Can't decide which of these notes to have graded

[Luckyjeff]

I hit the MOTHERLOAD of luck!  I was at my ATM and I like brand new notes so I pay more attention to them.  By some weird freak, they had the 1,000 block starting with 88888.  At first, I had no idea that solid notes command such a premium.  I just wanted the 88888888 because I thought the bill was cool.  I do collect coins and notes but I'm not real serious so I go to coin shows to buy a few things that I like in my price range.  Anyway, I knew enough about currency to look up the values and I nearly had a heart attack especially since lots of 8's are highly valued in many Asian cultures.  At first, I took about 5 to 10 of the notes starting with 888888 and deposited them into another account....:(  After I realized what I had, I started withdrawing the notes to my withdraw limit which I thought was just $500 so I missed sections of notes.  At the end, I was withdrawing my max limit on this and my other bank accounts absorbing the ATM fee for non-member banks until the notes ran out.  These are the best of the notes for both collectors or Asians.  Numerology in Chinese can be difficult in combos.  8 and 6 are obviously good and 4 is obviously bad yet 54 is pretty good and 848 represents "Wealth for 8 lifetimes" even though 4 represents "death".

I am trying to figure out which notes to grade and which ones not to grade.  Obviously, 88888888 should be graded but I'd think ALL the notes from 88888880 to 88888889 should be graded.  A few of these are near double quads like 88888777 and 88888666 and then there is a note like 88888168 which tends to mean "Easy wealth all the way"

Apparently, I can only upload some of the bills so I picked a variety.  I have binaries and near double quads as well as 6 8's followed by numbers like 44 or 55 or 77.

Thank you for any help

[Jennifer F.]

Good morning, thanks for your message.  Unfortunately, we cannot advise you on which notes to send in for grading.  Each person submits notes for their own reasons so it would entirely depend on what you want to do with them after they are graded.  If you are just looking to sell them then you'd have to weigh the cost of signing up for membership and grading fees versus what you could get for them at auction.  You might want to have them appraised by a currency dealer in that case.  

If you do wish to submit notes to us, you would either need to become a member of the Collector's Society or find a PMG authorized dealer near you to submit the notes for you.  I have included a link to our website which goes over the steps needed to sign up for membership as well as the other options you have for submitting notes.  

 

http://www.pmgnotes.com/services/Submitting.aspx

 

I have also included a link to the page which outlines the different grading tiers and the pricing for each as well as the current turnaround times for each tier.  You may wish to refer to this before submitting your notes.  

 

http://www.pmgnotes.com/services/services.aspx

 

If you have any other questions, please let me know.  Thank you!

[Luckyjeff]

I haven't decided whether to be a member of PMG or ANA, which provides submission privileges through PMG.  I might do both.  I've seen your post but it doesn't explain how to package the notes for safe transport to you, and the pricing indicates a range depending upon the value of the note.  Is that value determined by you?  If it is supposed to be determined by me, there is NO chance.  I don't know enough about bills to value them.  Some of these notes I will sell and some I will keep.  Ideally, I make enough money on the lesser bills to keep the 88888880-88888889 set because of its hard to find feature.  I do have a serious error note and some sub 1917 notes I have considered grading as well.  I REALLY WISH there was a video showing how one packages bills for submission.  Doing it the first time is so stressful that I considered waiting for the Fun convention in Orlando to submit them to a representative in person. I got a submission packet from the last convention that I attended but I misplaced it somewhere.  All I remember is that it seemed a bit daunting for some reason.

[Jennifer F.]

Good morning.  Yes, if you are a paid member of the ANA, we do offer a free Associate level membership which would be good for as long as your ANA membership is active.  There is a special application you would have to complete in order to obtain the free membership.  You can find that on our website here: https://www.pmgnotes.com/ana-welcome/  

The grading fees are determined by the declared value you put for your notes.  Anything submitted to us for grading must have a declared value listed for insurance purposes.  We do not advise you of the value, that is something you will have to list yourself on the submission form. If you are unsure of the value, you could have the notes appraised by a currency dealer or you could check online to see what similar notes are selling for to get an idea.  The amount you list is up to you, but if you are unsure, we recommend starting more conservatively with the value and our graders can bump the tier up to a higher level if they feel it is undervalued.  

You can find information on how to pack your notes on our website.  https://www.pmgnotes.com/resources/pdf/pmg-packaging-notes.pdf and also on our FAQ page: https://www.pmgnotes.com/about/faq/  If you have any additional questions, you can reach our customer service department at 877-764-5570.

Thank you!

[Luckyjeff]

That was VERY helpful Jennifer.  THANK YOU!

[Luckyjeff]

I just looked at the packing instructions.  It indicates that you should pack in a non pvc, mylar sleeve.  The bills above are encased in hard plastic, snap together shells.  Are they OK to use when shipping?  I'd prefer to limit touching as much as possible.  I do have the rigid plastic sleeves but would prefer the bills be more protected in those shells even if I couldn't get them back.

The other question is why the sleeves must be non-pvc.  Why is a PVC sleeve a problem?

Thank you for your help.

[Jennifer F.]

Good morning.  Yes, you can keep them in the plastic cases, however, if there are a lot of notes, it can cause a delay in processing as we will have to remove them all from those cases once they are received.  

We do not recommend using anything made with PVC to store your notes.  Over time, PVC can cause damage to the note, giving it a translucent appearance. 

If you have any other questions, please let us know.  Thank you! 

