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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GDJMSP, post: 1075378, member: 112&quot;]As I already explained, they will need to do it for the same reason the standards were tightened last time - because the buyers will demand it. They will simply stop accepting over-graded coins.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Probably for the same reason that an equal number thought it was a 63. Nobody can ever prove anything about the grade of a coin with pictures Paul, it simply can&#039;t be done. There&#039;s a lot of reasons for this but first and foremost is that pictures require interpetation, and that interpretation is in itself a difficult skill to master. And that&#039;s before you even consider the skill required to grade. Then you have the fact that pictures never show you everything about the coin. And I don&#039;t mean because the pictures were manipulated or edited with software. It is the nature of light and vision that does it. A picture can only show you what your eyes would see at that exact same angle. And since any collector who knows anything knows that in order to judge a coin you must turn and twist it under the light to see everything there is to see, they also know that it is impossible for a picture to show you everything there is to see about that coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>Contact marks, breaks in luster, strike detail, hairlines, eye appeal - any or all of it can appear or disappear completely with a tiny and totally innocent (meaning with no intent to deceive) change in the angle of the light or angle of the camera.</p><p><br /></p><p>You know Paul, we could go on and on with these discussions. But let&#039;s cut to the meat of the matter. What I mean by that is this. I don&#039;t think there&#039;s anybody on this forum, or any forum, or any experienced collector, including you, or dealer who will disagree with this statement,&nbsp; - buy the coin, not the slab.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now, do you know what that statement means ? It means that we are to completely ignore the grade written on the slab. That we are not to trust the opinion of the TPG, regardless of who that TPG is.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now right there is where you and I seem to differ. For it seems that you, I won&#039;t say always, but you almost always, go along with whatever the TPG puts on the slab. And then you try to validate that opinion by saying that the opinion must be right because that is what they have always done.</p><p><br /></p><p>But do you really know what they have always done ? By your own admission you have only been collecting coins for about 10 years. What about before that ? Did you study coins before that ? Did you practice grading before that ? Did you look at coins slabbed by the TPGs before that ? And how did you learn how to grade coins Paul ? Did you do it just by looking at coins in TPG slabs or did you study grading books and study thousands upon thousands of both graded coins and raw coins ?</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m not trying to belittle you or say you don&#039;t know what you&#039;re doing, really I&#039;m not. I&#039;m asking honest questions. I&#039;m trying to find some reason to explain why you steadfastly refuse to believe what so many other experienced collectors and true experts in our hobby have to say about the changes made by the TPGs. Do you think we are all lying to you ? Do you think we are all just plain wrong ? Do you think we have some ulterior motive or something ? I don&#039;t expect you to believe me, I&#039;m a nobody Paul. I&#039;m no expert. But when people who are truly experts say the same things that I say, what then ? Do you really believe that people like Dave Bowers and Mike Fazzari don&#039;t know what they are talking about ?</p><p><br /></p><p>Help me out here Paul, help me understand.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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