ICG Grading

That's exactly what it was meant to imply. But if it makes you happy I'll say - most of the of the people who know coins did.

 

No, I'm not overrating my knowledge. All I am doing is relating an opinion that was and still is held by a great many knowledgeable collectors and dealers. An opinion which has been documented countless times over the years in all of the various coin forums and the numismatic press.

Are there people who disagree with that opinion ? Absolutely. But the majority of their number are those who are commonly referred to as the Kool-Aid drinkers. That said, yeah, there are still others who just choose to disagree.

It has absolutely nothing to do with the TPGs not being knowledgeable or me being better than they are. The reason those two things don't make sense to you is because you believe what you want to believe instead of the actual truth. You see there is a third thing, a third reason for why I grade coins as I do. And it is not because I under-grade, it is because I grade according to long established standards, standards that were established by the ANA and the TPGs decades ago, and subsequently used for decades by all.

I grade coins consistently, the same way I have graded coins for many, many years, the same way that the TPGs used to grade. I haven't changed, the TPGs did. You seem to think that anyone who doesn't grade coins exactly the same way that the TPGs do today is wrong, that the way that the TPGs grade today is what defines how grading should be and that their way is the only right way. That is the fundamental difference between you and me for I do not believe that all. And I am far from being alone in that thinking. In fact a very large part of the numismatic community happens to agree with me, you either fail or are unwilling to acknowledge that fact.

And yes it is a fact. It is a fact that is documented, and has been documented over and over again in the numismatic press. It is fact that is documented by the very existence of CAC whose sole purpose for existence is to help sort out some of the over-graded coins. It is a fact that is documented by all of the knowledgeable people, and inexperienced people, there are who will not buy coins unless they have the CAC stamp of approval. And why do they need that stamp of approval ? Because all of those people agree and believe exactly as I do, that the TPGs over-grade way too many coins.

And I suppose you think it was nothing but a coincidence that CAC came to be just a few short years after the TPGs changed their grading standards. Oh wait I forgot, you refuse to acknowledge that they did change their standards, instead of that that CAC came into existence because they changed their standards.

But that's OK, I have known and acknowledged for years that people will only believe what they want to believe, regardless of what the facts are.