Oct 25, 2008 | eBay, grading, legal
When a company with the popularity of eBay sets an exclusive policy that says a seller cannot list a coin as certified unless it is one of a perceived top-tier grading service, it was only a matter of time before they would be sued.
It is being reported that eBay, the American Numismatic Association, the Professional Numismatics Guild, and the company of ANA President Barry Stuppler are being sued in the Eastern District of New York alleging anti-competive conduct.
The primary defendant is a company called Universal Grading Service of New Jersey. Others have ownership association with the company.
The case was filed in late August with a conference scheduled to be heard in January. The suit claims that a conspiracy exists between the defendants against small grading companies. According to the complaint, the plaintiffs are saying that eBay’s listing policy “limits the flow of goods in commerce.”
It is expected that the plaintiff will ask for class-action status.
One of the first questions would be whether New York is the proper jurisdiction for this suit. None of the organizations or officers are located in New York. Filing in New York may have been a strategic move since the court is known to be business friendly with a bias to opening markets. But without clear jurisdiction, it can be speculated that this case will be dismissed on those grounds.
Another issue is whether a non-government entity has the legal right to restrict how their site is used. Although I am not an attorney, I seem to recall similar cases where the commercial entity can restrict access to their services.
Interestingly, while UGS chooses to fight in court, Dominion Grading Service, which was formed out of the ashes of PCI, has chosen to let the market decide. DGS wants to earn respect rather than suing for it. That may be a better way to go.
Jul 20, 2008 | grading
Last February, the owners of David Lawrence Rare Coins bought the assets of PCI, the fledgling grading service from suburban Atlanta, Georgia in an absolute sale auction. DLRC then packed up the assets and moved the service to their location in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Rather than trying to rescue the PCI name, DLRC President John Feigenbaum later announced that the service would be rebranded as Dominion Grading Service (DGS) and begin accepting grading submissions in May. Feigenbaum said that DGS would work to earn the trust of collectors and add new innovations to their service.
As part of the announcement, Feigenbaum said that as submission are processed, two services will be available from the DGS web site. Both are now online. One was AuthentiVIEW.™ AuthentiVIEW is a free imaging service for all coins DGS grades valued at over $100. Coins imaged by AuthentiVIEW will be announced on the label and the image will be saved on the DGS website. DGS says that the purpose is to help those trading DGS slabs identify the coin that is supposed to be in the slab. It is DGS’s attempt to fight the counterfeiting of grading holders.
The other service is a Visual Population Report using the images from the AuthentiVIEW service and Net Grading of problem coins. The Visual Population Report is a standard table format that shows the population for each coin graded by DGS. Coins that have AuthentiVIEW images can be seen by clicking on the link in the table.
Imaging and the Visual Population Report are great ideas. The images are of varying sizes with nice clarity. It is an impressive service. The only complaint I have with the Visual Population Report is that there are too many popup windows. One windows opens when the link in the Visual Population Report is clicked and another for viewing larger images of the coins. I think they should eliminate the first popup window.
On May 21, 2008, as part of a press release, DGS announces that they will be adding a “D” to the serial number of the coins they grade that were submitted by DLRC. Feigenbaum explains, “In this manner collectors can judge for themselves whether we been careless in grading our own material.” I have no experience with purchasing DLRC coins graded by DGS so I cannot comment whether they have been careless or not. I have purchased other coins from DLRC in the past and see no reason why I wouldn’t buy from them in the future.
Last week, Feigenbaum wrote on his blog that DGS has graded 2,000 coins. It is quite an accomplishment in 2½ months for a company taking over a damaged brand and trying to break into a market with two dominant forces. While Feigenbaum wrote, “[w]e’re doing this the hard way… one collector coin at a time,” there was no indication as to how many of these coins were submitted by DLRC versus collectors and dealers.
I wrote, “DGS has a long way to go to reach the reputation of the recognized second-tier services. I wish them luck and look forward to see how the industry receives their service.” DGS appears to be on their way to contending in this market. Let’s see if they have the announcement at the ANA’s World’s Fair of Money® starting July 30 in Baltimore.
Apr 12, 2008 | grading
Earlier this week, John Feigenbaum, President of David Lawrence Rare Coins announced that Dominion Grading Service, a new grading service started from DLRC’s purchase of PCI, is now accepting submissions for their opening on May 1.
