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gmarguli

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Posts posted by gmarguli

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    In Honor of NevadaS&G: Your Most Head Bashing TPG Result

    in Newbie Coin Collecting Questions

    Posted

    Since we all now know (thanks NevadaS&G) that the TPG randomly pull grades out of the air in order to steal our money, I though perhaps people might like to share their most "I want to bash my head against the wall" TPG result.

    I've had many, but one of my most memorable would likely be the time I cut a very gem Washington quarter from a 1970's mint set. PCGS proudly assigned it the grade of AU58. :tonofbricks:

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    Im deleting my PCGS Account and never going back

    in Newbie Coin Collecting Questions

    Posted

    24 minutes ago, NevadaS&G said:

    Back to square 1 with you guys, this is futile. Corona Virus 

    Cut the BS. Give us a list of the coins you submitted to PCGS along with their (should be) sequential cert numbers so we can look up their grades. Give us the NGC invoice number so we can look up the grades when done. After this, we can discuss whether of not you were screwed. 

    Im deleting my PCGS Account and never going back

    in Newbie Coin Collecting Questions

    Posted

    1 hour ago, MarkFeld said:

    I’m not at all familiar with those coins, but my guess is MS63. That’s due to the discoloration on the cheek and neck, the marks on the lower right part of the neck and upper left portion of the cap, the marks beneath and to the left of the rooster, the marks on the left wing and the marks behind its neck and head. That said, the pictures aren’t very clear. And for all I know, the coin could have rub/be AU and/or have altered surfaces.

    Regardless of how it was graded by PCGS, NGC or anyone else, that says nothing about the validity of the thread originator’s complaints.

    Very lousy pictures to grade from. The obverse picture is so bright that it could easily be hiding a ton of marks. The discoloration on the neck (and ribbon on same horizontal line from it) are chips in the die that gave this coin a raised area. I suspect the mark behind the neck is die polish which is common to run 12:00 to 6:00 on these coins.

    Based on what I can see, I'd guess PCGS graded it MS66. 

    Im deleting my PCGS Account and never going back

    in Newbie Coin Collecting Questions

    Posted

    1 hour ago, NevadaS&G said:

    Apparently you can't read and jump to conclusions. I stated that I paid Express Service for one coin which is 5 Days. Turnaround time was 30 Days. The coin was Inaccurately Graded. I have sent PCGS Numerous Emails regarding this matter this morning, last week, a month ago, as usual no response from the chickens. They must be in hiding.

    Turnaround times are not guaranteed. They are estimates. 

    FYI, last time an Express too around a month (on a very common coin) I complained and they gave me a free Express submissions. And BTW, after taking a month they undergraded the coin by a point in my opinion (and the opinion of NGC after I sent it to them).

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    Im deleting my PCGS Account and never going back

    in Newbie Coin Collecting Questions

    Posted

    1 hour ago, NevadaS&G said:

    The Grapes will taste wonderful as I am contacting Bank of America and requesting Chargebacks for Service Failures. Thread Closed

    I'm sure PCGS has a preferred Collection Agency to send your debt to if they should lose the chargeback. 

    And seriously, you're whining about $500 in grading fees.

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    Im deleting my PCGS Account and never going back

    in Newbie Coin Collecting Questions

    Posted

    1 hour ago, NevadaS&G said:

    Its not Slander, It's the Truth, I have another example that I paid PCGS Express for, over 100 $ A toned Morgan with NO BAG MARKS and it got graded as an MS63.

    It's been over 30 years, but I still remember this vividly. I'm at a coin shop bid board (remember those?) and a guy is showing a bunch of us his newly purchased Morgan dollar. It's a common date CC and it is the most mark free Morgan I'd have ever seen at the time. It compared well to the few MS67 that were out there. No hairlines or bag marks, just the occasional light ding disturbing the surfaces. Just superb marks wise. It was 100% white with a decent strike. He asked us what we thought it would grade. He boasted easily MS67, maybe MS68. Most of the people said MS65-MS67. I called it MS63 and he was insulted and knocked my grading abilities because I was young and didn't have the decades collecting like he did. 

    A couple months later he brought the coin in to the shop in a PCGS slab. Grade was covered. He did the guess the grade thing again and got the similar responses. He pulled the sticker off the slab to reveal the grade on the most mark free CC Morgan I've ever seen. I was wrong when I called it MS63. PCGS graded it MS62. He was upset and asked us collectively how PCGS could call it MS62 when it was so mark free. I smugly pointed out to him that while the coin was mark free, the luster was completely dead. It had been way over-dipped to the point that the acid had killed the luster. Someone else then chimed in "you can still see the faint fingerprint they were probably trying to dip off". lol

    Moral of the story: Bag marks aren't everything. Weak graders focus way too much on marks and ignore other things like luster, placement of the marks, and totality of the marks (size, frequency, and location of the marks).

    Follow-up: He resubmitted it and got MS62 again. He later sold it on another bid board I frequented as "MS70" where it brought generic unc money. 

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    Im deleting my PCGS Account and never going back

    in Newbie Coin Collecting Questions

    Posted

    32 minutes ago, NevadaS&G said:

    Hello I'm not giving up my secrets on crossing Holders. Lets say 8-9 of the 10 coins were Graded already, 1-2 were from a Raw Dealer. 

    I just cracked an Anacs Coin and Sent it to NGC. It was graded MS64 at Anacs and NGC gave me back a MS65.

