NGC Makes it really hard to understand how to get coins graded 0

[Raymond Cieslewicz]

So, do you go to a local dealer (perhaps someone you can't trust) with your coins or can you send them direct to NGC? I can't figure anything out on this website other then they want money.  Why can't they make it simple. send in the coins, here is the charge and that's that.  I am a free member, do I get more information if I pay?  It's all about money and all I want are 4 coins graded. Give me a break, if you say $35.00 a coin x 4 = no problem.  They want me to send it to a dealer? How can I trust the dealer? How do I know my coins will be graded according to standard.  This seems more like a pain in the a"". It seems like NGC wants to make money doing nothing.  Can some on e give me a clue to this? Any info would help. Thank you!

[GoldFinger1969]

22 minutes ago, Raymond Cieslewicz said:

So, do you go to a local dealer (perhaps someone you can't trust) with your coins or can you send them direct to NGC? I can't figure anything out on this website other then they want money.  Why can't they make it simple. send in the coins, here is the charge and that's that.  I am a free member, do I get more information if I pay?  It's all about money and all I want are 4 coins graded. Give me a break, if you say $35.00 a coin x 4 = no problem.  They want me to send it to a dealer? How can I trust the dealer? How do I know my coins will be graded according to standard.  This seems more like a pain in the a"". It seems like NGC wants to make money doing nothing.  Can some on e give me a clue to this? Any info would help. Thank you!

Don't sound so frustrated....NGC has protocols in place to expedite grading, insure safe passage of coins, and treat individual collectors and dealers fairly.  It's worked for them for 33+ years. 

I would answer your questions but as I have never submitted, I'll defer to someone who has.

[Just Bob]

Sounds like you may need to take a breath.

Thousands of people have sent in coins to have them graded, and I bet you can do it, too.

You can submit in one of three ways:

1) Have an authorized dealer send them in for you, as you have stated.

2) Upgrade your membership to a paid account, and submit directly to NGC.

3) Become a member of the ANA, and submit directly.

I do not work for or represent NGC, but I can tell you that yes, they grade coins for money. All for-profit companies do their work for money, or some type of compensation. It is the way of the free market system. 

The information that I just gave you, and more, can be found on this page:

https://www.ngccoin.com/submit-coins/how-to-submit.aspx

 

[Mr.Bill347]

I totally Agree, The forms and rules are complicated. After joining NGC and submitting my first coin to them, (n 1895 Morgan Silver dollar, I simply printed the generated submission form, Filled out my name in the PDF, manually checked US coin, check Decline conservation, Checked ship method UPS, Grading tier Early bird and circled $35, checked appearance review and filled out the list with qty 1, year 1895, Mint Mark S, denom, 1.00 and MS, estimated value $300 and total value $300. Under Fees, checked 1 tier at $35, added the $10 Handling fee, and 24.00 shipping fee for a total of $59

Date 7/8/2020

The Horrible news I got back was that it was NOT GENIUINE 100% conterfiet. My bad, I didn't know how to check by weight and accurate measurement. I do not own a micrometer but did have a scale. 

So lesson Learned. KNOW WHAT YOU ARE SENDING, and decide if it is worth the 50-60 to get it graded. I have slabbed the coin with the NOT GENIUNE tag as a reminder for me to do a better job. 

Note, I have since submitted five Genuine coins in their original holds and the grading is in process. However, I got cheap and indicated "Economy" and have waited since 12/29 for the return so please check Early Bird/Standard on your submissions.

Thank You. Hope I helped someone out through my lesson learned.

 

[Raymond Cieslewicz]

Thank you for your help on this.  You explain a lot more then the web site.  I wanted to get 4 coins graded, wow, didn't know it would cost that much !  But i do like them and would like to know if in fact they are real and what the grade is.  As collectors, we always want a better grade, We can look at that coin for hours and always think it is better as we look at it, just to find out it is not  I know, i had collector friends look at coins i thought were great, only to point out issues i guess i didn't want to see, after i spent hard earned money buying

 

[MarkFeld]

15 minutes ago, Raymond Cieslewicz said:

Thank you for your help on this.  You explain a lot more then the web site.  I wanted to get 4 coins graded, wow, didn't know it would cost that much !  But i do like them and would like to know if in fact they are real and what the grade is.  As collectors, we always want a better grade, We can look at that coin for hours and always think it is better as we look at it, just to find out it is not  I know, i had collector friends look at coins i thought were great, only to point out issues i guess i didn't want to see, after i spent hard earned money buying

 

Welcome to the forum.

if you’re able to post good pictures, there’s a good chance that you can learn whether they’re genuine and if so, whether they’re worth getting graded.

