Revenant

I think I read a while back about them re-tasking people to help with de-bottlenecking and they're trying to hire more and expand but what I was talking about here was more, what is going on in the market that is causing them to need to expand and de-bottleneck. While I'm sure they're able to do that or have it already, I don't think they'd likely find it in their interest to release that data / analysis publicly.

With the pandemic pushing more sales online and away from shows I think that could well have upped the desirability of grading some coins that would have sold raw before.

Yeah. Based on the newbie forum, the YouTube dreck and some other things it wouldn't surprise me if both of those are contributing.

I have a world modern in and world modern is significantly worse than US modern right now. No clue why. Maybe NGCs efforts to go beyond the US are paying off.

It seems like one of our favorite things to do lately is complain about turnaround times at NGC. The popular narrative amongst the unhappy is that this is clearly NGC slipping but NGC says the problem is they're just slammed. They aren't blaming the problems on logistics - like not being able to get enough slab parts or inserts. They're just getting 800+ packages a day and that working 6 days a week, 12 hours a day isn't keeping up. That suggests that they're dealing with double or more the peak volume they're normally equipped to handle. But I can't help but wonder WHY they're so slammed. Through most of 2020 when there were delays I thought it was probably CoVID related and had to do with pandemic protocols slowing them down, and maybe it did, then. But that's not what they're dealing with now. The CoVID restrictions in many places in the country - including most conservative states like Florida and Texas, are lifted. Also interestingly, things seemed to be getting better and turnaround times were getting shorter in the first part of the year. They're just getting crushed by strong demand now... but what's driving that? I feel the usual temptation to think maybe it's the stimulus checks and people spending time at home instead of out and about so they're looking at and sending in coins, but does that explanation hold water? The stimulus checks were rolling out months ago and people in may places are out and about again. I don't feel like that explains why they'd still be getting crushed with packages in June. Maybe all that TPG marketing and CAC marketing is finally paying off and more people are getting into graded coins and grading coins? But that's a pretty rapid increase for a normal, organic increase in interest. Some in the forums would blame the "everything bubble" and the financialization of the hobby but I don't know that that would be good enough to explain this sudden up-tick in the last year or so. Especially since I don't think that graded coins are quite as common, "sexy" or in vogue as, say crypto-currencies for most people. I do wonder if inflation fears might be renewing interest in old coins and the history of money, but people that are worried about inflation I think are more interested in accumulating metal, not necessarily collecting graded coins. But the two interests are sympathetic and I do see a lot of silverbug posts with graded NCLT... So the whole thing, the whole situation, just seems odd to me.

This was probably 13 years ago now, before all the CoVID stuff and the back-ups in opening mail, but... I sent in a bunch of coins - probably like 50-60 and didn't use registered mail. I get a call from NGC. The box had arrived soaked and in such sad shape that the post office shrink-wrapped it so it would hold together. They took a look at this thing and actually called me to talk to me about what I wanted to do and if I wanted them to try opening it and grading the coins still. It worked out. I'm guessing the outside got soaked but we packed it well and the coins are okay on the insides. Grades came back mostly fine. But, short of dementia / alzheimers, I don't know that I will forget that call as long as I live.

Lisa points out that it isn't unusual but, in my experience, with some types/ generations of holders it is almost more rare to find one that doesn't have something like that on one or more sides.

They do seem to be getting longer but they are going to have to up costs at this rate if they're paying a ton of overtime and paying sign-on bonuses. They even included a hiring add with a coin submission I received recently. They're slammed. The price you pay for being good. They have my thanks for continuing to tolerate us and communicate with us as we constantly beat them over the head with the same questions while they come out with new tools to let us get more information faster. They really are doing what seems to be the best and everything they can - while providing a free public place to vent their spleen and disappointment at them.

Wow. I had no clue. I'm not surprised you have a special set-up with them - maybe even special deliveries - but I wouldn't have expected that.

Well, they aren't exactly the same. That is an inverted L type and yours isn't from what I can see. I think there are a lot of coins that just have generic / place holder point values from when NGC was building things out that just never got updated. Sometimes these never get updated until someone adds a coin of that type to a set and starts asking questions because something seems off. It could also be that She's right, but because some sub types are more attainable than others that some subtypes are non-competitive (yours) and some aren't (his) and so the 1 point score is a way of knee-capping your coin while not making the whole slot non-competitive. Just me guessing.

Fancy is over-rated! Go for the bizarre!

Nah... I had at one time thought about getting labels with a special Pedigree on them but it is ultimately spending more to do something that ultimately hurts their value / market appeal if I ever have to or want to sell them. So it just doesn't make sense. (to me anyway)

I can't speak to more recent times but I sent in some coins in early March and they shipped back pretty much exactly when the turnaround times predicted, measure from the time they were delivered, not from when they were entered- same as they say. They were on time even though a coin went to NCS to residue removal. I had a PMG submission that was due based on turnaround times to clear next week and it cleared/ shipped today. So in my (admittedly limited) experience they are meeting or beating advertised times.

Mine is now showing as having been delivered with the tool too, so hopefully yours too.

I feel your pain to a degree. I let a $500 award credit expire last year. It's the price we pay for procrastinating sometimes. Lesson learned I'm doing better this year.

Thank you!

Oh... unkind. I don't like this idea. Edit: Shandy says, for a proper test, we should give it to Sam.

The non-scratch resistant ones definitely seem to get scratched reliably but I don't know how good the scratch resistant ones really are at living up to their names yet.

I'd love to know the answer to this myself - having just gotten 8 gold coins back in scratch resistant holders I didn't see any differences off-hand so I'm guessing either the answer is "no" or it's subtle.

USPS Tracking: 9405503699300403140739 USPS says this package was delivered a week ago but your system says you haven't scanned it yet... Are you backed up or do I need to file a claim / trace with USPS?

Well, given that a 70 is supposed to be perfect under 5x or 10x magnification, you'd expect pretty much exactly that.

Reading this a few days ago has had me thinking about one of my PMG sets where I have a number of 66s but 67s and 68s have become more common and cheaper in recent years. I find I simply can't get myself excited to replace a 66 with a 67 or a 67 with a 68, but I am sometimes interested in bumping a 65 to a 68.

Nah. It's very impressive stuff! Side note, but I took 8 months to mail in a reholder submission because of CoVID and USPS anxiety. Don't feel too bad about 3 months with a very complex submission.

A few entries ago I jokingly referred to my 10G set as my “golden babies.” I thought was being silly and a little tongue-in-cheek, but my wife has given me no end of ribbing about this, so I think I’m going to be continuing to catch grief about that for a while every time those coins come up in conversation. I think this cements the Zimbabwe set as my “pride and joy” and the 10G set as my “golden babies” whenever my wife feels the need to tease me. They do look good in the new holders though, almost like they are a set of things that belong with each other. I can't find an old shot I thought I had of the 8 NGC coins / 9 coins together and alone but the shot below (vs the above) helps show how much more cohesive this makes the group look. The large number of old fatty holders in the set gave the set some consistency in presentation, but, after 25+ years some of those holders were just scratched to hell and some of the holograms on the back were just ... gone. it's a much prettier set now. It may have just not been necessary to reholder the 1888 at all since it was already in a new-gen holder with a new-gen label, but now it is scratch resistant!

Wow. Those are quite impressive! The multi holder should be very cool