The Shocking Service I Received From NGC at Long Beach.

[gmarguli]

Shocking in a very good way.

 

I just wanted to say that the service there was excellent. I had several non-standard requests and they were all met with a "Sure, we can do that.".

 

Wanted to do a couple of coins as World Value Crossovers and Modern Crossovers, but I didn't have the minimum 5 coins. However, I was submitting a bunch of other coins and asked if it would be OK to submit at the cheaper tier with less than the minimum number of coins. "We can do that."

 

Wanted to get a bunch of them shipped back together to save postage. "We can do that."

 

Did a few NCS/NGC submissions which when graded will fall under 3 different grading tiers. Wanted them all shipped back together to save me a bunch of money. "We can do that."

 

I'm really impressed. Maybe NGC should use "We can do that." as their service mark.

 

I got a free NGC slab box. I was offered a free NGC mug. They had NGC sample slabs. David Lange and Brian Silliman were giving free opinions on coins.

 

If you keep this up, we'll have nothing to complain about. BTW, that San Diego on invoice 2501056 is not AT and it is pretty enough for the * designation.

[EVillageProwler]

It's like that Avis commercial: WE TRY HARDER.

 

(And, we all know harder than whom...)

 

EVP

 

[agfox-migration]

It's refreshing to hear a good service post.

[chrisfuccione]

Great job NGC!!! CHRIS

[bigd5]

Hey! You should have grabbed that coffee mug! I would have given you fair market value for that!!!!! I have a couple of coffee mugs that I could have traded with you

I have to give them a ring on Monday. I received a buffalo nickel back, and noticed a small white fleck on the reverse that is making a "toning" spot on the surfaces. Looks like a piece of bread, to be honest

We'll see. I've got another load of coins to send, so I'll probably just send this one along with the rest of them. It is a good feeling knowing that, or having the confidence that the situation will be resolved.

[PQSeated]

Wow, NGC is certainly excelling in customer service. PCGS should take note, they could learn a lot from them.

[Tradedollarnut]

Didn't know there were coffee mugs! I never did get one....

 

Got to say hi to Mark Salzberg at the show and also talked with the evil one himself (Greg) for a bit. It seemed the 1885 display was very well received by the public - I saw a lot more people looking at that NGC coin that at all my PCGS coins elsewhere!

[Hoot]

What a wonderful report all around! Customer care seems to be an absolutely top priority for NGC and NCS. Great marriage of companies and services. Saving those $$ on shipping is great Greg.

 

TDN - I would have loved to have seen that 1885 Trade. I read about the display somehwere, I think Coin World. Why don't you send it to me so I can have a first-hand look? (I'll send a cheque as collateral ) You and Laura and that doggone "Legend Collection" seem to be all over the Coin World news these days!

 

Hoot

[gmarguli]

TDN - I would have loved to have seen that 1885 Trade. I read about the display somehwere, I think Coin World. Why don't you send it to me so I can have a first-hand look?

 

 

The coin looks MUCH better in person than the photos.

 

BTW, you missed TDN showing off his 1838-O 50¢ and 1875-S 20¢ Branch Mint Proofs.

[Hoot]

BTW, you missed TDN showing off his 1838-O 50¢ and 1875-S 20¢ Branch Mint Proofs.

 

 

Hoot

[Tradedollarnut]

My coin is the pictured coin for the 1885 trade dollar [coin number 10] in the new book regarding the "100 Greatest US Coins". The book representatives at LB looked at the coin and agreed the picture in the book was totally terrible and want to rephotograph the coin for the next edition of the book.

 

Funny story: I had never seen the coin in person - even after owning it for two years. Finally, I took possession of the coin and had a chance to view it. I had only seen the pictures floating around the internet and they are horrible. I was expecting a roach of a coin. I was very pleasantly surprised when I actually held the coin - it is quite beautiful with warm golden toning and deep mirrors. The splotchy toning that appears in photographs is invisible in person. All around, I love the look!

[EVillageProwler]

TDN,

 

I can't believe that you've only seen your 1885 for the first time at the show. You are hardly the typical collector who loves to roll around naked on the bed with the coins laying there -- like Demi Moore in that movie with Robert Redford and Woody Harrelson.

