Ability to Grade is the Result of Hard Experience

I agree and think this a good point in the topic at hand. One doesn't need to sell a single coin to graduate the grading school. In fact, selling taints grading abilities as far as I've been able to tell. Those who sell on a consistent basis tend to "grade to sell". In other words,market grade trumps. Grading to appeal to a customer's wants seems to overshadow more conservative and accurate grading that they'd undoubtedly give to coins in their personal collections. Grading may take a lifetime of practice, but reality says no number of books, selling, or years of collecting will ensure success.
Guy~

 

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I think an apt analogy would be if you are a hiring manager. When you hire, you are making an investment decision.....will this person be able to do the job to your satisfaction? One way to determine the answer is to see if the person has the experience rather than the book knowledge.

If the person has made mistakes and felt the mistake (indicating true learning and that they likely won't make it again), then that person has what I want. If I have to choose, always choose experience over wannabes.

So it is with grading in my view. By this measure, I've got a lot of hard experiences yet to incur to truly learn grading. Luck (a good guess) or a superficial knowledge of a given wear pattern will only get me so far. Fortunately, as Jack has underscored, I don't have to worry about making a living based on my coin buying decisions.

 

i am dealing with this situation now, as i have hired an employee.....my first in this new venture



he has no bad habits and is trustworthy, those were my only requirements.

now only if i can this freakin puter fixed and start updating my site again....grrrrrrrrrrr

 

Yeah - but sometimes experience and wannabes are the same thing. And I also do not have to worry about making a living off my coin buying decisions. I just wish I had the money and time to make it to all the shows that Jack does. And thanks for answering my questions Jack.

 

i need to say that the travers book did NOT fine tune me...it just tought me that it was worth it to learn the market.....

the fine tuning comes from , again, sitting in the lot viewing room and then comparing prices realised. like you folks have said, a book will not teach you grading.

the travers book taught me to recognise spreads and risks.......

 

Is he a member of this forum?

 

yes...a lurker

azmark i think his site name is. rick, charmy know him well. at the poker table his name is ....the chipdancer....due to his stoopidazz habit of tossing his chips around, lol

 

Oh cool. Well good luck!

 

I agree that its a very effective way to learn. But I don't believe its the only way.

 

A little off the subject sort of. But, when you start collecting a set most people who write articles about this always state to buy yhe keys first as they will more than likely cost you more money later and etc. I disagree with that and really think one should buy the commons first. It gives the buyer the experience of looking at a lot of the same type of coins and evaluating grading skills. It also helps the buyer to know more about what in a coin is important to him.
Easy example is I've seen several VF Buffalo Nickels that even though they not have a complete horn had much more eye appeal than a lot of XF's. I think this can really get true between a lot of AUs and MS up to 63-64. Grading by number is not always what's important, grading by "I like it" is important also.
I think it is great those people that can pick coins that are slabbed and graded, buy them to be regraded, and are successful. Realize I think we often only hear about their successes and not the failures.

 

I agree completely, especially that eye-appeal should be taken more into consideration.

 

mr coin lover

yes failures do abound, but, is a failure a coin that was 64 when you cracked that comes back a 64...or a 65 when you cracked it returns a 65



it's those droppers.....you cracked a 65 and got a 64. that hurt, they do happen, especially with color coins


2 or 3 days ago a cointalker emailed me about a coin that was screaming off the price charts on the bay, he asked why is this coin so high

my answer
it is a 66 waiting to happen, a 64 is impossible, and in that 65 holder it is a low risk coin......thus the sky high price

 

Jack, I guess an indiviual has to also decide is the risk worth it. You know far better than me some coins being reslabbed one grade higher can mean a good deal of money while reslabbed a grade lower is not so financially significant. When people do this, is what I'm saying here a big influence on the decision to take the chance?

I read somewhere the best situation to do this is a coin slabbed in one the earlier/older slabs. But, if you were in this situation do you actually send it still in the old slab or remove it from the slab yourself and sent it in?

 

in some cases you would submit in the holder, this is true for a cross over, as you are protected by the grade ......as it sits......it cannot drop if you do a crossover, it will be returned in holder , you still have your slab grade

on the upgrades, wow, this is a difficult situation

you have to gamble

if you so totally agree that the coin is undergraded and stands a chance to upgrade, crack it.....you have near zero to lose, worst case it will return in the same grade

as for the old holder myth, pcgs green, ngc no liners, i'll guess that most have already been attempted.......that leaves us with a coin in which we call a tomb.....a coin that lives in the holder.....it will be forever in that holder

as a cointalker/ collector/dealer, it is not always wise for me to discuss certain subjects, it is bad for biz. i am but a newbie/wannabee in this jungle. i do share my experience point blank and candid. remember gang, i am a collector first.

 

Being a poker player must make it easier.

 

It's the same thing with stockpicks, most people will tell you about their "winners"...but you won't hear about the stock buys that went bust..

 

I have to agree....

I've been a coin dealer for over 50 years during the pre-slab days. Grading is, and always will be, subjective to the individual looking at the coin. There is NO person on earth that can CONSISTENTLY tell the difference between a AU55/58 coin or a MS61/62 coin. Even the old (I believe it was CompuServe) laser grading attempt failed to be consistent. Even tho the 70 point system is a help in the biz it isn't absolute. Imagine a system of only 2 grades - circ/unc. There would still be errors in grading.

I remember new dealers starting off in the 60's and 70's that showed up with coins you had to wear sunglasses to view. You old timers remember the ole' baking soda polished coins that usually were highly overgraded because they looked so good to the uninformed.

Usually those dealers disappeared after 2-3 shows when they went home with little or no sales.

I always tried to be fair in grading and always listened when someone objected to a grade. That's an experience a seller has that cannot be taught in any book.

It's an amazing hobby and business (for dealers) that has lots of potholes along the way. To me slabs are nice for coin conservation - but NOT absolute on grading even if it says PCGS, NGC, NACGS or ANACS on the slab.

Buy what your eyes tell your mind is what you want and at a price you are willing to pay. It's that simple.

Enjoy your hobby and the friends you have made along the way. :smile

 

I find the appeal of the underlying logic to rest primarily in its intellectual simplicity...

 

I strongly agree.

But that doesn't mean you have to buy the keys last... it just means buy a few low risk coins first. Maybe sell a few to validate your decisions (or reveal your folly).

After gaining some experience, buy the keys.

Yes, maybe they go up in price a little while you experiment with lower price coins... but that price increase is nothing compared to an expensive key-date blunder.