It appears that after reviewing the recent reputation of PCI, DLRC decided that it was better to rebrand the service than try to repair its reputation. Feigenbaum was quoted as saying, “we had initially planned to keep the PCI brand name, but we quickly realized that it would be impossible to overcome the confusion that would ensue as we endeavor to recalibrate the [PCI] grading standards. Therefore, we have decided to discontinue the PCI brand in favor of an all-new grading company named Dominion Grading Service.”
DGS claims that it will use Photograde and the American Numismatic Association grading standards and has indicated that when submitting PCI encapsulated coins for cross-over grading may grade lower.
DGS will continue to use the old PCI slabs with a newly designed label. Included on the reverse of the new label will be an indication noting the coin was imaged and stored online. The service DGS calls AuthentiVIEW.™ AuthentiVIEW is a free imaging service for all coins DGS grades valued at over $100 that DGS will save on their site. The purpose is to help those trading DGS slabs identify the coin that is supposed to be in the slab. It is DGS’s attempt to fight the counterfeiting of grading holders.
Other services will be a Visual Population Report using the images from the AuthentiVIEW service and Net Grading of problem coins.
The capitalist in me notes that competition is good. Although AuthentiVIEW and their willingness to marry technology to the process, DGS has a long way to go to reach the reputation of the recognized second-tier services. I wish them luck and look forward to see how the industry receives their service.
Mar 17, 2008 | grading
Cameron Kiefer, the last man standing at ICG following the raid on ICG by ANACS posted a note on the Collectors Universe forums saying the he resigned his position as a grader at ICG and will become a dealer of “high end moderns, type coins, errors and world coins graded by all four companies.” Kiefer has already set up an account on eBay to sell coins.
This appears to be the first high profile departure from either company since the upheaval. Although I have been privately assured that both companies are functioning properly, there continues to be an outward uncertainty. There is little continuity with ICG that would make me comfortable submitting coins, especially using the CONECA attribution service With ICG grading.
As for ANACS, it appears that their website has not been updated in more than a month, including their Coin of the Month article with broken image tags. This may sound small, but a company looking to maintain its image should consider using their website as a customer service tool and a way to communicate to customers. With the uncertainty as to how they are doing, I may send Morgan Dollars I want certified and identified by their VAM designations to a different service.
Good luck Cameron. Maybe we can do business in the future.
Image of Cameron Kiefer from the ICG Website
Feb 24, 2008 | coins, grading, video
Here in the United States, it is common to see coins encased in holders by third party grading services whose label includes that service’s opinion of its state of preservation. We have slabbed everything, from the most worn large cent to the American Eagles just received in the mail from the US Mint. There is even a service that grades the graders by placing a sticker on the holder to say that this service agrees with the opinion of the original grader.
Coin grading is less common outside of the United States. For example, in Canada, collectors who want coins graded sends them to the US-based services or use the Toronto-based International Coin Certification Service (ICCS). ICCS encapsulation offers a different type of encapsulation that includes a small certificate with the coin. But an informal scan of Canadian coin dealers show that the US-based services dominates the grading of Canadian coins.
We’ve accepted coin grading. Overseas collectors have not. They reject coin grading for the reason most of my collection is not graded: there is something satisfying about holding that key coin in my hands. But with the rise in counterfeit of key coins and the raising interest in US coins outside of the US, some collectors are looking to slabbed coins to ensure they are purchasing genuine products. Or are they?
There are a finite number of key coins and there is enough anecdotal evidence that suggests the grading population of key coins has reduced. To maintain their viability, the top tier grading services have to look for additional outlets for revenue. These services are expanding their brands into grading currency, sports cards, and even special labels for modern coins. Expanding into grading world coins for the collectors outside of the United States may be an attempt to find new markets. It appears that the next untapped market is grading world coinage for non-US collectors.
This is not lost of Professional Coin Grading Services President Ron Guth. PCGS, a subsidiary of the publicly traded Collectors’ Universe (NASDAQ: CLCT), may be trying to use the international market as a way to expand PCGS‘s market.
