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How is your submission populated?

I was thinking about all the different ways my submissions have come together over the years and wondered what other’s journeys had been like.

My first two submissions were essentially all of the coins I had collected at the time. They were short on stickers and long on education. I was working on different sets and all of the coins were related to completing these.

As sets were completed, or as interests gravitated, Items for new sets were accumulated and sent in, but were purchased with knowledge Gained from previous submissions. Success rates improved, including some gold beans.

At this point, the coins needed for sets were few and far between, so I began buying coins that I was not collecting, but that I thought were strong for the grade, to scratch the itch, and then I would submit them with items coins I was deliberately collecting. Success was very high and gold bean rates sometimes around 25-30% of a submission.

From that phase, I began several sets that were not hard to complete per se, but I decided that the whole set would be in rattlers or fattys. Success rate went down, but gold bean rate stayed high. Focusing on old holders both caused me to loosen my standards, and increase the chances a coin was under graded.

This last submission that just arrived at CAC today is a melting pot. A few coins for sets, a few coins that I thought were strong for the grade, two coins that knocked my socks off, and almost 20 coins that I had accumulated and sent in to PCGS for grading recently. So now I get to see how a random assortment of recently graded coins shakes out.

Anyone else see their submissions change over time?

Comments

  • Having recently returned to the coin hobby after a lengthy hiatus, I had the good fortune of being accepted by CAC to submit directly. Before my break from the hobby, I never seemed to catch the open application windows when they posted. So I have a grand total of two submission under my belt, most assuredly a rookie in comparison to most.

    My first submission was a dip your toes in the water approach. I selected 4 type coins from my collection, 2 being no-brainer gems for the grade, 1 being quite nice with “pass expectations” and the 4th, I was a bit skeptical about but considered it more of a calibration test for myself. Net results the no-brainers passed, the other two did not sticker.

    After digesting my initial results and a bit more calibrating, I went thru my collection and selected 13 coins. A mix of type and a near complete date set of bust half dimes. Results came in yesterday, 10 of 13 stickered. Of those that didn’t sticker, 2 were not too surprising. So I will evaluate the coins that failed upon return and calibrate again.

    I have a number of other coins in line to submit. Maybe silly, but after identifying the coins in my collection worth sending in, I tend to factor the total value I am assembling to ship off in the mail in one shot over any other strategy out there that one might have in terms of what ends up being submitted. Yes, probably a silly thought process to most.

    Thus far I have really enjoyed the exercise. As a collector rather than a professional, I find it helps me look at both my own collection and potential acquisitions with a more refined eye and objective view.
  • edited January 2022
    Thanks for the post. Please update us after your next submission!
  • marmac said:

    Having recently returned to the coin hobby after a lengthy hiatus, I had the good fortune of being accepted by CAC to submit directly. Before my break from the hobby, I never seemed to catch the open application windows when they posted. So I have a grand total of two submission under my belt, most assuredly a rookie in comparison to most.

    My first submission was a dip your toes in the water approach. I selected 4 type coins from my collection, 2 being no-brainer gems for the grade, 1 being quite nice with “pass expectations” and the 4th, I was a bit skeptical about but considered it more of a calibration test for myself. Net results the no-brainers passed, the other two did not sticker.

    After digesting my initial results and a bit more calibrating, I went thru my collection and selected 13 coins. A mix of type and a near complete date set of bust half dimes. Results came in yesterday, 10 of 13 stickered. Of those that didn’t sticker, 2 were not too surprising. So I will evaluate the coins that failed upon return and calibrate again.

    I have a number of other coins in line to submit. Maybe silly, but after identifying the coins in my collection worth sending in, I tend to factor the total value I am assembling to ship off in the mail in one shot over any other strategy out there that one might have in terms of what ends up being submitted. Yes, probably a silly thought process to most.

    Thus far I have really enjoyed the exercise. As a collector rather than a professional, I find it helps me look at both my own collection and potential acquisitions with a more refined eye and objective view.

    Very similar to my thinking on my first submissions. On the first two I remember thinking ‘How bad are my results going to be?’ And I think the coolest parts of the CAC education process are those times when I kill time by grinding through searches on eBay for simply ‘pcgs’ or ‘ngc’ and then a coin pops up and my brain says ‘Oh wow, bet that will CAC’.
  • Yes I can relate there. While I try not to deviate from target collecting strategies, I will follow the occasional shiny object that passes by... in fact it is a constant struggle, but I am making baby steps!
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