    That's not happening at PCGS at all. I'm getting dinged 2-3-4 grades less on my current submission of 10 coins. 

    If your secret for crossing coins results in you losing 2-4 grade points, please keep that secret to yourself. (thumbsu

    The odds of a coin downgrading 2-4 points between PCGS/NGC is extremely slim. They grade too similarly for that to happen. You have to be buying garbage TPG slabs. And, as hard as it may be for you to accept, you're probably just not that good at grading. Too few collectors will admit that they are at best, just average at grading and they can't split the hairs between most grades. 

    Im deleting my PCGS Account and never going back

    in Newbie Coin Collecting Questions

    Posted

    7 hours ago, Alex in PA. said:

    "March 25, 2004

    NGC is slightly looser above MS65, but I believe that is a good thing. With PCGS you have a grade distribution like this:

     

    MS66: 131

    MS67: 52

    MS68: 0

     

    With NGC it is frequently:

    MS66: 127

    MS67: 43

    MS68: 7

     

    Some people point to this as NCG being looser or PCGS be more conservative. I believe it shows that NGC is being more accurate in its grading. With PCGS they have lumped a bunch of coins into one top grade. Perhaps all those coins do technically grade MS67. However, the marketplace values the higher quality examples more than the lower quality examples. With PCGS you have to take the dealers word or know how to grade them. With NGC they have put the top few "possibly technically MS67", yet superb for the grade coins into a higher grade slab to separate them from the rest. Basically, they have helped rank the quality of the coins. PCGS has taken MS66.8-to-MS68.2 coins and put them in MS67 slabs. NGC has taken the MS67.8+ coins and put them in MS68 slabs".

    This person sounds very wise. hm

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    Collectors Universe agrees to be acquired by investor group

    in US, World, and Ancient Coins

    Posted

    53 minutes ago, ProfHaroldHill said:

    Today there are many investors who want to do more than look at balance sheets and ledgers. People who want to know more about the way the company acts as a corporate person, if you will. They are called, "ethical investors", and they do not ignore 'values' when doing an evaluation of a company. Their values are as diverse as they themselves are as people, but they base their decisions on where to put their $ on more than profit alone.

    I prefer to call them "woke douchbags". They are the champions of free speech, as long as your speech agrees with their point of view. They are enlightened people versed in all subjects and they can prove this by mentioning they have an Art History degree from a big name school (and $200K in student loans and zero real world experience). The only thing they hate more than intolerance is people who have differing views and they want to crush them for these differing views. They believe that people don't pay enough in taxes, well other people. They believe in equality, as long as they get to decide who is more equal than others. They are your Starbucks Barrista... 

    Collectors Universe agrees to be acquired by investor group

    in US, World, and Ancient Coins

    Posted

    1 hour ago, GoldFinger1969 said:

    Do overseas people -- and some Americans -- really want to finger-up their coins...have friends touching them....risk damage to their coins/bills ?

    Yes. In fact, I have been told several times by Europeans that the reason they don't like slabs is that they like to touch the coins.

    Of course, these same people slab their coins when going to sell them. 

    Collectors Universe agrees to be acquired by investor group

    in US, World, and Ancient Coins

    Posted

    34 minutes ago, Coinbuf said:

    At this point everything is all speculation, but there have been some comments by the management ats fairly recently about their continued development of AI.  I do not remember exactly what was said or when or where I read that, but one possibility is the new ownership group may wish to ramp up that technology as a cost cutting measure.  I could see AI being used on the huge amount of bulk mint product grading which could lead to faster turnaround times and less overhead of jr graders.  That may not provide a massive cost saving but a little here and some there may be part of the plan.

    The cost of creating the AI technology would be massive. The cost of the bulk/modern graders is small. No bulk grader is going to be buying a penthouse and driving a Ferrari. They just don't make a lot of money. How much can they pay these graders when they're charging $5-$7 a coin for grading? 

    What the (potential) new owners will do with the company remains to be seen. I doubt massive changes at PCGS. CU had very solid profit margins. Their profit growth outpaced their revenue growth over the past couple years. This was probably helped by their cutting a few high salary people including one giant dead weight and one clueless fool. PCGS has been very good at nickel & diming its customers. I'm sure the new owners will find a few more ways. It wouldn't surprise me if they sold off some things like the Long Beach Show and CoinFacts. 

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    Looky Looky Looky

    in US, World, and Ancient Coins

    Posted · Edited by gmarguli

     

    8 minutes ago, rocket23 said:

    This  was handed to me from a grocery clerk, he asked me what I thought, I told 'em it was counterfeit and to move on...

    7 minutes ago, rocket23 said:

     

    what do you think??

     

     

    I think I wouldn't be boasting about lying to a person to cheat them out of a coin, even if it were only worth a couple of dollars. 

    Modern Commemoratives

    in Newbie Coin Collecting Questions

    Posted

    14 hours ago, Just Bob said:

    I guess I am just dense, but I don't understand the point of this paragraph at all. In fact, this whole thread has me confused. I have no idea what you are trying to say.

    He's trying to say that because some organization approved of some tokens, they are now magically coins. General Winfield Scott led his forces from Vera Cruz to Mexico City at the Battle of Chapultepec. This battle is often called "the Halls of Montezuma"  which is part of the first line of the US Marines official "Marine's Hymn." This cannot be ignored.