Please boycott Accugrade

Calling on all Coin Collectors to Boycott Accugrade

Early in 2001, it was discovered by several regular participants in the Usenet newsgroup rec.collecting.coins that one Mr. Alan Hager was selling coins under the business name of "AH-Collectibles" in Florida. AH-collectibles sells sports cards and coins; most of these coins have been graded and encapsulated by Accugrade (ACG), one of many companies offering such services to the numismatic community. In the auction texts, Mr. Hager would describe Accugrade as "an independent, third-party company". However, Mr Hager is also one of the principle owners of Accugrade.

All of this is compounded by the observation that many of the coins encapsulated by Accugrade are assigned grades higher than those prescribed by the ANA grading standards. There are numerous examples of this that can be seen on any given day on various Internet auction web sites. It is interesting to note that the coins Mr Hager sells are usually of higher quality for the same coin and grade than other, similar ACG certified coins being sold on yahoo and other internet auction sites by others, thus demonstrating the inconsistencies within Accugrade's own standards (if they even exist), and Hagar's poor attempts to distance himself personally from it all. This is not an exaggeration, just an assertion of how terrible an influence on the numismatic community Accugrade has become. Hence the boycott.

In December of 2004, ASA-Accugrade filed suit in Federal Court in the District of Columbia against 6 organizations and 40 individuals, claiming violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. In February of 2005, they file an ammended complaint. On April 1, 2005, I was served a summons in this case as a defandant. On April 20, 2005, I filed this reply. On May 4th, 2005, this memorandum was issued as a part of this order to dimiss the complaint for all defendants.

Examples of coins deceptively certified and slabbed by Accugrade

Below are links to coins that were certified and slabbed by Accugrade that are highly deceptively attributed. Learn what characteristics to look for in determining the accuracy of an attribution, and how Accugrade manipulates the common market place terms.

Example #1 Incorrect Attribution of Altered Coin

Example #2 Overgrading of a common date proof Coin

What you can do:

1. If you have any coins in ACG holders, remove them.

2. Do not buy any coins that have been encapsulated by Accugrade.

3. Do not sell any coins that have been encapsulated by Accugrade in the ACG holder. Remove them, and be sure to attribute them with the correct grade as per the ANA grading standards, and be sure to note any cleaning or environmental damage if applicable. If the ACG holder misattributed the coin with regard to variety or type, please be sure to correct that as well. Be sure to destroy the empty ACG holder.

4. Tell your coin collecting friends about the boycott and ask them to participate.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this website, please e-mail me at prgrmr@aol.com.

Thank you.

The opinions on these pages are not those of AOL, Time-Warner, or any of their shareholders, employees, associates, or vendor partners, nor are they the opinons of the ANA, Yahoo, or any other third-party mentioned. This statement is being made in order to indemnify AOL, et al from any potential legal action brought by Accugrade, its shareholders, employees, associates, or vendor partners regarding the contents of this web page.