2019 NGC Registry Awards - must be unobscured by Jul 1, 2019 0

[Ali E.]

Hello!

If you have a NGC Registry set that you would like to be considered for the 2019 Annual NGC Registry awards, then your set must be VISIBLE or not "obscured" by July 1, 2019.

Questions? You may reach us at registry@ngccoin.com. Thank you for your participation in the NGC Registry.

 

[Revenant]

Wow. That's a surprise. Normally the cut-off is in October based on past years. I like the change - it gives people more time to size up the competition and also makes people have their sets visible for at least about half the year if they want to be in the running for the awards. I'm also glad that the announcement is being made well in advance of the cut-off itself with a 3 month lead. I suppose, even with this rule, someone could just keep their coins out of their registry set and unassigned until close to the cut-off if they didn't want to "show their hand." So there's that "work around," but that carries the risk of forgetting to put the coins in the set before the cut-off, I don't think most people would actually be willing to go through that much effort over it, and at the end of the day it's only going to work maybe once because after that the other people in the category are going to be wise to it.

I am curious though, regarding how NGC enforces this (something I've wondered about before honestly). Do you have a way to see / tell that a set has been visible continuously from July 1 to whenever you decide to make the cut-off (I would guess 12/6 or 12/13 this year based on past experience)?

[Ali E.]

On 3/23/2019 at 2:25 PM, Revenant said:

Wow. That's a surprise. Normally the cut-off is in October based on past years. I like the change - it gives people more time to size up the competition and also makes people have their sets visible for at least about half the year if they want to be in the running for the awards. I'm also glad that the announcement is being made well in advance of the cut-off itself with a 3 month lead. I suppose, even with this rule, someone could just keep their coins out of their registry set and unassigned until close to the cut-off if they didn't want to "show their hand." So there's that "work around," but that carries the risk of forgetting to put the coins in the set before the cut-off, I don't think most people would actually be willing to go through that much effort over it, and at the end of the day it's only going to work maybe once because after that the other people in the category are going to be wise to it.

I am curious though, regarding how NGC enforces this (something I've wondered about before honestly). Do you have a way to see / tell that a set has been visible continuously from July 1 to whenever you decide to make the cut-off (I would guess 12/6 or 12/13 this year based on past experience)?

Hello, Revenant.

Thank you for the feedback. Yes, we have a program that detects the obscure/unobscure dates on every NGC Registry set.

[Star City Homer]

On 3/23/2019 at 2:25 PM, Revenant said:

... I suppose, even with this rule, someone could just keep their coins out of their registry set and unassigned until close to the cut-off if they didn't want to "show their hand." So there's that "work around," but that carries the risk of forgetting to put the coins in the set before the cut-off, I don't think most people would actually be willing to go through that much effort over it, and at the end of the day it's only going to work maybe once because after that the other people in the category are going to be wise to it.

...

That made me laugh a bit...when I very first started putting coins into registry sets I had a reasonably decent set of something.  I diligently added my coins and made a couple purchases and realized I'd passed the number one set.  Mind you neither of us had much more than half the available coins at the time IIRC.  I was totally stoked I'd gotten to number one with a couple months before the awards.

At the almost literal last minute the prior #1 suddenly dumped another 3-4 coins into his set and passed me to keep his title.  I was bummed--not that he was #1 again (well a bit), but in the way it was done.   It takes a bit to get me fired up and competitive, but once it's done, it's done and that did it.  Seriously, NGC aught to give the give the guy 20 free grading passes considering how much that triggered my OC/addiction to some irrational levels that extended far past that set.  My type sets became date sets etc.  My personal submissions are ridiculous as a dilettante collector.  That one guy has made NGC some good money off me.

And that original, favorite set, well I have now totally gone off the deep end and have had the #1 set for a couple years now.  My competitor stopped collecting for a few years but lately is active again...and why I even know that is part of the irrational side.  And considering how he did that coin drop that first year...well, like you say, I am wise to him.  Not that really helps as either I find new coins or not, but I am well aware of what he did.

