Grading Company makes fatal error?

I think the saying "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link" applies very well for this situation. What does it matter how perfect/consistent the actual grading portion of the process is if the label maker(s) screws up a fair amount of the time? If no one checks or verifies the labelling step of the process, and I would certainly be surprised if all labels are reviewed due to the extremely obvious nature of some of the errors that I have seen, is the resulting product really any different than having graders performing at a shoddy level and the label maker(s) being extremely accurate. Of course, it is easy and convenient to blame the label maker, that way the graders can still look good.

I know if I were in charge of a grading company, I certainly would not allow a situation to continue where some low paid label maker could make my final product look bad, especially when the essence of my business IS the information contained on that label. A bad label negates all work provided up to that point. While I agree that most very obvious errors are due to the labelling process, it makes me wonder how many more labelling errors have been made that are not quite so obvious.

Maybe it is just the nature of the work that I have done, but having been involved in many engineering endeavors (with many years as a checker) in industrial sectors that have required our machines to operate at reject rates at or below 1/1000 of one percent, and repeatable part dimensions within a tolerance range of 4 millionths of an inch, I know that is possible to virtually eliminate all errors for something as simple as label production.

 

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I talked back and forth with this guy. He seems on the up and up. He didnt like this grading service and wanted to point it out.

I feel comfortable with this guy and will have no problem buying his coins.

 

Well one you can create a machine that can open up any type of package that arrives in the mail, put the coins in flips, identify them by country, denomination, date, mintmark, and read any particular variety attribute that the submitter has put on the submission, read any special requests printed there, and enter all that into the computer then you can eliminate most of the problems. It isn't the printing of the labels that's the problem, it's data entry. Pretty much everything you see on the label other tan the grade, color if applicable, and variety if applicable, is on there because of the entries made by the clerk that typed the coins in in the first place. And I ma sure they have a wonderful time trying to make sense out of some peoples handwriting on the submission forms. Does this person know coins? Maybe, maybe not. Same goes for the person at the other end who assembles and seals the slabs

Now sure the finalizer should be in a position to catch it, but how many finalizers are there and how many coins are processed per day? I figure about 5000 per day. If you have three finalizers that comes to one coin every 15 seconds, every minute of every hour for 8 hours. I'm sure in the morning wen they are fresh things don't get past them. But after 4 or 5 hours, I'm sure the are getting punchy and missing things. The thing is as long as the human element is in the cycle, there will be errors.

 

Perhaps we differ on what constitutes a "fair amount of the time". I think their accuracy is very high.

I looked at 1000+ coins last weekend, and none were mislabeled (I didn't always agree with the grade...)

I appreciate your engineeing background and approach. I'm a ChE, and I automate chemical plants. The consequence of a mistake is FAR higher than in grading coins. And yet I know there are times when I must extend a little grace and forgiveness.

Nobody's perfect.

 

An error by one of these companies could potentially cost someone hundreds of dollars, or maybe even thousands. There is simply to much at stake to forgive errors from these companies period. I used to use them, until I got sc***** by NGC on a coin. I probably could have sent it back to them on a regrade, but then I saw a video of their grading process and I was astonished (in a negative way). I think I do a much better job of grading the coins that I am interested in collecting. Don't count the photos here on the forum seeking grade opions that I have responded to because grading from photos is just not the same thing as grading in person.