My first post here - How do I submit???!!!!

[JJacks-migration]

 

Arch,

 

I don't want to keep this thread going forever as maybe I made a mistake and didn't do enough work as you feel customers should be forced to go through to start submitting, but here was my problem:

 

Somewhere it states that joining the Collectors Society gives you access to submitting coins to NGC, right?

 

OK - Somewhere else it says that the paid membership entitles you to some free submissions, etc. I didn't see anywhere where it said ONLY the paid membership entitles you to submit coins.

 

I noticed selections for Free and Paid membership. OK fine. As I don't plan to submit immediately (maybe a month or 2 away), I joined using the Free link. I didn't want to pay for now. I was considering maybe I would do that in the future, but not right now. As far as I knew, this would entitle me to submit coins. I realize of course, I wouldn't get free submissions. I went through all the stuff about getting a password, etc. Logged on, and didn't see how to submit anything.

 

Maybe it should state more clearly if it is the case that Free memberships are only for the message boards, price guides, etc.

 

It just seems to me that you guys could use a button or link that says something such as 'Click here to start submitting coins to NGC'. Then you get:

'Are you a current member of NGC, ANA, etc...". If you say no, it says 'Click here to sign up with NGC to allow you to start submitting, etc...'..

 

I have not come here to bash NGC, but it is amazing to me that you would want to make it difficult for your retail customers to figure out what to do. If I was not a member on Amazon, and I wanted a book, I bet I could have the book ordered and my credit card charged in 3 minutes. I hope you can see I am not some silly person who wonders what my 1943 pennies are worth, or who needs help to figure out how to turn a PC on. I really think your site could use some help (such as better integration with Collector's Society, etc.). Sorry, but I would rather be honest then to sound nice.

 

JJacks

 

 

 

[JJacks-migration]

 

Arch,

 

I needed to add one more thing, and this is where I think your marketing guys are intentionally being misleading.

 

On the NGC front page, it clearly states:

 

"Or become a member of our Collectors' Society and enjoy the rewards of the most complete collector's resource available anywhere"

 

Where in the above paragraph may I ask does it say that the Free membership doesn't entitle you to submit coins??

 

Now that I have joined, I don't see the page about the Free compared to Paid memberships, but when I looked at that page the first time, I guess I thought it was just the Paid gets Free submissions, maybe newsletters, whatever.

 

My point is that the paragraph on the NGC front page I believe is intentionally and clearly misleading.

 

I don't believe in the Free version that I am really in the Collector's Society!

 

JJacks

 

 

[JJacks-migration]

 

Arch - Just wanted to make it clear that my mistake was I had been led to believe that NGC was "nicer" then PCGS, as people on that board often complain about having to pay to be a member and I assumed that NGC would accept coins from the public without membership (or a free one).

 

Then, on the front page it clearly states that to submit coins to NGC you can become a member of the Collector's Society to join. Then, it asks if you want to be a Free member or a Paid one. I didn't review that as carefully as I should have (not that websites should try hide such important details either), and assuming I only wanted the paid one for other stuff such as Free submissions, maybe magazines, whatever, I selected the Free one.

 

Now, it claimed I was a "Collector's Society" member, but I still appeared to have no rights to submit coins. That is in conflict with what NGC's front page clearly states.

 

Braddick - Thanks. I think I took "Santa Fe" road instead of "Lomas Santa Fe" road and then went back towards the 5!. I have been to Rancho Santa Fe years ago and I wanted to check it out again. Certainly a very nice area.

 

JJacks

[coinman1794]

My point is that the paragraph on the NGC front page I believe is intentionally and clearly misleading.

 

Just out of curiosity - What would any company’s incentive be to "intentionally and clearly" mislead ANYONE into having a FREE membership ?

[EVillageProwler]

I've been told by someone whose opinion I shockingly trust (just kidding on the "shockingly" part!) that I may have jumped the gun wrt JJ.

 

Since I jumped on him publicly, I'll apologize to him publicly as well. My interaction with him is way too limited for me to even have formed an opinion of him...

 

EVP

 

[baseball]

EVP,

 

That's very big of you to make a public apology like that and I appreciate you recinding your original post.

 

Insofar as the mechanics of this site, I have to admit my frustration in navigating it still to this day. I have been coming here sparsely around since it began, and much more over the last couple of months and I still don't know how to do stuff (like posting an icon in my message). It may be the layout or it could just be that I am so use to the CU boards, or a combination of both.

While it just may be user incompetence on my part, I didn't have anywhere near as much confusion with the CU boards when I first started there. Maybe different layouts just work for different people.

