Simple question: does anyone actually care about PCGS "secure plus"?

[ultra-crepidarian]

I don’t care about the PCGS Secure Plus designation and I have not noticed the Secure Plus coins consistently demanding any premium in the market.

 

[Buffalo Head]

No I don't. I would rather just get on back to the old school and grade them myself. I at that point. I guess I'm fed up with all the BS....

[Catbert]

Simple answer: No.

[DirtyGoldMan]

While I generally prefer my coins in PCGS slabs, I do not intend to submit to the Secure Plus (SP) tier. There are many misconceptions about the service, some of which have been repeated in this thread.

 

The two main components that differentiate SP from "regular" submissions are the scanner and the sniffer. The latter is used for "regular" submissions, at the discretion of PCGS, so if you are submitting an expensive coin, you can be pretty sure that it is being sniffed.

 

I have long thought that these two technologies protect the liability of the grading service more than they benefit the collector. Furthermore, if these technologies are so important, why not use them for all coins (or all coins over a certain value)?

 

When they rolled out SP in 2010, I sent my three most valuable coins for regrade at the SP tier, hoping for +'s. I did not get any. I have purchased an SP 64+ Saint, and it looked like a high end 64 Saint. I have not gone out of my way to purchase SP coins, but I may have acquired others--I just do not remember.

 

My favorite dealers do not submit to the SP tier as they do not see the benefit. I spent some time at the recent ANA show specifically looking for SP slabs in dealers cases, and they were rarer than some key date coins!

 

In short, I do not care, and the market does not seem to care, either.

[Catbert]

.....and the market does not seem to care, either.

 

and this would seem to be a good business school case about a failed marketing approach (after trumpeting their objectives), especially since they have not extended it to all submissions.

[123cents]

I have a couple of Secure Plus holdered coins but would not make a Secure Plus submission.

[BruceTucson]

PCGS Secure Plus is just another way of making extra money using fear as a buy in to this service. No system is perfect now or ever will be. I like NGC much better. They have a lot of free stuff for starters unlike PCGS. PCGS is much closer to were I live when it comes to submitting a coin to get graded. But I would rather send the coin accross the country to use NGC instead.

[DirtyGoldMan]

PCGS Secure Plus is just another way of making extra money using fear as a buy in to this service...

 

I completely disagree with this assertion. The concerns for coin doctoring are legitimate, and every effort should be made to detect and deter it.

 

I just think that these efforts should be applied to all submissions, not just the ones that they charge extra for.

[e1cnr]

I thought they recently extended this to all submissions, even economy

 

 

the coin doctorings and coins turning in slab are a concern, especially if you are a grading service that guarantees the grade and the doctored coin changes in the slab from what was a nice looking coin, to one not so nice and a few grades lower

[WoodenJefferson]

James....and you wonder why you were booted off their chat board

 

Hey....maybe you can get the Norweb Wood Hibernia restored in a secure plus slab?

[MarkFeld]

I thought they recently extended this to all submissions, even economy

 

 

the coin doctorings and coins turning in slab are a concern, especially if you are a grading service that guarantees the grade and the doctored coin changes in the slab from what was a nice looking coin, to one not so nice and a few grades lower

Submitters now have the option to use Secure Plus for lower value submissions/grading tiers, but it is optional. So currently, the Secure Plus technology is not used on all, or even most, submissions.

[jom]

So currently, the Secure Plus technology is not used on all, or even most, submissions.

 

Of course, the cynic in me will say they ARE in fact using this system and not telling us. Hence, keeping the regrade "cash cow" alive while protecting themselves....having the cake and eating it too? Well, it IS a possibility.

 

jom