Just submitted coins for grading, they indicated there was an issue. That only found out about because I happen to look at the status of the submission. They did even let me know. No email or call f... See more
While we don't verify specific claims because reviewers' opinions are their own, we may label reviews as "Verified" when we can confirm a business interaction took place. Read more
To protect platform integrity, every review on our platform—verified or not—is screened by our 24/7 automated software. This technology is designed to identify and remove content that breaches our guidelines, including reviews that are not based on a genuine experience. We recognise we may not catch everything, and you can flag anything you think we may have missed. Read more
See what reviewers are saying
They're simply thieves: there's nothing else to be said. One ROUTINELY sees coins with PLAINLY VISIBLE flaws that PCGS graded an MS-66 or MS-67. (This is FAR worse than the "gemologist" who tells yo... See more
I was a member of PCGS for many years Submitting Coins for grading. Up until recently when many of these online coin shows started submitting thousands of coins to them they used to be quite reasonab... See more
Spent $250 on a coin I took to experts that said it should grade 67-68 (people who have experience and looked under microscope that I trust) and that I should insure it for around 15k. I paid for fas... See more
No history of asking for reviews
This company hasn't invited their customers, so reviews may not be representative
How this company uses Trustpilot
See how their reviews and ratings are sourced, scored, and moderated.
People also looked at
bad grading personel
I sent them a few morgan dollars for grading, all of them were BU pristine UNC and they grade them them AU55 they even had an original awesome luster so AU55 is a big load of BS, and one of my other morgans was easily MS64 pretty nice coin with minimum impacts or scratches and they wouldn't grade it, they said it had some pvc residue, i even looked at that coin under the microscope and i didn't see no pvc residue, PCGS not only lying on grades but also they're scamming people out of hundreds and thousands of dollars, they should be investigated.
PCGS : Pretty Cruddy Grading Service
PCGS must stand for Pretty Cruddy Grading Service.
Really wish I had read these reviews prior to joining their club and making a submission. The time to completion is arbitrary and is solely based on how much you pay them. I'm fairly certain they just sit on your coins if you dont pay the rush premium. They have a status tracker (ala PizzaHut delivery) and the statuses are made up. They will keep your coin in "imaging" for 2 weeks and then not provide any images (even after telling you your images are ready). They will keep your coin in "encapsulation" for a week, even if it's not being encapsulated.
I get that they may be trusted based on the quality they've provided in the past, but that quality is long gone. The website description of services does not match what they provide. When you ask customer service about it they play dumb and refuse to answer your questions. I recommend you take your coins to any other coin grader, you'll get a better deal and better service.
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.
The Trustpilot Experience
Anyone can write a Trustpilot review. People who write reviews have ownership to edit or delete them at any time, and they’ll be displayed as long as an account is active.
Companies can ask for reviews via automatic invitations. Labeled Verified, they’re about genuine experiences.
Learn more about other kinds of reviews.
We use dedicated people and clever technology to safeguard our platform. Find out how we combat fake reviews.
Learn about Trustpilot’s review process.
Here are 8 tips for writing great reviews.
Verification can help ensure real people are writing the reviews you read on Trustpilot.
Offering incentives for reviews or asking for them selectively can bias the TrustScore, which goes against our guidelines.