Recently, Guth spoke with Numismatic News Editor Dave Harper at the World Money Fair earlier this month in Berlin, Germany, and file this report:
From this interview it is difficult to say whether the international market is ready for PCGS or any third-party grading service’s service. It appears that this will be one of the “let’s wait and see” issues.
Feb 23, 2008 | grading
The churn amongst the third-party grading services continues as David Lawrence Rare Coins made the highest bid to acquire PCI. The sale was announced on February 21, 2008, John Feigenbaum, President of DLRC on the PCI website.
As part of the announcement, Feigenbaum said that he will be moving PCI from Georgia to Virginia Beach. During the move and the reorganization, PCI will stop grading coins and return those currently in their pipeline. PCI will reopen for submissions in 30-60 days with a new holder and label.
This is a good opportunity for Feigenbaum to extend the DLRC brand. DLRC has been doing very well. Sales are growing and the Internet auctions are becoming more popular. They introduced a guaranteed auction program that reduces the volatility for sellers and attracts better coins for sale. Now, if you are selling an entire collection, DLRC will name the auction for you. These innovations by DLRC has set them apart from other auction sellers.
DLRC seems to be very technology aware. It would not surprise me if technology is not involved in fixing PCI. Here are some other predictions for the new PCI:
- A well known and respected person will join DLRC/PCI to help with the turnaround.
- The new PCI slab will look like a cross between the ANACS Clearview holder and the NGC holder.
- When PCI resumes grading, submission will be restricted to United States coins. They will expand what they grade over the next year and move into the “we grade anything” by this time next year.
- PCI will re-introduce itself to the market at the Baltimore show in June 2008 with on-site grading.
- PCI will announce a new program that is different from any other service at the ANA World’s Fair of Money this summer in Baltimore.
With DLRC having a good reputation for coin auctions, it would not surprise me if Feigenbaum turns PCI into a service that could compete with ANACS and ICG.
Feb 20, 2008 | grading
Numismatic Guarantee Corporation unveiled a new holographic label that will be placed on the back of their slabs. The new label is wider than the previous version and includes the logos of the American Numismatic Association and Professional Numismatic Guild touting NGC being the official grading service of these organizations. A key addition to the label is the mention of their new Terms & Conditions website at www.ngcterms.com.
The original announcement (which has been taken off the NGC site, see below) noted that the site www.ngcterms.com does not link to any commercial sites. But during my investigation, I found three links to the US Mint. While the US Mint is not a “commercial” site, it might as well be since they run commercial operations. Ok… it’s a small nit, but it’s my nit!
For the basic “this is what you need to know” about coin grading, I think that NGC hit the mark. The site is simple and to the point. Two pages that I find very beneficial are The NGC Grading Scale and Strike Characters and other Designations. Both pages clearly defines what everything means in a matter-of-fact manner that I appreciate.
NGC removed the announcement page from their website because there was a spelling error in the label. NGC is aware of the error and is making the appropriate changes. However, there are reports that a “small number” of slabs with the erred hologram were delivered to customers. I wonder if this will be a new type of rarity!
Image courtesy of NGC.
Jan 7, 2008 | counterfeit, grading
Numismatic Guarantee Corporation (NGC) posted a message on its website (and in PDF) warning about counterfeit NGC slabs being on popular on line auctions sites from overseas. NGC’s message points out checking the serial number of the slab is not enough since the counterfeiter is matching the number with the coin information from NGC. There are subtle differences in the label that requires careful inspection rather than a passing glance.
Images of the fake NGC and ANACS slabs was posted by UtahCoin on the Collectors Universe forms then posted on the Collectors Society forums. It has been a hot discussion item since. It is important to note that only the old ANACS slabs were counterfeited, not the new Clearview holders.
No comment was made by ANACS. In fact, no news has come from ANACS since the official announcement of their sale to James Taylor.
UPDATED: As part of the announcement, NGC disclosed that they will be introducing a new holder sometime during 2008. The new holder will have new anti-counterfeiting mechanisms that addresses many of the issues found in this incident.
User braddick on the Collectors Society forums found images of a slab from a Chinese company resembling those used by the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS). It is speculated that it will be a matter of time before fake PCGS slabs are offered for sale.