[ddr70]

On 7/6/2020 at 11:15 AM, Luckyjeff said:

I haven't decided whether to be a member of PMG or ANA, which provides submission privileges through PMG.  I might do both.  I've seen your post but it doesn't explain how to package the notes for safe transport to you, and the pricing indicates a range depending upon the value of the note.  Is that value determined by you?  If it is supposed to be determined by me, there is NO chance.  I don't know enough about bills to value them.  Some of these notes I will sell and some I will keep.  Ideally, I make enough money on the lesser bills to keep the 88888880-88888889 set because of its hard to find feature.  I do have a serious error note and some sub 1917 notes I have considered grading as well.  I REALLY WISH there was a video showing how one packages bills for submission.  Doing it the first time is so stressful that I considered waiting for the Fun convention in Orlando to submit them to a representative in person. I got a submission packet from the last convention that I attended but I misplaced it somewhere.  All I remember is that it seemed a bit daunting for some reason.

You should do a search of ebay for "solid 8" and Heritage Auctions.  Join heritage for free.  Their auction archives are great.  The solid 8 ought to be a $1-3000 note depending on grade; the near solids less. Make sure you ask PMG to note "Solid SN" on your submission form.  

[Luckyjeff]

13 hours ago, ddr70 said:

You should do a search of ebay for "solid 8" and Heritage Auctions.  Join heritage for free.  Their auction archives are great.  The solid 8 ought to be a $1-3000 note depending on grade; the near solids less. Make sure you ask PMG to note "Solid SN" on your submission form.  

Thank you very much.  They were new out of the ATM but, unfortunately, the solid 8's is not centered as well as the surrounding bills.  I think, technically, it qualifies as a Super 8's because it is solid AND can be flipped upside down and read the same way.  I will pay the extra $5 to try to get it labeled as "Super".  I will probably grade all 10 bills in sequence, 88888880-88888889 but I'm trying to decide about 88888866, 88888666, 88888777, 88888877, and the other 7 of a kind that are not 7, 8's in a row.

[ddr70]

12 hours ago, Luckyjeff said:

Thank you very much.  They were new out of the ATM but, unfortunately, the solid 8's is not centered as well as the surrounding bills.  I think, technically, it qualifies as a Super 8's because it is solid AND can be flipped upside down and read the same way.  I will pay the extra $5 to try to get it labeled as "Super".  I will probably grade all 10 bills in sequence, 88888880-88888889 but I'm trying to decide about 88888866, 88888666, 88888777, 88888877, and the other 7 of a kind that are not 7, 8's in a row.

Pretty sure PMG will not add the super as it is just implied in the "solid" ... A solid is a solid and it just doesn't get any more superlatives.  Even a "super" radar doesn't get a "super" from PMG (i.e. a 71111117 is a radar just like a boring old 77111177 quad radar is just a radar).  So no super, no quad, just a radar.  Also, the solid 8s by definition is a rotator, flipper and radar--but it's all contained in the "solid".  Quite the find if you got those out of an ATM!  Recently a number of mismatched serial number $20s were pulled out of an ATM and Northeast Numismatics is selling them.  The neat thing to do with the extra $5 is to see if PMG will add the provenance of what ATM, town, state, timeframe you found these.  Check with PMG as they may not do this as they can't verify where the notes were found in any way.  But that to me would be well worth the variety fee--the extra superlatives, well they may take the $5, but will not add a super for you.

[Luckyjeff]

9 hours ago, ddr70 said:

Pretty sure PMG will not add the super as it is just implied in the "solid" ... A solid is a solid and it just doesn't get any more superlatives.  Even a "super" radar doesn't get a "super" from PMG (i.e. a 71111117 is a radar just like a boring old 77111177 quad radar is just a radar).  So no super, no quad, just a radar.  Also, the solid 8s by definition is a rotator, flipper and radar--but it's all contained in the "solid".  Quite the find if you got those out of an ATM!  Recently a number of mismatched serial number $20s were pulled out of an ATM and Northeast Numismatics is selling them.  The neat thing to do with the extra $5 is to see if PMG will add the provenance of what ATM, town, state, timeframe you found these.  Check with PMG as they may not do this as they can't verify where the notes were found in any way.  But that to me would be well worth the variety fee--the extra superlatives, well they may take the $5, but will not add a super for you.

Thank you for the information.  When discussing fancy notes on the PMG page, they labeled an Indian Rupee as a Super Solid 8.  I got the impression mine would qualify as well.  As for the mismatched serial number $20's, that was probably a more impressive find because one mismatched serial number would probably bring close to my solid 8 let alone several mismatched.  However, I'll take my find....:)  Mine was still a stroke of freakish luck because it is easier to spot a solid sequence than it is a series of mismatched bills before it gets to the ATM.  Nobody I have ever heard of has grabbed a block like that out of an ATM.  They got them elsewhere.  The second best sequence that I have ever found was a semi- common block of star note $100's that were new but these were only worth about $110 to $120 each.  I have a major currency fair coming up in August.  I might sell some of the 7 of a kind there.  At a minimum, I will be curious to see who sells fancy notes and what they have.  I might trade for some other fancy notes.  The ATM I used had an entire 1,000 bill stack that I caught at about 88888824 going UP, whereas some of the 100 bill blocks counted backwards.  That was odd.  I missed all of the 88888900 block.  After that 1,000 bill block ended, the ATM had some of the next 1,000 bill block, about 150 bills, of the 88891000 series counting backwards but it abruptly stopped which was weird.  I wonder if someone caught it and pulled the rest of the new notes.  I was hoping to get into the block that had 88889999.  The best I got out of the second group was 88890888 which is not very impressive.