First CAC and now PQ

I feel that if CAC stickered ICG slabs, it would increase ICG's credibility by a large amount.

 

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Personally, I buy the coin not the slab. Whether it's PCGS, ICG, SEGS, CAC or other.
Just be careful when buying from lower TPG's - they tend to slab lightly cleaned, questionable toned, lightly damaged coins.. at a slightly higher grade than it should be. It makes perfect business sense.

 

I hear ya Doug , you'd go into 5 shops and get 5 different grades for the same coin , at least if they're in NGC or PCGS slabs they really can't argue much anymore . Also If you bought a coin from some dealer at AU and later decided to trade it he might tell you it's a VF at best and cleaned . I just wish the tpgs would stick to grading coins instead of pricing them .

 

larger supply and lower demand would mean lower prices. Both when you buy and when you sell.

Now, for the hobbyist, this can be a good thing, but remember, we all like it when our coins appreciate, both collector and investor.

Without the investors, I think that dealers would have more leverage when it comes to buying and selling, and as a collector, I like having a more liquid market. It keeps prices more stable and more accurate to demand.

As much as I don't like what investors do to my hobby, I like, or at least appreciate what they do for me.

As to the TPGs, I think that I need to be able to judge coins on my own, but the TPGs also make the market larger and more liquid as they bring more consumers into the market.

 

I would add to this discussion that the perception of ICG and ANACs grading to a lower standard than PCGS & NGC is partially due to the more accurately graded coins of the first two have already been crossed to the latter two, leaving behind those coins that "reflect" the lower grading practices. Some also believe this to be true at the next level between NGC and PCGS. I don't subscribe to this theory.

 

Everybody says, "buy the coin, not the holder," but I'll just say that when it's time to sell, "It's PCGS or you lose."

 

The current state of things in the online market is that eBuyers want PCGS over anything else. That's ridiculous. But that's a fact.

 

Doesn't it make sense for a TPG to lower their standards each generation? When every coin in the world is slabbed, the only way to continue making money on that coin is upgrades. I'm sure they will continue until the trust of collectors as a whole is broken. Which sounds like the situation the other TPG's are in. I think PCGS and NGC know that they could lower the standards slightly over time without too much backlash. They are in a very powerful position and it seems throughout time, people with power are overcome with greed.

 

Are you messing with me? I was being rhetorical. I have thirty five cents in my pocket that isn't slabbed so yeah I'm pretty much aware that not every coin is in a slab.

 

Well, I guess if I'm the only one to think this could be part of their business model, then my brain is even more sinister than I thought.