Although it is not proper to stereotype, recent record of China-based sellers has demonstrated a great majority of rare, key, and semi-key date coins are either fake or significantly altered to look better to the detriment of their numismatic value. It highlights the axiom, “if it looks too good to be true, it probably is not true!”
Caveat emptor.
Dec 30, 2007 | coins, grading
Turmoil has hit the third party grading services making the status of a sector of the industry tenuous at best. It started in September when PCI announced that J.T. Stanton had left PCI. In December, it was discovered that all tangible and intangible assets of PCI will be sold by auction. Assets will be sold to the highest bidder at an “Absolute Public Auction.” The auction will be conducted by Gravitt Auction, Inc. of Chattanooga, Tennessee on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 at 12:00PM EST in the PCI offices in Rossville, Georgia. PCI continues to operate and accepting submissions for coin grading.
The next big story was the wholesale firing of its entire Austin, Texas staff at ANACS. We first learned of the firings from postings on the Collectors Society and Collectors Universe public message boards on December 26. Within two days it was announced that Dynamic Force LLC, of Englewood, Colorado, purchased ANACS from Anderson Press, the parent company of Whitman Publishing. The sale price was not disclosed. Dynamic Force is the company owned by renown grader James Taylor.
Two years ago, Taylor helped Anderson Press move ANACS from Ohio to Austin, Texas. Once the move was completed, Taylor then left ANACS to return to his home in Colorado to be CEO of ICG. Now that Taylor owns ANACS, he will move the company to Englewood and expects to re-open on January 2, 2008.
A short distance from where ANACS will be located are the offices of Independent Coin Grading Company (ICG). It is being reported that several graders have resigned from ICG and will work at the new ANACS. Although this leaves these positions available at ICG, there have been no reports that the former ANACS graders in Austin will move to Colorado to work at ICG.
Based on the survey conducted by the Professional Numismatic Guild (PNG) and Industry Council For Tangible Assets (ICTA), ANACS and ICG are considered the second tier of third party grading services by receiving a “Good” ranking. PCI received a “Poor” rating in the same survey. Only Numismatic Guarantee Corporation (NGC) and Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) received “Superior” ranking.
Although the survey and other perceptions consider NGC and PCGS the leaders in third party authentication and grading, these other services have their place in the industry. For example, ANACS would grade problem coins noting the problem and assigning net grades. ICG works with Combined Organizations of Numismatic Error Collectors of America (CONECA) to assign official CONECA numbers and description on error coins. ICG also has a long list coins and tokens that they will grade. These services are necessary for collectors. It would create a void if changes in these companies would de-emphasize the advantages ANACS and ICG have.
I finally picked up a series if very interesting errors that I wanted to have encapsulated as a special collection. I was planning to send the coins to ICG to take advantage of their service with CONECA. There are also some cleaned Morgan dollars that I would like ANACS to encapsulate and provide VAM attribution. But with the turmoil that is going on with these companies, I am going to wait until the proverbial dust settles—hopefully, for the better.
Nov 4, 2007 | Eagles, grading, US Mint
Although all that glitters may be gold, I like the look of silver. One of the most beautiful coin designs is the Walking Liberty motif by Adolph A. Weinman. From 1916 through 1947, this phenomenal design graced the US half-dollar before it was changed to honor Benjamin Franklin. When the American Eagle bullion program was started in 1986, the US Mint revived the Weinman design for the one dollar Silver Eagle and the Augustus Saint-Gaudens design for the Gold Eagles.
While the Saint-Gaudens design is wonderful, the Weinman Walking Liberty design is my favorite. So I have been collecting the Silver Eagles since their inception in 1986. When the Mint started to sell the collectible Silver Eagles with the satin finish, I decided to add these coins to my collection.
I purchased three satin Silver Eagle coins from the US Mint. One was removed from the holder and placed in an album. One was left in its package. The third was sent to NGC for grading. Last year, the coin I sent to NGC was returned graded MS-69. A nice coin but not quite perfect. But this year… that was a different story. I sent three coins to NGC and two of them came back graded MS-70 PERFECT!
PERFECTION! I have never owned a perfect coin until now. But this coin, and the one I sent to my father as a belated Father’s Day gift, were graded MS-70 PERFECT by NGC. Not only is it a beautiful coin, but it’s a PERFECTLY beautiful coin!
Stay tuned… there may be one more!
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