Seems the old guard was probably clashing with the new guard and the new guard won the control struggle. Will that be a positive or a negative only time will tell
He was the head of PSA/DNA before. They actually did become more successful under his leadership which maybe he's trying to replicate their model company wide. There's definitely been changes since he took over CLCT and not all have been a positive in my opinion such as raising the price of the economy tier
Well, you have an autograph specialist calling the shots at a coin grading firm. Though skilled executives can - and often do - succeed at different businesses, this one will be interesting considering the specialties involved.
It would be interesting to know how hands on he is with the PCGS part. Willis was supposedly running that before he resigned. Part of me kind of thinks all this is setting up some big announcement in the near future with how close together it’s all been happening
Hope this isnt going to become a routine of everyone rotating positions around the Professional Numismatic Industry
Somebody on another forum had this to say, very simply, about the departures: “Is the birth of a new TPG on the horizon?”
My guess would be no. It would be a huge financial outlay, and basically destroying their past accomplishments. They would be in such a minefield having to tiptoe around slab technology and composition as well. Not to mention most importantly they can make a ton of money if they want to working in other areas or as a dealer, both should be very well off from stock options anyway
Along with this I'd be very very surprised if both didn't have some sort of non compete agreement in their severance contracts or something like.
It is and always has been an old routine. There are far, far, fewer people in the business who have not worked for several of the TPGs, than there are those who have worked for several of them. And some have even worked for most of them ! Perfect examples, NGC came into being because it was founded by former PCGS employees, and founders. ANACS has changed ownership, and employees many times. And ICG and ANACS even swapped owners and their entire staffs at the same time. In short ANACS became ICG and ICG became ANACS.
PCI had a "Signature Series" in the 1990's. Well-known numismatists attributed the coins and signed the label.
And I'm pretty sure NGC, PCGS, and ICG all did the same thing. Anybody remember the Goodacre dollars ?
I was being facetious. Maybe my graded signatures of OJ Simpson and Lance Armstrong will be as much as my graded gold coins now. lol
They had two signature series one in the 90's and the second one under a different owner shortly before they went belly up and David Lawrence bought up the equipment and supplies to create Dominion Grading Service