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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Lehigh96, post: 3218106, member: 15309&quot;]In fact, that is what this is all about.&nbsp; If you don&#039;t have the same grading skill as the graders at the TPGs, then you don&#039;t have the requisite knowledge to conclude that their assigned grade is wrong.&nbsp; Nobody is saying you can&#039;t apply your own standard to TPG graded coins and buy what you want.&nbsp; I think we all do that.&nbsp; And it is good to question the grade of a coin if you don&#039;t agree with it, and even better to refuse to buy it at that grade level.&nbsp; All I am saying is that the &quot;buy the coin not the slab&quot; mantra is financially dangerous for 99% of the coin collecting public.</p><p><br /></p><p>Your next comment is telling, you say &quot;Market Grading has zero boundaries&quot;.&nbsp; That simply isn&#039;t true.&nbsp; The concept of market grading is designed to view a coin holistically.&nbsp; There are boundaries, but there are also grey areas.&nbsp; Your problem is the same as Doug&#039;s, you both want to use an antiquated system of grading that employs grade limiting scenarios which reduces many fantastic coins to widgets.&nbsp; A clear example of this is Saint Gaudens Double Eagles.&nbsp; Almost every single mint state example has high point wear.&nbsp; In the method that you prefer, all of these coins would be graded the same, AU58.&nbsp; The TPGs recognize that this wear is not from circulation, rather from roll friction, and they grade these coins across a mint state spectrum of grades ranging from MS60-MS67.&nbsp; I have had this same argument with Doug years ago, if you like I can find the thread and provide a link.</p><p><br /></p><p>As for the top tier grading companies and accuracy, you have a point, but that is where the subjectivity in grading comes in.&nbsp; You say the coin should come back the same grade EVERY TIME.&nbsp; You aren&#039;t going to like this, but I&#039;m going to say it anyway.</p><p><br /></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff">A TPG can grade the same coin two different grades on two different occasions and be correct both times.</span></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">They don&#039;t change their grading standards to boost submissions.&nbsp; There is inherent subjectivity in grading.&nbsp; Often times that subjectivity can create a range of acceptable grades for the coin, and that range can be a half grade or more.&nbsp; Lets say you have a Morgan Dollar that you think is MS65, and then I ask you to rank that MS65 Morgan Dollar vs all the other MS65 Morgans you have seen from that date/mm by giving it a decimal grade.&nbsp; You respond with a grade of MS65.4 which is perfectly reasonable.&nbsp; Now I look at that same coin and agree that the surfaces are midrange for the MS65 grade but the coin has what I would consider premium gem luster so I grade the coin MS65.8.&nbsp; That Morgan Dollar now has a grading range of 65.4-65.8.&nbsp; And no matter how many times you submit this Morgan Dollar, it is going to come back MS65.&nbsp; But what if the range was 65.8-66.2?&nbsp; When the grading range spans two different grades, then the coin will eventually be graded MS66 if you get two graders who both weight luster more than surfaces.</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">That is the cause of gradeflation, not a deliberate change in grading standards to boost resubmissions.&nbsp; That said, PCGS started the Secure Plus service to combat gradeflation by using laser scanners &amp; computers to map the coin in an attempt to catch people resubmitting the same coin over and over again.&nbsp; I don&#039;t happen to know the effectiveness of their system, but I applaud the effort to be consistent.</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">It is extremely cynical to believe that the TPGs publicly decry gradeflation, take steps to combat it, yet at the same time rely on it to generate revenue.&nbsp; And the entire purpose of CAC was to combat TPG gradeflation by making a market for the high end coins for the grade by separating the wheat from the chaff.</span>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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