As for the obscure status lifting earlier, I love it.  A competitive set needs to be available for all to see IMO, and adding the ability to use NGC photos makes that even better.  I like using obscure just to keep my dupe sets out of the way, but for a competition the set needs to be showcased. 

Keeping the obscure function but extending the 'unobscure' date to earlier is a great change!  

[Ali E.]

1 hour ago, Star City Homer said:

That made me laugh a bit...when I very first started putting coins into registry sets I had a reasonably decent set of something.  I diligently added my coins and made a couple purchases and realized I'd passed the number one set.  Mind you neither of us had much more than half the available coins at the time IIRC.  I was totally stoked I'd gotten to number one with a couple months before the awards.

At the almost literal last minute the prior #1 suddenly dumped another 3-4 coins into his set and passed me to keep his title.  I was bummed--not that he was #1 again (well a bit), but in the way it was done.   It takes a bit to get me fired up and competitive, but once it's done, it's done and that did it.  Seriously, NGC aught to give the give the guy 20 free grading passes considering how much that triggered my OC/addiction to some irrational levels that extended far past that set.  My type sets became date sets etc.  My personal submissions are ridiculous as a dilettante collector.  That one guy has made NGC some good money off me.

And that original, favorite set, well I have now totally gone off the deep end and have had the #1 set for a couple years now.  My competitor stopped collecting for a few years but lately is active again...and why I even know that is part of the irrational side.  And considering how he did that coin drop that first year...well, like you say, I am wise to him.  Not that really helps as either I find new coins or not, but I am well aware of what he did.

As for the obscure status lifting earlier, I love it.  A competitive set needs to be available for all to see IMO, and adding the ability to use NGC photos makes that even better.  I like using obscure just to keep my dupe sets out of the way, but for a competition the set needs to be showcased. 

Keeping the obscure function but extending the 'unobscure' date to earlier is a great change!  

Thank you for the feedback, Star City Homer.

We appreciate your support and interest. 

[Revenant]

2 hours ago, Star City Homer said:

That made me laugh a bit...when I very first started putting coins into registry sets I had a reasonably decent set of something.  I diligently added my coins and made a couple purchases and realized I'd passed the number one set.  Mind you neither of us had much more than half the available coins at the time IIRC.  I was totally stoked I'd gotten to number one with a couple months before the awards.

At the almost literal last minute the prior #1 suddenly dumped another 3-4 coins into his set and passed me to keep his title.  I was bummed--not that he was #1 again (well a bit), but in the way it was done.   It takes a bit to get me fired up and competitive, but once it's done, it's done and that did it.  Seriously, NGC aught to give the give the guy 20 free grading passes considering how much that triggered my OC/addiction to some irrational levels that extended far past that set.  My type sets became date sets etc.  My personal submissions are ridiculous as a dilettante collector.  That one guy has made NGC some good money off me.

And that original, favorite set, well I have now totally gone off the deep end and have had the #1 set for a couple years now.  My competitor stopped collecting for a few years but lately is active again...and why I even know that is part of the irrational side.  And considering how he did that coin drop that first year...well, like you say, I am wise to him.  Not that really helps as either I find new coins or not, but I am well aware of what he did.

Yeah... Ain't that just the way of it?

I've had occasions in the past, even recently, where I've gotten a coin for a set that I knew would bump me into #1 and it was several months, if not most of the year, before the deadline. I've honestly considered hiding / sitting on those coins until closer to the cut-off in the past but I always decide against it and upload the coin to the set anyway. I like having my sets "complete," I like getting to have my pictures and descriptions in place, and that practice just seems a little too "cut-throat," bordering on dishonest. I feel like if I'm ever in a situation where I find myself doing that, I've let the competition become too important to me instead of just making the set that I want, for me. But, I think it what happened to you ever happened to me, it would be on! Gloves coming off and everything.  

