submissions NGC's way.

If someone of the staff were to become sick and test positive then a shutdown of the TPG would be a possibility.  A greater threat to a closure at any of the TPG's is if mail service would become suspended, that would be a huge impact with nothing going out or in.  I have an order ready to send to CAC but I'll wait for a month or so and let all this calm down before I send it off, would hate to have my coins sitting in limbo if mail service were suspended. 

Really nice congrats on the new addition!

Lol well congrats on the loan payoff, it always feels good to lighten the debt load for sure.  Sure you could have paid off some debt sooner if you didn't buy coins now and again; but what fun would that be.    And as a concerned citizen I'm always willing to help out with those grading credits.  

I agree that this is the reason that PCGS coins were allowed back into the registry sets, the real question going forward is once the ANA is up and running will we then see a reversal back to no more PCGS coins being added to the registry here, will PCGS coins be eliminated completely here or grandfathered in as happened a few years ago or will PCGS coins continue to be allowed and added to the NGC registry sets going forward.  Many questions and lots of speculation but no real answers at this time so I guess we will just have to see what happens in about a year from now.

49 minutes ago, KStouch- NGC Admin said:

Thank you for your concerns, but there are absolutely no plans to eventually phase out the NGC Registry. We’ve made a lot of investments in the NGC Registry over the last year and with this announcement we will be devoting even more resources towards making the NGC Registry and the ANA Registry the best possible platforms for collectors. It’s not difficult for us to support a shared database – we already host the NGC Registry on NGCcoin.com, NGCcoin.cn, NGCcoin.hk and NGCcoin.hk, all using a shared database. Whether you choose to use the NGC Registry or the ANA Registry or both, you can expect to see lots of new and improved features in the near future. Stay tuned for more information in the coming months as we continue to develop the NGC Registry and ANA Registry.

Thank you for providing some additional clarity to what is a very muddy water.  Just a suggestion but perhaps it would be wise to post this information on (at the very least) the thread in the registry section to address the questions like these that collectors are asking but not receiving any answers to.

Nice set and great results, congrats.

Sorry to hear of your health issues, hope your on the road to recovery.

Lol I'm sure I have something around here. 

That's awesome that the award comes with the grading credit, congrats!  Its a cool award anyway but that is a nice kicker.

"I have a couple of ideas for how I’m going to put that to use – one is rather likely to happen if I can find a way to make it work. More on that later."

Your going to allow each member of the board (who has a set just behind one of yours) to submit coins on you.  

Very nice video, I would be somewhat concerned about security by mentioning your name on a platform like youtube, but otherwise well done.

1 hour ago, Augustus 70 said:

But also, if he or she has spent one hundred million dollars on rare coins, then they do deserve to win all the registry sets.

Maybe yes maybe not, a fat wallet has always been an advantage in numismatics but that's not the point.  The issue is not does someone deserve to win because he can outspend everyone, but is it healthy for the registry to have the kind of dominance we are now seeing in the registry ats.  When the small fish have no chance at winning; even if that chance is more illusion than reality; some of those small fish will drop out thus reducing competition which is not a good thing.    I see the same thing in the racing that I do, the fast guys are always fast and when a new racer tries the class and gets his butt whooped he leaves and doesn't return; why - because there is no fun in constantly losing.  Sure you can have fun in this hobby and never win a prize or award, but the point of a competitive registry is to win, and if one person wins most or all the awards its not a competition anymore.  As Gary mentioned that is an advantage of the registry here as awards are given out for attributes other than just top dollar spent; I just hope we don't see what is happening ats happen here.

3 minutes ago, Revenant said:

Well, his sets would be ineligible for the major awards if the 75% ngc rule stays and he wouldn't be able to win both "best in category" awards with PCGS coins and wouldn't be able to compete in any World category as it is now so... He definitely wouldn't monopolize everything. Sad that that's an issue over there but it does show one thing that can happen any time you have a whale in the registry. The same thing could happen here if a wealthy enough person wanted to focus on NGC coins and this registry.

As far as I know his focus is only on US coins at this time so my comments are only directed towards that area, the issue is that that type of monopolization stifles competition.  Yes he wouldn't be able to win the prize/cash awards but his sets would be listed at the top of every set he entered and would win the lions share of best in category awards.  Keep in mind that I think that the best in category award should be for the NGC only material with the combined score awards called something else like best runner up or something along that line to place the importance on the NGC only material awards.  I'm not jealous or envious of his accomplishments but I think the registry ats is losing collectors as they know its impossible to compete with that kind of disposable income.  I could start several sets over there but one look at the leaderboard and you know you cannot compete so whats the point; and I know I'm not alone in thinking that way.  The point of a competitive registry is to compete, something that is largely impossible now ats for a great many collectors and I would hate to see that happen here.  Rather than start a competitive set over there it would be better for me to just do a showcase set instead; as I said monopolization stifles competition.

And yes you are certainly correct that another whale could decide to do the same thing with NGC coins, but as long as the market continues to place a higher value on PCGS graded material I think the chances of that happening are slim.

There are some benefits to reverting back to the old system where PCGS coins are allowed back in.  But there are drawbacks and potential pitfalls also, the PCGS registry has been almost taken over by one individual and it would be a shame if that person were to add his (100% PCGS) coins here and also dominate this registry.  Monopolization doesn't lead to good competition.

That's cool, enjoy.  

To clarify I am referring to the category awards, especially the best in category award as opposed to the awards that have dollar value.  While not a huge thing it would make more sense to make the best in category the one given for only NGC graded points and call the mixed award something else like best combined award or whatever.  To me best in category sounds more prestigious and should be used for the only NGC scores, but maybe I'm way overthinking it lol. 

I think that reversing what was a very unpopular decision a couple of years ago is a good thing, however it also has a downside.  One of the real issues with the NGC registry was that too many sets; many top ranked sets; were/are 100% PCGS graded coins, so NGC is giving registry awards for sets that have no NGC coins in them.  That is the issue that should have been addressed then and still needs to be addressed now.

Well first there are no standards of grading for either company, if there were identifiable standards in use it would not be possible to see the rampant gradeflation we have seen (this is especially true at PCGS) over the past few years.  What we do have are opinions, opinions that change like the wind for no apparent reason.  I don't really think that this move will hasten the ongoing erosion of NGC encased coin prices, but it certainly will not help the situation.  I just don't see a financial benefit to reversing the decision made two years ago but I'm not running the place and perhaps management knows/thinks that this move will have a positive effect on NGC.

I like to purchase coins not plastic so when I can find a nice coin that I like in an NGC holder that is fine by me, but it is true that so many of the really nice coins that NGC has holdered in the past have already been crossed (for better resale reasons) and it can be difficult to find some coins in NGC holders.  Case in point I have been searching for quite a while for a single coin to finish a set, the NGC pops say there are 20+ but I have yet to see one come up for sale in the grade I need/want.  In fact using the closed auction archive that is available on the PCGS site I cannot find a single sale for this coin in the grade.  My conclusion is that there may be a few that are tied up in collections (although again I cannot find a single example listed in the NGC registry for this date/grade) or the much more likely scenario that most or all have been crossed to PCGS holders.  Its hard to complete a set if the coins are not available.

4 hours ago, Kominsky Collection said:

American post blows. I wish sellers would use UPS and FedEx for all coins of significant value. 

There is a thread ats about a lost FedEx package with coins of very significant value.  Nothing is foolproof or 100% safe.