Hey @Shaun, I don't know where their stats are, i've had a quick look but without luck. I just go from personal experience, sometime ago now I had a 1937 sovereign in a PCGS PR65DCam slab cross to a NGC PF63Cam an 1893 proof half go from an PCGS PR64Dcam to an NGC PF63Cam and a similar experience on a 1937 half (I can't remember exactly now). The short story was it was obviously costly, but on the 1937 sovereign particularly I knew I'd bought a lemon the moment it arrived, but naively at the time hoped NGC would honour the PCGS grade. In all honesty, In terms of grading, on average I think they are as good and as bad as each other. Both have some bias' to certain groups of coins but it averages out across the total number graded and both definitely make big mistakes.
Don't get me wrong, I fully appreciate why you prefer PCGS, their back end, registry management and presentation is a lot cleaner, fresh and accurate. However the NGC one is ok for those who just want somewhere to build registry sets and compete, fully accepting the less than perfect data management, there is something quite nice and endearing about it in someways for those that aren't too bothered about the technology side. For me though, I choose NGC because I prefer the slabs, the aesthetics of the coin and its presentation way outweigh the differences in the registry. I also choose NGC because they've stumped up and backed the British collector and have a presence in the UK. Yes, it isn't perfect but they are here, PCGS aren't.
At the end of the day, NGC and PCGS are direct competitors over a market space that is booming and jointly they are changing the landscape of the hobby globally and in my opinion are in no small part responsible for the value growth and the attitude towards it by investment companies. At one point though I think there was a working relationship, at-least NGC were willing to recognise PCGS graded US coins in their registry and allow them to compete. However a few years back I understand PCGS went on a big marketing drive to get people to cross to them (in the primary market of the US), this escalated with the NGC CEO posting an open letter accusing PCGS of over grading to attract crossing and destroying the value of rare high grade valuable coins, PCGS reciprocated by posting an equally derisory letter accusing NGC of the same and so the relationship collapsed and we are where we are today, where from collector through the CEO of the respective companies there is an attitude of superiority of one TPG over the other and to be honest, its garbage in my opinion, its like BMW vs Mercedes, both very good with faults, but different. Which isn't a bad thing imo 🙂
Agree, the NGC photography is very basic in the registry and tells you nothing about the coin, but a collector can pay for the HD photography if they wish and that can be used which is equal to the PCGS photography, NGC is also cheaper, so perhaps if the services were balanced the cost would be similar. Personally though where the NGC photography tells you nothing, I find the PCGS photography can be misleading and are over exposed, you have to look closely to fully understand the photo in front of you and you have to be experienced to know what you are looking at unless there is something very obvious. I take a more honest photo than both with my iPhone! (imo 😄). That said, I would prefer that NGC took HD photos by default rather than exception. Nothing is ever going to beat having a coin in hand but you are right, we are moving rapidly away from that and have to buy the grade in a lot of cases, hoping the TPG got it right.