PCGS re-holder special.. blah

[HawkeEye]

Well if you are having to send them in for correction maybe they should farm them out to VAM experts like JB. Several years back I thought there was a discussion about how to get on the experts list since they were paying something. But that could have been one of the other TPG's.

From a liability standpoint I think their only risk is the cost of regrading unless the coin is sold as Variety-a when it is in fact Variety-b. But this risk can go either way from a pricing standpoint. They have this risk on every coin, especially early issues where expertise is rare and in-house graders might not have the knowledge. I have always assumed that they farmed out some of the work to area experts because attribution is not limited to Morgan and Piece Dollars.

It seems that I had this conversation with JB and he confirmed that at least some of the attribution work is done with outside experts. Maintaining experts on every possible coin variety seems both unlikely and unreasonable. Several of the medals I submitted recently had only one example in their database, so the first or second one they had ever seen. I think these had to be farmed out for attribution. For example 39756805

[DHalladay]

Jeff Oxman used to make regular VAM consulting visits to PCGS when Mike Faraone was in charge of attributions.
But that was in a faraway time and place, wasn't it?

[HawkeEye]

Maybe Darth VAMer was there

[messydesk]

Jeff Oxman used to make regular VAM consulting visits to PCGS when Mike Faraone was in charge of attributions.
But that was in a faraway time and place, wasn't it?

Yup. I asked Brett Charville about using outside consultants for varieties a while back. He said it was something they planned on doing, but it doesn't seem to have come to pass yet, at least for VAMs. Maybe the idea was scrapped because of the logistic and liability issues, as Brian says.

[HawkeEye]

I think for all of us the best answer is to have JB attribute them and then if needed send them in to a TPG. It costs a little more but eliminates resending and missed attributions.

[iceman]

Hawkeye
Do you think JB attribution will recognized by PCGS ? Or just used as a helpful hint to PCGS on the attribution ?
JB does a Excellent Job and now is getting the Props for this . But also since some of the Holdered coins
are a sticker of the VAM , some people might do the switch on the sticker . Just saying this .
I personally put some attributions on the coin prior to sending it to PCGS , But of course they dont listen
and I have had fights with them and Won .
But still putting a attribution prior with it noted on the coin is a Must to get things done correctly via PCGS .

But still I would hope to get PCGS more involved with JB and the attribution .

Just my 2 cents and I hope PCGS get their act together with attributions and Yes it has gotten bad as of late , No excuse
for it , If they ( PCGS)have a Question on attribute consult others like JB . Maybe the hard ones PCGS has issues with
send to JB via a photo and if JB has questions then the coin gets sent Physically .
So it would be a 3 stage process , and maybe JB can review all PCGS photo's for the proper attribute and sign off on it .
If questions then the coin is sent physically to him . That would make all attributions Gold Shield because of the photo .

Like I said just my 2 cents . And just some ideas but of course PCGS doesn't listen to reason . LOL
John

[HawkeEye]

I think it is like a call on the football field being reviewed by instant replay. They have a hint, but also have to prove why it isn't what JB said it was.