[MarkFeld]

1 hour ago, Mr.Bill347 said:

I totally Agree, The forms and rules are complicated. After joining NGC and submitting my first coin to them, (n 1895 Morgan Silver dollar, I simply printed the generated submission form, Filled out my name in the PDF, manually checked US coin, check Decline conservation, Checked ship method UPS, Grading tier Early bird and circled $35, checked appearance review and filled out the list with qty 1, year 1895, Mint Mark S, denom, 1.00 and MS, estimated value $300 and total value $300. Under Fees, checked 1 tier at $35, added the $10 Handling fee, and 24.00 shipping fee for a total of $59

Date 7/8/2020

The Horrible news I got back was that it was NOT GENIUINE 100% conterfiet. My bad, I didn't know how to check by weight and accurate measurement. I do not own a micrometer but did have a scale. 

So lesson Learned. KNOW WHAT YOU ARE SENDING, and decide if it is worth the 50-60 to get it graded. I have slabbed the coin with the NOT GENIUNE tag as a reminder for me to do a better job. 

Note, I have since submitted five Genuine coins in their original holds and the grading is in process. However, I got cheap and indicated "Economy" and have waited since 12/29 for the return so please check Early Bird/Standard on your submissions.

Thank You. Hope I helped someone out through my lesson learned.

 

Sorry about your 1895-S. If you’d posted images, you likely would have learned that the coin was counterfeit. And while you apparently wish you’d chosen a more costly, faster service, there are a great many coins which don’t merit that and whose owners understandably prefer a less costly, (even though) slower option.

[VKurtB]

3 hours ago, Mr.Bill347 said:

lesson Learned. KNOW WHAT YOU ARE SENDING,

Whoa, what a concept.

[GoldFinger1969]

3 hours ago, MarkFeld said:

Sorry about your 1895-S. If you’d posted images, you likely would have learned that the coin was counterfeit. And while you apparently wish you’d chosen a more costly, faster service, there are a great many coins which don’t merit that and whose owners understandably prefer a less costly, (even though) slower option.

Mark, to the best of your knowledge, has the backlog gotten worse at the TPGs since Covid-19...or maybe even before that, given an increase in the number of coins graded (including moderns) ?

I'll bet even the Economy service in the 1990's and early-2000's was pretty quick compared to today. 

[MarkFeld]

I’m under the impression that in many cases, turnaround times at PCGS were considerably slower during portions of the past several months. And that they have improved, though I don’t know by how much. 
I don’t know about NGC, but my guess is that they’ve been less affected by local COVID restrictions, being based in Florida, as opposed to California.

[RWB]

The OP's complaint is possibly founded on the crowded content and layout of the submission form. Were everything spread among two, logically organized pages, I suspect the whole submission experience would be improved. Also, a 2-sided paper form would make it easy to extract user data. That could improve data handling and analysis with little cost. The electronic form would also be easier to use with data going directly to the NGC submission database.

Small changes in process can produce large positive returns.

[Mr.Bill347]

22 hours ago, MarkFeld said:

Sorry about your 1895-S. If you’d posted images, you likely would have learned that the coin was counterfeit. And while you apparently wish you’d chosen a more costly, faster service, there are a great many coins which don’t merit that and whose owners understandably prefer a less costly, (even though) slower option.

Well at the time, I was not even aware of the NGC forums. I didn't even get of picture of it before I sent it. These are all things a newbie learns in the process. Thanks The same

[VKurtB]

23 hours ago, Mr.Bill347 said:

Well at the time, I was not even aware of the NGC forums. I didn't even get of picture of it before I sent it. These are all things a newbie learns in the process. Thanks The same

I've opined on this before, and I'll repeat it here - there are too many people new to grading coins that do things in the backwards order. "Know before you go." There is no rush to get a coin graded before the sky falls... unless you're trying to turn a quick buck, in which case you're screwed already.

