So what are coin graders and why do I need them?

Coin grading services serve as an insurance against fraud and forgery for the most part. When we deal with coins, the utmost important thing we want to be gauranteed of is its authenticity. It's no fun spending 10,000 dollars on that must have rare date to complete our most prized set only to find we've been duped by a forger. The most reputable services are insured and protect you against forgery. That means they'll pay you back the price you paid for the coin should it be judged a forgery in the future.
The next benefit to buying from coins in a services holder is obviously an (we hope) accurate grade. Coins are collected not only on things such as rarity and type but most importantly condition. The coin prices on the market are reflected by these three qualities the most, the top qualities being rarity and then condition. The largest influence the Coin Grading serves have to effect the price of your coin is the judgement of the coins condition.
Now that we know that graders influence condition, who should we trust to grade our coins? There is a term used in numismatics that you may have heard of called "top tier services". These consist of Professional Coin Grading Services or PCGS, Numismatic Guaranty Corporation or NGC, and American Numismatic Associaton Coin Grading Services or ANACS. One other service also debated to be top tier is ICG or Independent Coin Grading company. The next group of coin graders are called second tier grading companies which include PCI and SEGS. The differences of the tier groups lies in the percieved strength in the accuracy of their grading among numismatists.
There are other startup grading services floating around but these are dangerous buys as most coins they grade are sent there for a bit of gradeflation. Gradeflation in the simplest terms is the overgrading of a coins condition for monetary gain. Say for instance you have a particular 1925 s Peace Dollar in MS-62 Condition and you know that a an MS-65 lists for 25,000 dollars!! Your top tier grading service wouldn't give the coin you have the time of day in an MS65 holder but that crappy new service will glady place the coin you have in one of their snazzy new MS65 holders without a second doubt!! Seems great right!? Nope. There's no way you'll sell that coin for that price in that holder unless the person buying from you wants to light that money on fire!! Don't even think about Ebaying it either! Ebay now has a policy of not allowing you to list a coins grade unless it is from one of the Top Tier companies.
So now your saying what will it cost me? That's where I tell you-it depends. Most coin graders have tier services and I recommend you go to there website and look the tier prices up. On top oof the tier pricing there is usually a membership fee. I'm an ANA member so I automatically get services from the NCG grading services with my membership. PCGS usually runs 95$ to join.
Now that we know why our Grading services are so important is there somewhere they go wrong? That's the subject of my next post!