I definitely see the value in the obscure feature, but obscured sets make me a bit sad. An obscured set goes against what I feel like is the main point of the registry. If you just want a collection tracking system, an excel spreadsheet will do that for you. To me, the whole point of the registry is showing your collection / sharing. In that regard, I was 100% a fan of NGC de-ranked and disqualified obscured sets, and implemented this rule so that the obscured sets couldn't just become visible for a couple of hours around midnight on the cut-off day to skirt the rule (if memory serves, there was a time when obscured sets were ranked and could win, but I don't remember when the rule changed, it's a bit crazy to think that I've been a member here for 12 years).

[Ali E.]

35 minutes ago, Revenant said:

Yeah... Ain't that just the way of it?

I've had occasions in the past, even recently, where I've gotten a coin for a set that I knew would bump me into #1 and it was several months, if not most of the year, before the deadline. I've honestly considered hiding / sitting on those coins until closer to the cut-off in the past but I always decide against it and upload the coin to the set anyway. I like having my sets "complete," I like getting to have my pictures and descriptions in place, and that practice just seems a little too "cut-throat," bordering on dishonest. I feel like if I'm ever in a situation where I find myself doing that, I've let the competition become too important to me instead of just making the set that I want, for me. But, I think it what happened to you ever happened to me, it would be on! Gloves coming off and everything.  

I definitely see the value in the obscure feature, but obscured sets make me a bit sad. An obscured set goes against what I feel like is the main point of the registry. If you just want a collection tracking system, an excel spreadsheet will do that for you. To me, the whole point of the registry is showing your collection / sharing. In that regard, I was 100% a fan of NGC de-ranked and disqualified obscured sets, and implemented this rule so that the obscured sets couldn't just become visible for a couple of hours around midnight on the cut-off day to skirt the rule (if memory serves, there was a time when obscured sets were ranked and could win, but I don't remember when the rule changed, it's a bit crazy to think that I've been a member here for 12 years).

Thank you for the feedback, Revenant.

We appreciate your support and interest, as well. 

[Coinbuf]

A good move by NGC to change the date for when sets must be unobscured earlier than in past years, however I think that any set that is or has been obscured for any portion of the year should be disqualified from award contention.  After all the point of a registry is to show off your collection not to hide it away for half of the year.

Edited May 7, 2019 by Coinbuf

[Star City Homer]

I would say that might be a bit restrictive...sometimes I've hit the obscure button by mistake (though not sure how easy that is with the new format), or I'll keep it obscured until it gets a few more coins in it or until it gets buffed a bit.  Perhaps a set that wins an award can have the 'obscure' option disabled for 3-6 months too.  

I use the registry as a tool to organize some coins and don't want all my sets out there (mostly thinking about some custom sets I've arranged differently), so I appreciate that not all sets are for The Registry so to speak.  Allowing both lets people who are dipping toes in to get used to the idea before feeling ready for prime time too.

[Revenant]

4 hours ago, Star City Homer said:

 Perhaps a set that wins an award can have the 'obscure' option disabled for 3-6 months too. 

Just a random thought, but, once you win, you can't really hide - or at least, you lose a lot of ability to hide. NGC "archives" the winners in a separate place:

https://coins.www.collectors-society.com/registry/coins/awards/WinningSets.aspx

Granted, this is just a "snap shot" of what the set was at the time it won that year. It doesn't show the current state of the set. So if the owner has upgraded / added to the set since then they can still obscure / hide that.

If you want an example, look at the circulated half cent set (just because it's easy to find in the archives page):

Archived at the time it won in 2018: https://coins.www.collectors-society.com/registry/coins/awards/WinningSetDetail.aspx?AwardSetID=160372

The current state of the set: https://coins.www.collectors-society.com/registry/coins/SetListing.aspx?PeopleSetID=185662&Ranking=all

One of the cool things about this with sets that win several years in a row is you might be able to look at all the "snap-shots" from winning years and see how the set grew and evolved over time.