[J P M]

Good Day. This looks like a good place to start. I am new to this so bare with me. I have been saving silver and strange looking coins all my days and now I am retired and decided to start checking them out maybe collect, swap and sell some.

 . Also seeing that posting a photo to more experienced collector's in the forums  may be the smart way to go LOL.  I have a Sacagawea Dollar I am thinking of getting graded I is a really fine looking coin but not sure what tier to go with Gold Or Modern   I have looked it up and it may be what they call ( The Experimental Rinse coin ).

[JT2]

1 hour ago, J P Mashoke said:

I have a Sacagawea Dollar I am thinking of getting graded

I wouldnt it is just a regular SAC dollar...it is not "Gold"  in any shape of form other than color.  she is even too beat up to be an MS coin.

[RWB]

"Experimental Rinse" is rinsed bologna. Can you explain what that is supposed to be and why it is of importance?

 

[Mactanboy]

On 2/13/2021 at 2:54 PM, Raymond Cieslewicz said:

Thank you for your help on this.  You explain a lot more then the web site.  I wanted to get 4 coins graded, wow, didn't know it would cost that much !  But i do like them and would like to know if in fact they are real and what the grade is.  As collectors, we always want a better grade, We can look at that coin for hours and always think it is better as we look at it, just to find out it is not  I know, i had collector friends look at coins i thought were great, only to point out issues i guess i didn't want to see, after i spent hard earned money buying

 

My first question is why do you want to slab these four coins? Do you plan on selling them or do you think they are worth more graded by NGC? As several responders have noted, it is important to know if your coins are authentic and in good condition unless the coin is very rare and in demand regardless of condition. Second, I concur that submitting coins to any Third Party Grader is complicated to the layman and all TPG are in business to make a profit. This point relates back to my comments about why do you want the coins graded and what do you plan on doing with them? NGC, PCGS, & ANACS all offer complete services (at additional costs) for conserving (a polite word for legal cleaning), confirming a variety, and speed of coin being graded and returned. Having collected for 50 years, I have made many mistakes by first sending in coins that really were not worth grading. After sending in coins that were returned cleaned, scratched, or fake, I learned much more about how to grade and only send in coins I am 99% sure will grade. This means I check the coin closely in bright sunlight with a loop, check for discoloration and scratches, etc. If anything looks amiss, I do not submit the coin (unless it is extremely rare).

I decided to slab my coins because I got tired of dealers trying to convince me my coins were really lower grades than I believed and their coins were sold as MS 64-65 when in fact they were AU 55-58. TPGers are not perfect but at least they are more impartial.

Currently I have 11 coins at NGC that arrived November 30th and were entered into the system on December 31st. The coins are now in "grading/quality control" which means they have been initially graded and will be checked by another grader and eventually get to slabbing, another quality check and return to me. My best hope is the process will take about 3 months! I could have paid more for faster service but the modern coins did not require quick turnaround.

Hopefully understanding the process and what collectors want to accomplish by having their collectibles graded will remove some of the frustration you experienced with NGC. Good luck!

[J P M]

Thanks JT2 and RWB for your thoughts .

It is always better to ask more experienced collectors and sound green, then not ask and spend green.

Thanks for the help.

JPM

[Hoghead515]

The first time I sent one in it was very frustrating. After I figured it out it wasn't to bad after that. I did the online submission form though. They usually have it step by step when you fill it out online. Just make sure you read everything carefully. 

[Alex in PA.]

On 2/13/2021 at 6:48 PM, GoldFinger1969 said:

I'll bet even the Economy service in the 1990's and early-2000's was pretty quick compared to today. 

Darn sure was but it didn't have to face the problems we are having today.  An increase of population using the mail services, Covid infecting USPS, UPS, FedEx, et al employees, etc.  As I can remember  things went a lot smoother in the past.  Maybe it was just luck.