PCGS are Scam Coin Graders
PCGS loves to take advantage of new coin collectors. I've never submitted a coin for grading before so being it my 1st time, I was hoping PCGS would be willing to help me out a bit on a coin I found that I could not figure out if it was worth anything or not. The coin is a penny made of the wrong metal (copper). I kept weighing it myself against other pennies and I am certain it is copper. I went to many different coin dealers and I could not get any of them to look at this coin, and most did not know of this metal error of that particular year. Only 2 have been found and sold at auction. I called PCGS one day to ask them if they knew of someone in my area I could go swe. They said no, but was informed that a coin show was coming to my area and that there would be free on-site grading. I decided to go to the coin show (which was a 2.5hr drive). I get in there and I swear, all the vendors and dealers were quite rude and made me feel like I was crashing their 'party', so I don't think I'll go to another coin show anytime soon. Then, I get to the PCGS booth. I ask about my coin and was informed that there was actually NO free on-site grading. Really? It said so online and I was told that over the phone. Nope. It was required that you purchase a membership 1st to join PCGS ($70 for the lowest level membership). Grading was not done on-site, it had to be taken back to California to be graded. And you have to pay for the grading up front. The lowest cost to grade was $70 for a coin worth up to $10k. Then, they needed to have your CC# so they can charge you for shipping when they were done. Now, I was leery about doing any of that because I did not know if my coin was really worth anything, but a PCGS employee reassured me that they did not grade coins that were worthless. If my coin wasn't worth anything, they would have just sent it back. I have now waited over a month to get my coin back. They're website sucks because nothing is explained. They use codes and it takes time to find out what their codes mean and locating where those codes are is maddening. And when they are done, you just get charged and still get no explanation of what your coin really is. My total bill (on top of the membership fee) was $121. So this entire time I'm sitting here thinking yay! The penny is worth something. I was also informed I had to be home to sign for the delivery. FedEx just dropped it off, didn't get my signature. I open the box and it looks to me that PCGS graded a worthless penny. WTF? On the submission form, I have it written clearly that I think this is a 'wrong metal error' coin. But PCGS graded a 'mint error' coin. No where does it state to me that someone checked to see if this penny was made of mostly copper, which would be the 'wrong metal error'. I think, due to the coin shows, they were busy and lazy and decided to scan read my request and only saw 'm' error, assuming I wrote down 'mint' PCGS is not supposed to be grading worthless coins taking people money. To me, that is scamming people. It is especially concerning to me that PCGS would see a new customer, and take advantage of a new collector like that. And apparently I am not the only one being taken advantage of. Did anyone really check the weight of my coin? I'm gonna say no. No one called me to clarify what I was requesting and what I was wanting. Does PCGS really want to be embarrassed when I go to another coin show and show the folks there in line that if you are new to coin collecting, that PCGS will think it's funny you sent them a worthless coin and grade it anyway and charge you hundreds for it? How many people have you scammed PCGS? How many people have sent you coins to look at to verify if they are worth anything, and you grade it making them think they have something special, only to get it back and see you screwed them doing full grading services on coins that aren't worth any value having nothing special of them? Shame on you PCGS. I will NOT renew my membership and thanks to you, I may stop this new hobby. If that's you're goal; to stop new folks from starting to collect coins, well, unless YOU fix this fiasco, you succeeded with me. Cause I am certain when I call (when I finally can get through to talk to a manager) you will basically tell me oh, well, nothing we can do; we got our money (many others has this same complaint too). Just stay away from PCGS. They are just a bunch of overhyped scammers and don't give two flips about the collectable coin market. They just want your money. I swear. They just cleaned my coin, barely looked at it, slapped a label on it, put it in a case, charged my card and sent it back. No wonder most people avoid you and just sell on Ebay. The Ebay experts are more experienced than you are PCGS.
By Leah R.