Charmy's PERSONAL TOUR OF STACKS BOWERS' AND PCGS's FACILITIES w/lots of photos!

[The Penny Lady]

Stacks Bowers and PCGS (both in Irvine) recently announced the following grading and consignment event at Stacks’ new offices and since PCGS was offering tours of their offices at the same time, I thought I’d take the opportunity to consign some coins I’ve had for a while to the August ANA auction and take PCGS up on their tour offer which is what I did today. Here is their announcement:

 

Get FREE PCGS Grading!

 

Attend the Stack’s Bowers Galleries Special PCGS Grading Event

May 16-18, 2012 ● Irvine, California

 

 

I would like to personally invite you to come to Southern California for a Special Grading Event hosted by Stack’s Bowers Galleries.

 

Bring your U.S. and World coins to Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ corporate office in Irvine, California and get FREE PCGS grading when you consign your coins to the August ANA World’s Fair of Money Auction.

• SBG will submit qualifying coins to PCGS for expedited grading – 24 to 48-hour turnaround.

• Raw coins and coins submitted for regrading are all welcome.

• Consign any of your newly PCGS-graded coins to the August ANA World’s Fair of Money Auction and SBG will subsidize the grading fees – a potential saving of hundreds of dollars!

• Coins will be pre-screened by SBG numismatic experts to determine grading worthiness.

The event will take place at the Spectrum Group International Inc. corporate headquarters in Irvine, California from May 16-18, 2012. You can enjoy touring the new Spectrum Group office or take an insider’s tour of PCGS’ grading facility while you are here. For more details, click here.

If you can’t make it to Irvine, bring your materials to Stack’s Bowers Galleries at:

 

The Stack’s Bowers New York Gallery, 123 W. 57th St., New York, NY ● May 2-16

Tables 607 and 706 at the ANA National Money Show in Denver ● May 9-12

 

SBG will bring your coins to Irvine for PCGS to have them graded for the event, then you can consign them to the ANA World’s Fair of Money Auction in August or SBG will return them to you, per your preference.

 

 

So I went to Stacks Bowers’ offices first

 

 

I met with Scott Reiter so he could write up my consignments.

 

Then Scott took me on a tour of their offices. Here is their beautiful new building

 

 

These are their affiliates that are also housed in the same building

 

Something in particular caught my eye – they have WINE auctions too (sadly, I didn't see any actual bottles of wine)!

 

 

This is the main lobby with a security guard who checks you in

 

This is a secondary lobby, also with a security guard

 

Then I was introduced to two of Stacks’ amazing catalogers:

 

Jim Matthews

 

Frank Van Valen

 

In this room is someone you may recognize from some of my show reports - Corbin, a PCGS grader working on consignment coins, and a very nice Stack’s staffer Sarah Jackels assisting him.

 

 

Then it was off to PCGS for my private tour!

 

When I first arrived, I did have to leave my purse with the security guys. And of course, before the tour I asked if it would be ok to take photos, and then I also asked permission from Don and Steve before each picture that I took. There were certain more sensitive areas where I knew they wouldn't want me to take photos so I didn't even ask, like the security office and the Secure Plus area. Other than that, whenever I asked if I could take a picture, they said it was ok - they truly were great hosts, very nice, kind, easy going, and didn't mind answering any questions I had.

 

I first met with Don Willis who showed me around the corporate office

 

This is part of their customer service area

 

This is John Nelson, PCGS’s webmaster!

 

Mike Sherman, PCGS’s VP

 

Kristen in Marketing

 

Catherine in Graphic Design

 

Don Willis in his office

 

 

Then Steve Mayer, PCGS’s Chief Operating Officer, took over my tour and brought me down to the security area, receiving area, and grading rooms. As you can imagine, the security room has camera views EVERYWHERE – from the parking lot, to the customer “red phone” entry door to the dealer lobby (no more stealing pens and rubberbands!) and of course everywhere in between!

 

This is the room where all the coins are held except during the time they are being processed. The room is surrounded by 6-inch thick concrete and steel walls, including the ceiling.

 

This is one of the desks where the mail is opened – note the video cameras that record all packages as they are opened.

