My thoughts are that ICG is doing a dis-service to the coin community for letting HSM sell their graded coins for such a horrendous mark up. HSN is raping un-knowledgeable buyers. The folks who watch, just a guess, but are typically older folks and others are not computer savy; they have no compairson of market value. These buyers may also be young future numerists that may be discouraged. Maybe I am wrong...
I wish you were.:headbang: The problem is the interplay of Barnum's Law, and high technology, which gives the hunter/scammers many, many more ways to trap their prey than they had historically. As long as people choose to act without first educating themselves, they will continue getting taken to the cleaners. to CoinTalkAndrew. Hopefully you will join us in some more pleasant topics for discussion. What's your collecting specialty and background?
You can't blame ICG for HSN selling their coins. ICG grades coins and will grade coins for any submitter. What the submitter does with those coins is out of the hands of ICG. However, you can blame ICG (and any other grading service) for allowing representatives to go on those shows to help the hawking of overpriced crap.
I agree with Greg. If we expect grading companies to be impartial, then they can't have any involvement with how the coins inside their slabs are marketed and sold.
