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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ToughCOINS, post: 2015274, member: 20480&quot;]Market grading is the assignment of a grade to ensure that the price for the coin in that grade aligns with the current market accepted value of that coin, fully accounting for all of its positive and negative attributes. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>While I appreciate market grading for what it is and what it achieves, I prefer technical grading instead.&nbsp; I feel this way because technical grading provides an absolute reference, regardless of date and mint, and is rigid, timeless and unwaivering. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Market grading can actually be destructive of such a structure. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>How, you might ask?</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Consider a coin that is overlooked and underpriced for many years, only to be widely recognized as undervalued, highly promoted, driven up in price, and &quot;milked&quot; in the marketplace.</p><p>A good example would be the 1894 Morgan Dollar in recent years. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>In the trough, the coin was valued less, and graded more liberally.&nbsp; Once it caught on, and prices elevated, graders became increasingly sensitive to the difference in value between the grades they would consider assigning to the coin. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>At the time, this was not destructive, however, all coin values can stagnate and even subside.&nbsp; Now that &#039;94 Dollars are out of favor, the grader might well swing the decision to the grade in the other direction. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Such fluctuations in market demand and pricing therefore inject an inherent, but unintended inconsistency into the grading of the coins.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>If coins were technically graded all along, pricing could always be left to the buyer, based on how he / she values other attributes, beyond the state of preservation of the coin as determined by the grading service.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>While this is my own preference, I am not passionate about it, as I feel I can value a coin well enough, regardless of what a surrounding piece of plastic implies.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Still . . . and this is important . . . the main reason third party grading exists is because too many buyers invest too little time and energy learning how to grade and value coins on their own.&nbsp; That is the only reason that market grading is necessary, and will probably never give way to technical grading.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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