 

These are small white boxes that hold coins from each submission – they have already been separated from the submission form. The step before this is where the information from a submission form is inputted in the computer and the coins are then separated from the form and placed in their own white box with stickered labels on the box and each coin identifying the submission form number – it does NOT contain any customer information so the graders do not know who submitted the coin(s). All submissions and coins are labeled, verified, and doublechecked along each step of the way

 

This is the main grading room

 

And here are several graders – that’s senior grader Charley Brown in the back by the wall

 

This is the bulk grading room

 

This guy is placing the coin in the clear round gasket, then places the coin and gasket between the top and bottom pieces of the slab, as well as the label

 

Then these guys put the slab and coin on this press and seal the slab together. These guys are lightening fast and you can tell these guys have been doing this for quite a while!

 

They have the same process for baseball cards

 

A sealed blank slab

 

This is where the coins are verified and reunited with the submission forms

 

This is the shipping room. PCGS uses USPS Overnight Express to ship coins to customers unless the customer has their own FedEx account. This is the FedEx side

 

This is only a half day’s pile of coins ready to be shipped – they usually ship out twice this much in one day

 

I didn’t take any photos but I was also showed the Secure Plus room where they take the digital images of coins submitted for Secure Plus grading. (I was told that most all foreign coins are now digitally imaged.) The person working in this room had two small machines about the size of an old Browning camera along with two computer screens, and while one coin was being processed, the guy would work on the other machine/computer so he could process coins twice as fast. He was very adept in what he was doing!

 

I really enjoyed my tour and very much appreciate Don and Steve taking the time to personally walk me through their facility. The tour was so interesting and very helpful in giving me a much better understanding of PCGS’s grading process. THANK YOU Don and Steve!!!!

 

 

My next stop was the office of Ian Russell’s GreatCollections.com (also in Irvine). Since Stacks Bowers’ generally had a $1,000 minimum coin value they would accept for the Philly ANA auction, I also had some coins below that minimum so I decided to take them to Ian. Yes, I know I could have simply give them to Teletrade since they were right there in the same building as Stacks Bowers, but I really like to give smaller companies as much of my business as I can, since I am sort of in the same boat! Not to mention that Ian and his wife Raeleen are two of the hardest working people I know!

 

 

 

So that’s it – Hope you all enjoyed this little tour as much as I did!!!

[AnkurJ]

Awesome report Charmy! Nice to see what goes on inside the offices. And I would love to meet Kristen!

[Coinbuf]

So thats how the red vines got in one of my slabs.

[WoodenJefferson]

Super report...nothing has ever been compiled as such. Great job and thanks for your time~

[No+4Me]

Interesting and informative... thanks!

[jerseycat10]

Awesome post.

[delta]

Another tremendous gallery, highly appreciated!

[zvandehey-migration]

Awesome inside look!

[James_OldeTowne]

This was a fantastic story told through pictures. Thanks for taking the time to post, and special THANKS to PCGS for graciously allowing you so much access to the facilities! Wow!

 

I have one observation that dovetails neatly with my most frequent "complaint". It looks to me like the fellas who gasket the coins, and who seal the slabs, should wear hair nets. It is shocking how frequently I notice hairs stuck inside the plastic slabs as I catalog coins.

 

Kudos to PCGS and to you for such a fantastic thread!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JStull]

This was a fantastic story told through pictures. Thanks for taking the time to post, and special THANKS to PCGS for graciously allowing you so much access to the facilities! Wow!

 

 

As good looking as she is, PCGS couldn't refuse

[RWB]

Nice tour and photos. The photos seem to answer questions about contamination of slabbed coins.

[EXOJUNKIE]

Awesome thread. Thanks Charmy!!!

[MarkFeld]

Great job, Charmy! You should be a tour guide.

 

(thumbs u

[johnny9434]

that sure has some pretty interesting stuff in it charmy, thanks for sharing

[FishyOne]

Thanks Charmy!

 

When's the Pawn Stars gig coming?

[Coagman]

Great Post! Thanks.

[No+4Me]

This was a fantastic story told through pictures. Thanks for taking the time to post, and special THANKS to PCGS for graciously allowing you so much access to the facilities! Wow!

