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Suggestions for CAC's New Slabbing Service (Please Also Insert Your Own!)
The marketing geniuses at CAC have likely already thought of these ideas but here goes:
1. Have online exhibits of CAC coins just like actual show exhibits, replete with expert judges and awards.
2. Charge a nominal annual membership fee ($300?) to discourage non-serious people from joining who join every free organization that exists including the National Toenail Clipping Society.
3. Eliminate collector memberships due to the extra work and expense involved. I believe that most collectors would have no issue with submitting through dealer members. CAC is running a business, not a charity for coin collectors, most of whom have an above average net worth as per Coin World surveys and are thus not in need of handouts.
4. Publish an outline of CAC's grading standards.
5. Have polls for the most popular coins, dealers, auction companies, collectors, and everything else CAC related.
6. For a fee ($100?), CAC could explain why a coin did not cross (DNC) over from its NGC or PCGS holder.
7. Also for a fee, CAC could state its actual grades for DNC's.
8. Charge fees commensurate with the product delivered. Thus, the minimum slabbing fee should be, say, $95 for the cheapest service because the submitter will pay only one fee versus the $40 PCGS fee, $35 CAC fee, and other extra expenses incurred in sending coins to two services instead of just CAC.
9. List basic but interesting info about each coin on the back of its slab insert, such as mintage, weight, and metal composition.
10. Develop premium holders and charge extra for them. This will create a whole new area of collectibles.
11. When certification is verified at CAC's website, include CAC's current bid and other pertinent info for each coin verified.
12. List stolen CAC coins on CAC's website, replete with photos.
13. Sell the actual tools used by CAC graders such as magnifying glasses and 75W frosted, incandescent bulbs. These products will allow anyone to view coins as CAC does.
14. Sell all sorts of other CAC-branded products including slab briefcases and slab boxes that fit perfectly into safe deposit boxes (10 X 10 X 24 seems to be standard for the largest). And, of course, CAC's trademark coffee mugs.
1. Have online exhibits of CAC coins just like actual show exhibits, replete with expert judges and awards.
2. Charge a nominal annual membership fee ($300?) to discourage non-serious people from joining who join every free organization that exists including the National Toenail Clipping Society.
3. Eliminate collector memberships due to the extra work and expense involved. I believe that most collectors would have no issue with submitting through dealer members. CAC is running a business, not a charity for coin collectors, most of whom have an above average net worth as per Coin World surveys and are thus not in need of handouts.
4. Publish an outline of CAC's grading standards.
5. Have polls for the most popular coins, dealers, auction companies, collectors, and everything else CAC related.
6. For a fee ($100?), CAC could explain why a coin did not cross (DNC) over from its NGC or PCGS holder.
7. Also for a fee, CAC could state its actual grades for DNC's.
8. Charge fees commensurate with the product delivered. Thus, the minimum slabbing fee should be, say, $95 for the cheapest service because the submitter will pay only one fee versus the $40 PCGS fee, $35 CAC fee, and other extra expenses incurred in sending coins to two services instead of just CAC.
9. List basic but interesting info about each coin on the back of its slab insert, such as mintage, weight, and metal composition.
10. Develop premium holders and charge extra for them. This will create a whole new area of collectibles.
11. When certification is verified at CAC's website, include CAC's current bid and other pertinent info for each coin verified.
12. List stolen CAC coins on CAC's website, replete with photos.
13. Sell the actual tools used by CAC graders such as magnifying glasses and 75W frosted, incandescent bulbs. These products will allow anyone to view coins as CAC does.
14. Sell all sorts of other CAC-branded products including slab briefcases and slab boxes that fit perfectly into safe deposit boxes (10 X 10 X 24 seems to be standard for the largest). And, of course, CAC's trademark coffee mugs.
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Comments
I don't think CACG has any intent of limiting its number of collector volume, but rather its actual coin volume. Therefore, your restrictions could logically be put upon dealers, rather than collectors (which would limit the actual volume of coins). This is just the assumption I made based off of comments here.
CACG's essay contest goes with the above. Their decision to not limit it to CAC members only shows a desire to bring in collectors. I think CACG is going to try and build an atmosphere welcome for all collectors.
I suggest:
1) CACG makes and posts educational videos/photos to put on their social media sites.
2) CACG offers free membership to YNs, or perhaps one free submission per YN per year.
3) CACG works with the ANA to display grading sets at each major show.
4) CACG works with the Smithsonian to display grading sets in Washington D.C. (I was recently at the NNC at the Smithsonian, and the display was depressingly small and uninteresting).
5) CACG works to increase educational content regarding numismatics to make it accessible to all (bring in more collectors, not push them away).
6) CACG continues educational contests for all, or perhaps special contests for YNs (see number two, maybe winners get free submissions?)
All of the above is assumption, I have no desire to state that any of this is true or will even possibly come true.
The suggestion forcing collectors to submit coins through dealers so they can then make additional profits is outright self-serving!