 

 

[EVillageProwler]

Baseball,

 

I'm an even bigger person when you consider that I've been an avid NYM fan since 1974 and on through the lean years of the late '70's and onto the stupid Phillips years of now...

 

 

Well, at least they took 2/3 from the Braves at Shea this weekend.

 

 

EVP

 

[Architecht]

Hi JJacks,

 

Here is my understanding of your feedback:

 

1) You were given an initial impression that joining the Collectors' Society in any capacity gave you the ability to submit directly. That probably happened from reading this paragraph on the How To Submit page:

 

You may submit coins by joining The Collectors’ Society. As a member, you have the added benefit of direct submission privileges to all three independent members of the Certified Collectibles Group: NGC (Numismatic Guaranty Corp.), SGC (Sportscard Guaranty LLC), and CGC (Comics Guaranty, LLC).

 

As it stands, you would not find out about the two levels of membership - free and paid - until you clicked the link contained in this paragraph. You probably feel this paragraph would read more correctly if it said:

 

You may submit coins by joining as a paid member of The Collectors’ Society. As a paid member, you have the added benefit of direct submission privileges to all three independent members of the Certified Collectibles Group: NGC (Numismatic Guaranty Corp.), SGC (Sportscard Guaranty LLC), and CGC (Comics Guaranty, LLC).

 

2) On the front page you would prefer the copy to read something like this:

 

Or become a member of our Collectors' Society and enjoy the rewards of the most complete collector's resource available anywhere including direct submission privleges for paid members.

 

 

 

Aside from your specific feedback on the click-flow, just to be perfectly clear - we're not intentionally misleading anyone. NGC and the Collectors' Society offer a free membership that includes some pretty substantial benefits, and a paid membership that includes more benefits and practically pays for itself with grading coupons. It's a pretty good deal either way, and rather than driving people solely to feel that they had to join with a paid membership, we wanted them to familiarize themselves with both options and select one.

 

However, I can see where you might have gotten an incomplete impression of the situation if you did not fully read the join-page benefits. And if our copy on the NGC site is actually encouraging people to miss that information, then that could stand some scrutiny and correction. We will review it to determine whether improvements can be made.

 

Arch

[JJacks-migration]

 

Arch,

 

That still isn't quite it.

 

The very first page on the NGCCoin website. states:

 

'How to submit:

If you wish to submit coins to NGC, you may go through one of our dealers or Internet partners.

Or become a member of our Collectors' Society and enjoy the rewards of the most complete collector's resource available anywhere.'

etc, etc.

 

This was a pretty clear indication that becoming a "Collectors' Society member" would allow a person to submit coins!

 

Adding paid to the page that you described does help, but it needs to be added to the front page of the NGC site as well.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not trying to be a jerk - but since you asked for feedback about click-through, etc.:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

1. I personally hate it when sites open a new browser window. For example, when I go to the Forums page, I get a new browser window open. Agh! I really can't say how much I dislike a bunch of new windows being created. Just for the record, the PCGS forums don't do this. Maybe this is a requirement of your forum software or something - if so, I think you should get on their case about it!

 

2. From inside the Forum, I can't easily (if at all) click back to NGC. I have to change back to the other browser or whatever. Once again, on the PCGS forum, they have quick links to go right back to the PCGS home page, the PSA page, etc.

 

3. I don't like how NGCCoin is a seperate website from Collectors-society.com. I have no interest in getting cards or comics graded. I wish I could stay on the NGC website period. There is no reason for this I don't think and it does the customer no good at all. On the PCGS site, even though there are links that go to the PSA and Stamps, etc, I never end up having to leave the main PCGS site. Once again, for example, on the PCGS main page, they have a link for "Submission Center". If I click there, I am still on the PCGS site. Now, If I click "PCGS Collector's Club", I'm still on the PCGS site, etc, etc. Personally, I have no real interest in being a Collectors' Society member - I don't plan to use the NGC Registry for example. I just wanted to see about submitting some coins.

 

4. Just for people who think I always am Pro-PCGS - they do at least 1 thing I really don't like. I have paid access to their population report, and it forces me to logon every time to view it- there doesn't seem to be any way for it to save your info and let you login automatically.

 

BTW - About the "Intentionally" misleading comment, I was kind of giving you guys the benefit of the doubt - I mean you can't expect me to seriously believe that you weren't aware there were no submission privilages for Free members when you made the website, can you? It is typical marketing - get them to sign up as a member any way you can and then tell them what stuff costs and hope they decide that since they already became a member they might as well pay.

 

JJacks