 

I have one observation that dovetails neatly with my most frequent "complaint". It looks to me like the fellas who gasket the coins, and who seal the slabs, should wear hair nets. It is shocking how frequently I notice hairs stuck inside the plastic slabs as I catalog coins.

 

Kudos to PCGS and to you for such a fantastic thread!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Good point about the hair nets. I have a Barber half in a pcgs holder and I swear it has flakes of dandruff on it.

[Houston Investor]

Super post, thanks for sharing.

[CMCART]

Fantastic!

[The Penny Lady]

Thank you everyone, I really appreciate all your kind remarks and support. As I mentioned earlier, I asked permission before every photo I took, and they knew that these photos would end up on a public forum so I don't believe there are anything in the photos that is "top secret." On the contrary, I believe it is helpful to both PCGS and the public that, by seeing photos of the coin grading process, the public is a little more enlightened and informed on how the process works.

 

I personally was quite surprised and extremely impressed with the size of the facility and the enormous amount of coins that are being processed on any given day. PCGS has developed a secure and meticulous process of keeping track of each of those coins from the moment it is picked up from the post office (by security guards), to being video and audio taped as each package is opened, to being meticulously logged into the computer system, to being anonymously graded and efficiently encapsulated, to being carefully packaged and brought to the post office (again by security guards), to finally being reunited with its CORRECT owner.

 

And again, to be given a personal tour by two of the "top dogs" at PCGS confirms what I already knew, that PCGS is definitely a customer friendly business. My thanks again to PCGS for giving me the opportunity to be shown (and to show you) how their operation works - it was a very enlightening experience!

[grip]

I think you missed your calling..Great description of your visit.

[coinman1794]

This was a fantastic story told through pictures. Thanks for taking the time to post, and special THANKS to PCGS for graciously allowing you so much access to the facilities! Wow!

 

I have one observation that dovetails neatly with my most frequent "complaint". It looks to me like the fellas who gasket the coins, and who seal the slabs, should wear hair nets. It is shocking how frequently I notice hairs stuck inside the plastic slabs as I catalog coins.

 

Kudos to PCGS and to you for such a fantastic thread!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Good point about the hair nets. I have a Barber half in a pcgs holder and I swear it has flakes of dandruff on it.

 

I wish that all staff members who handle coins in the raw would wear gloves.

[The Penny Lady]

It's my understanding that PCGS does not want employees using gloves to help ensure that they don't drop the coin. And in the photo above, other than placing the coin on the desk, the guy doesn't really touch the coin. He picks up the gasket (which would be awkward to do with gloves) and presses it over the coin, then places the gasket with the coin on the bottom part of the slab, then puts on the label and then the top slab over the coin.

[braddick]

It's my understanding that PCGS does not want employees using gloves to help ensure that they don't drop the coin. And in the photo above, other than placing the coin on the desk, the guy doesn't really touch the coin. He picks up the gasket (which would be awkward to do with gloves) and presses it over the coin, then places the gasket with the coin on the bottom part of the slab, then puts on the label and then the top slab over the coin.

 

Every time I see photos of the factory in China that assembles iPads for Apple I think that is the garb graders and others who handle our coins should wear. Comfortable yet keeps all contaminates away from our little treasures.

[James_OldeTowne]

It's my understanding that PCGS does not want employees using gloves to help ensure that they don't drop the coin. And in the photo above, other than placing the coin on the desk, the guy doesn't really touch the coin. He picks up the gasket (which would be awkward to do with gloves) and presses it over the coin, then places the gasket with the coin on the bottom part of the slab, then puts on the label and then the top slab over the coin.

I agree with and am on board with the "no gloves" policy, but hairnets are extremely cheap and simple insurance against body parts getting sealed into slabs.

[johnny9434]

It's my understanding that PCGS does not want employees using gloves to help ensure that they don't drop the coin. And in the photo above, other than placing the coin on the desk, the guy doesn't really touch the coin. He picks up the gasket (which would be awkward to do with gloves) and presses it over the coin, then places the gasket with the coin on the bottom part of the slab, then puts on the label and then the top slab over the coin.

I agree with and am on board with the "no gloves" policy, but hairnets are extremely cheap and simple insurance against body parts getting sealed into slabs.

that makes sense