 

EVP

 

[chrisfuccione]

WOW!!! I thought I was the only one who did that. I used to do that all the time until I started to noticed my coins were getting sticky. CHRIS

[Tradedollarnut]

No - not at the show. At PCGS several years ago when Miles was trying to convince me it was the same grade as the overgraded PCGS PF65 1884 that I traded in on the Eliasberg 1884.

[Architecht]

Wow... how exactly does that work that you never saw the coin until 2 years after you owned it? Where was it? Did someone hold it in a vault for you and you just never wanted to fly out and check out what you'd dropped all that cash on?

[Tradedollarnut]

It was on the east coast in a vault and I'm on the west coast.

[Architecht]

It's very strange how abstract value and ownership really are. The more you dig into economics, the more you realize that money is a collective dream and that ownership is nothing more than a commonly accepted illusion.

 

It sounds deep, but it's really true. The fact that you've bought something that only has value because other people say it has value and that you own it only because it's recorded somewhere that you own it, even though you've never seen it is just kind of surreal. Concrete goods like food or transportation seem more decipherable. I mean, you have to eat - and food is what fills that need. The desire to collect, on the other hand, might be filled by any number of things. It's interesting to me that in general world coins are worth so much less than U.S. coins (or at least that's what I've understood in general, maybe that's wrong), even though they ostensibly could fill the same human desire for collecting.

 

The more you think about this stuff, the weirder it gets. But this is all just a little too philosophical for a Monday morning, so I'm going to abandon this line of thought for the much more practical concept of "lunch".

 

Arch

[Clankeye-migration]

The more you dig into economics, the more you realize that money is a collective dream and that ownership is nothing more than a commonly accepted illusion.

 

Arch-- I'm stunned, I'm speechless... such profundity on a Monday morning. And I'm serious. You are obviously a deep thinker and an intellectual. I almost pity you, because the realization of the some of things you are talking about here is sure to drive you stark raving mad. At least in our society.

 

At any rate, thank you for that post. I think I enjoyed that as much as anything I've ever read on a coin forum.

 

And congratulations to NGC on their fine customer service. More and more I think that's almost the whole ballgame these days.

 

Clankeye

[Hoot]

I second the thanks Arch. That was a great interlude that has some excellent evolutionary context. In particular,

 

The desire to collect, on the other hand, might be filled by any number of things

 

True, but only within the context of any given culture. The fact that the world collects U.S. coins shows, to some degree how far the culture reaches. Collecting rituals are natively deep in the human psyche and experience. There are all kinds of ramifications in terms of adornment and the subsequent attributes of mate selection, hierarchical structuring in human tribes or societies, etc. It's behavioral biology at its best. And we don't have to look too far into the animal world to find that the behaviors are pervasive. Powerful stuff, so the desires to collect are more deeply embedded than we would otherwise begin to realize.

 

Hoot

[BillJones]

Contrast these experiences with PCGS at the Long Beach show, and NGC's status as the #2 grading services might become a thing of the past.

[Architecht]

"Contrast these experiences with PCGS at the Long Beach show, and NGC's status as the #2 grading services might become a thing of the past."

 

There's another interesting philosophical point. As near as I can tell, the only place in which NGC is the "#2 grading service" is in the heads of some people. Everything I've been able to observe in terms of comments on grading consistency, customer service, volume of coins graded etc. etc. has actually had things pegged in exactly the reverse order. In short, PCGS seems to be running on reputation-momentum as much as anything else. I'm not trying to sell them short as a top-tier grading service, I've just never been able to identify any current tangible factor that would make someone rank NGC as #2. Some people point to prices, but that seems to have one leading in some series and the other leading in other series. And the lack of other strong indicators makes me wonder how much of the pricing thing is again just reputation momentum. At the worst, I would think you'd just view the two companies as equals if not with NGC ahead. Weird world.

 

Arch

[Clankeye-migration]

Well, here is a reality of that "weird world" Arch. This morning on eBay I got $153.00 for a real nice white 1951-P NGC 65 Wash/Carver commem. Total pop in both services is 192. Last week a nice white PCGS 65 Wash/Carver commem went for $325+ on eBay. Both auctions had good scans. Both coins as far as I could tell about equal.

