Is this an example of market grading?

Can you even count high enough to list the number of times that sentiment has been expressed on this forum ?

Becoming ? It's ancient history. Here's a link to a thread from 11 years ago - https://www.cointalk.com/threads/the-big-four.2747/

It's been that way for as long as I can remember. So how did that happen ? I think it's pretty easy to understand, if, stress if, you lived through it and saw it firsthand. And if, you have a good enough memory to actually remember what did happen. And what happened was in the beginning the TPGs earned the confidence of the collectors and dealers by grading coins, for the most part, correctly and accurately.

It took a few years for that confidence to be earned, and once it was, word spread, the best way it can spread, word of mouth. I can distinctly recall going to an NRA national convention in 2000 to receive an award. And no that has nothing to do with coins of course, but one evening while there I went to the hotel bar for drinks and dinner. I sat at table with 4 or 5 other guys also at the convention. None of us knew each other of course but we were all there for the same reason so we had dinner together. During dinner I brought up the subject of coins, and wouldn't ya know it, all of the others also collected coins. Then the subject of the TPGs came up, and it was unanimously agreed by all of the others that as far as they were concerned PCGS was THE grading company. Well that led to an interesting discussion that evening.

The point is that was 15 years ago, and at that time the confidence that many collectors had in the TPGs was patently obvious. And it was so strong it was rarely questioned. I'll even readily admit that about 90% of the time I agreed with the TPG grades.

But it wasn't long after that that things changed, for me and a few others anyway. I began to see more and more coins where I didn't agree with the TPG grade. But most others still did. Why ? Because of the previously earned confidence. If the TPG said this was the grade, then this was the grade, because it had been for previous years. But as that link I posted above indicates, I was not the only one questioning TPG grades in 2004, more than a few dealers and knowledgeable collectors were as well.

So anyway here we are today, and that confidence in the TPGs that was hard earned all those years ago has been passed on, again by word of mouth, articles and the like, and is now being blindly accepted by those who either have no experience from 20 years ago, or have forgotten it. But make no mistake, the TPGs and the way they grade coins is NOT the way it was 15-20 years ago. And more and more people have become aware of that, still are becoming aware of that.

So the confidence in the TPGs is dwindling, grades are being questioned by more and more people. CAC came along in 2007 because of a growing lack of confidence in TPG grades. But still there are those who blindly accept them, just not as many as there used to be. So no it's not "becoming". It's more of "it used to be". And hopefully, in the not to distant future, it will change.