I am relatively new here and I find the wisdom from your extensive coin experience very valuable. But why do we need a grader (e.g. green bean) to grade the grader (TPG)? Do we then need a 5th level to grade the beans? Where does it stop? Since many of you prefer to collect raw coins with confidence based on your own grading skills, how do these 4th graders even stay in business? What segment of our hobby is paying them directly? Would we accept to pay a 2nd car inspector to re-inspect our car that was properly inspected a week earlier? I am grateful to all of you.
Just think of it as having one more opinion. With high end coins, it can't hurt. The guy that started CAC also started PCGS and NGC.
CAC exists because the TPG's weren't doing what the high-end dealers needed them to do, grading coins with enough consistency that they could be safely traded sight-unseen. That was the whole point of a TPG. When you look at it clearly, it's a pretty low-margin use of time for somebody who sells $5000+ coins to be involved in a $10-per-unit evaluation service; they didn't do it to get rich. They created CAC because they had no choice.
3rd Graders become 4th Graders who become 5th Graders. Eventually, they graduate and go to college, but throughout the entire experience, they are still prone to make mistakes. Chris
CAC is just a little more re-assurance, usually for higher end stuff that many people can't afford, but not always. I don't think there will ever be another level beyond CAC. Machines may do the grading eventually. Or maybe they become a 5th level of re-assurance in addition to the graders?
The bean people would still be third party, until the first party opts to sell to them, at which point they become second party. At no point do they become "fourth party graders" to the transaction. Also, that doesn't say much of anything, since they aren't keeping those coins as permanent inventory. I believe they immediately market them through whatever channels they have at their disposal.
I don't really understand how all this works. I'm thinking they put a price on it. Are they saying they will buy it at that price? If they do buy them, how are they put back on the market? I'm guessing the dealers involved with CAC, buy them?