 

This perception of NGC being #2 is fairly deeply entrenched, and it is irritating--unless you are the buyer. Then it's great. I love buying coins in NGC holders. In fact, here is a little secret: all my keeper coins with the exception of one... are in NGC holders.

 

Clankeye

[Peace_Fan]

I only have positive reports about NGC's customer service. Every person I have spoken with gets my questions answered promptly and professionally. I believe that NGC is at least the equal of PCGS when it comes to grade assignment.

 

Further, I prefer the NGC holders hands-down. I also don't understand why PCGS can't get the coins straight in the holders, at least when it comes to Peace $'s. I only own a few in PCGS, but every one is crooked by 15-20 degrees (yes, I'm very picky). They're also all being sent in for crossover to NGC. I for one pay LESS if the coin is in a PCGS holder, so call me a NGC bigot..

[gmarguli]

Some people point to prices, but that seems to have one leading in some series and the other leading in other series.

 

Consider this as a price guide:

MS64: $300.

MS65: $1000.

 

Send in a coin that is MS65 condition to NGC. NGC slabs it as MS65. The coin sells for $1000.

 

Send in a coin that is MS65 to PCGS. PCGS bodybags it to AT, even though the coin is 99.99% white. Send in the coin again to PCGS and it is bodybagged for cleaning that isn't really there. Send in the coin again and it grades AU58. Send in the coin again and it grades MS64. The MS64 coin sells for $1000.

 

PCGS weenies point to this as NGC overgrading and their coins bringing inferior prices. After all, the PCGS MS64 sold for the same price as the NGC MS65.

 

Smart people point to this as an unrealistic grading standard for coins by PCGS.

 

 

The only thing NGC is #2 in is the registry and if PCGS keps theirs as a PCGS-only registry, that will change too.

[Tradedollarnut]

The only thing NGC is #2 in is the registry and if PCGS keeps theirs as a PCGS-only registry, that will change too.

 

So true...

 

I have concluded that it is impossible to create a truly world class collection in only a PCGS holder. Too many of the finest known coins and WOW! coins are in NGC holders, and more are coming all the time due to PCGS being out of touch with the marketplace. If PCGS doesn't open up their registry, I will be removing my sets and only listing them here.

 

[EVillageProwler]

I will be removing my sets and only listing them here.

 

What a novel friggin' idea...

 

EVP

 

[nwcs]

I think I already crossed that bridge to moving my registry here with the first NGC coin I got specifically for my morgan set. I've been thinking about a few coins that are waiting patiently at PCGS (my last submission to them) that I may just throw out a few more dollars and cross to NGC. They are absolutely beautiful 1955 toned franklins. Shining luster and steel blue color on one side and red on the other. From an original set. Stunning.

[keithdagen]

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

 

Keith was seeking a nice Braided Hair Large Cent for his Type collection, since it's a pretty inexpensive piece in AU grades. Keith was a die-hard PCGS slab-boy, and drank Kool-Aid regularly. All of Keith's collection was in PCGS slabs, or NGC slabs that were sitting at PCGS for crossover.

 

Keith went to three local shows, and couldn't find a nice Large Cent in a PCGS holder. The coins were weakly struck, had bad and uneven color, or had nasty carbon spots. Finally, on E-Bay, Keith saw a beautiful Large Cent in an NGC holder, so Keith snagged it. Copper experts assured me that the coin would cross without problem.

 

But a light went on in Keith's head. Why pay PCGS $30 to cross a nice Large Cent when you bought the NGC Cent because PCGS stuff on the market was [!@#%^&^]?

 

Now, Keith looks for the best coin available on the market, regardless of holder, and out of 51 coins in Keith's set, 10 (or 20%) are in NGC holders and will stay there. In fact, Keith has found that lately, nice NGC coins are easier to find than nice PCGS coins, and since some people can't drink anything but Kool-Aid, Keith willingly picks up those nice coins at bargain prices.

[EVillageProwler]

I have long since stopped drinking Kool-Aid of any flavor. I won't be crossing my coins to NGC just because I like the company. If I choose to cross, it'll be for other reasons. For example, I will occasionally cross my coins (to NGC) over because I want the attribution on the insert.

 

EVP

 

[Trime-migration]

"Collector specializing in Seated Liberty Dimes and Seated Liberty Quarters?

 

PQS,

Do you mean LS dime (LSD) not SLD?