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Message:: [QUOTE="-jeffB, post: 1967209, member: 27832"]All this talk about "getting it right the first time" is based on the assumption that grading is purely objective. It just isn't. Even at the very highest level, we've seen time and again that a grading company will give different grades for the same coin. Heck, one grader will probably give different grades for the same coin on the same day. Professional graders will tend to agree with each other, and with "industry standards", more than amateur graders or laymen will. But the very existence of reconsideration acknowledges that they won't always agree. Whether or not reconsideration fees produce an incentive for TPGs to inflate grades, it seems clear that "the crackout game" must lead to grade inflation. If a coin is worth $1500 in 67 and $8000 in 68, and a particular example of that coin has a 10% chance of getting a 66, 80% chance of getting a 67, and 10% chance of getting a 68, that coin will get re-submitted again and again until it lands in that 68. And once enough have landed in their top-10%-chance slabs, well, hey, if you look at the range of coins in 68 slabs, the average quality is closer to what we used to call 67! Must be time to "tune our grading criteria to more accurately reflect market-accepted standards"![/QUOTE]