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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 835386, member: 112&quot;]Yes, but no at the same time. </p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s pretty involved really and it would take a lot of writing to explain, but I have explained it all many times in the past. It is really a discussion on an entirely different subject.</p><p><br /></p><p>Yes, the TPGs use market grading. But most people don&#039;t understand what market grading is - or how it differs from technical grading. And that&#039;s the no part - those differences.</p><p><br /></p><p>But technical grading has not been used, pretty much by anybody in the hobby, since 1986 when the ANA adopted the market grading system and quit using technical grading. That was also the time that the TPGs came into existence - and it is not a coincidence that both happened at the same time. It was a planned event.</p><p><br /></p><p>Today when most people think of market grading they think it means that the TPGs price coins instead of grading them. And to a degree that is true. </p><p><br /></p><p>But what they don&#039;t understand is that the market grading system itself has changed in recent years. It has evolved if you will into something far different than it was. </p><p><br /></p><p>The changes have been gradual for the most part. But, and this is my opinion (others disagree as to the timing), I think the most distinct changes came about in 2003-04. It is then that coins began to be over-graded much more often than ever had been. But the marketplace accepted the grades being assigned and went right along with it without so much as a whimper. Except from me, and a few others like me. And believe me, we are the minority.</p><p><br /></p><p>And again, it is no coincidence that the coins beginning to be over-graded coincided with the temporary peak in market prices. And it continued for the next 3 years. The market took a short respite in 2004, and then continued on to new highs through 2007. </p><p><br /></p><p>It was only in 2008 that prices began to drop back. And by 2009, collectors and dealers everywhere were crying the blues about how the TPGs were tightening up their grading standards. Claiming that coins that were routinely being graded as MS65&#039;s were suddenly being graded MS64&#039;s (assign any similar 2 numbers of your choice).</p><p><br /></p><p>Now to me these events add credibility to my way of thinking. Others disagree and claim that the TPGs tightening grading standards had to do with the introduction of CAC into the marketplace. <u>That</u> to me is the coincidence - not the cause. I believe that as prices dropped - so did the grades. Just as the grades went up as prices increased.</p><p><br /></p><p>Anyway, you&#039;re probably terribly confused by now. But as I said, it is comlicated. And there is even more to it than that. But that is the short version.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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