Thank goodness CAC and CACG are run by JA, who is VERY pro collector, and not run by @antiCACcollector.
And I thought @antiCACcollector previously said MANY times how often he and CAC think alike! Apparently not with many of these suggestions. Thank goodness!
I vote for your 1 and 2. I have also recommended more social media exposure in prior posts. And YN's are the only collectors who should receive freebies because most are fiscally impaired.
As @Winesteven correctly states JA has continued to be very pro collector. In addition, at this time it's most important that CACG is laser like focused on sustaining their harmonious grading teams. This will allow them to maintain consistent and high standards of grading.
I like many of @FlyingAI suggestions.
@CACfan- As If you hadn't already alienated half the members of this forum, you've now alienated the rest of them. I can't remember what thread it was, but I recall that CAC has ranked profit as #6 on their list of priorities. Your suggestions would indicate that profit is #1. Seriously, eliminate collector memberships 🤨? Charge $300 membership fee and $100 submission fee for the economy tier? Collector memberships only account for around 15% of submission volume, and the reason that CAC is what it is today is because of its collector-oriented principles. While dealers have their place, collectors are the heart and soul of the hobby and what your suggesting is a complete 180 on the way that CAC has been operating thus far. Tell me again how "You are in touch with CAC's mission, and we are not" ?
This post reminds me of the decathlon scene from Billy Madison, where Norm Macdonald uttered those famous words "I award you no points..."
I do like @FlyingAl's suggestions
Steve
Florida - I was thinking it might be a good idea for CACG to offer to display your collection, or a part of it, at a major show (perhaps with the trade being that they would encapsulate your coins for free). It would be a great way to get some fantastic coins in CACG slabs. The same could go for @EliteCollection.
Say I am a young numismatist and I make maybe $17 an hour. I like coins, but I am on a budget and so I am collecting Mercury dimes from the 1940s. I buy raw because my discretionary income is minimal. I read about coins and coin grading and realize I need to learn a lot and getting them graded seems like a way to judge my grading eye. I do research and determine CACG is the place so I decide to send them there.
I start filling out the forms. Let’s see…..annual fee $300, 20 coins at $95 is $1900, I want to know what problems my coins have that I might not understand, so let’s say a quarter of the coins don’t pass muster, so at $100 a coin that is $500. Oh, and shipping both ways will be about $100. So I pack my dimes up with a $2800 check and……I realize I need food and shelter and gas for the next 2 to 3 months so I just bail on the submission. Then I think maybe collecting coins and learning about them is a black hole for money and maybe that is why none of my peers collects so Pokémon it is.
Who is a serious person? If one collector makes $10 million a year and spends $1 million on coins, and another makes $50,000 a year and spends $10,000 on coins, who is more serious? Is a dealer who sends in 20 to 30 coin submissions just to get 4 or 5 stickers purely for profit potential serious, or is it a collector who sends in 20 coin submissions and gets 19 stickers with 5 of them gold beans?
Beginning in 3rd grade I had to earn my spending money. I would get on my bike and ride all over whatever military base we were stationed at and go dumpster diving for aluminum cans all day every weekend. About every 6 weeks my father would drive me down to the recycling yard and I would sell them and I might get almost $10. Then I went to coin shows with my father and bought worn raw wheat cents and Jefferson nickles because that was what I could afford. Now I have a top 10 PCGS Registry CAC gold type set. So was I serious then, or now? I assure you I worked a lot harder to buy those raw coins than any CAC coins in the type set.
An education in any field in which a person has interest should be available to that person at a cost that is affordable to that person. You don’t grow young poor numismatists into old wealthy numismatists by economically excluding them from early access to knowledge anymore than you grow a mighty redwood from a sapling by denying it water. YN accounts with discounted fees, clear educational videos on defined subjects for YouTube or similar venues, a reference listing the types of tools used and where to get the incandescents as well as how to set up a room for viewing, and a little bit of free merch every now and again like the mugs or CRO’s hats. That is the path from my perspective.
The caveat I would suggest is the non-dealer collector be required to submit a minimum of 10 pieces at a time for grading. OK, 15. The point is, don't encourage an Us vs. Them spat that just gets in the way of the hobby and has been going on ever since I can remember.
The only comment I have, although I realize I shouldn't comment is:
"FINDING EXCUSES TO POST NEGATIVE REPLIES...."
(Dealer, heal thyself).
AND:
Concerning the non-helpful Social commentary not related to the hobby, LOL or not, please refer to the preceding paragraph.
I have a life long fondness for persons (especially those among us that set aside their declared exalted stature) that are imbued with natural Humbleness....and practice same with all.
I share @john's fondness.
"I have a life long fondness for persons (especially those among us that set aside their declared exalted stature) that are imbued with natural Humbleness....and practice same with all."
- may be used as a noun or a verb
- definition: repetitively claiming superior knowledge and comprehension
-synonyms: narcissism, arrogance, condescension