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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Conder101, post: 959876, member: 66&quot;]It isn&#039;t so much being against a particular company, it is an objection to the whole concept of third party grading.&nbsp; In the early years the third party services were not grading services, they were authentication services.&nbsp; I didn&#039;t have as much objection to that because authenticity is objective not subjective.&nbsp; Either it is real or it isn&#039;t.&nbsp; but when they got into grading now you were paying someone, you didn&#039;t know who, to tell you their opinion as to the grade of the coin.&nbsp; They said &quot;it would protect the new people from overgrading&quot;.&nbsp; Does it? No not really.&nbsp; Instead the newbies get stuck with the overgrades, the misidentified, or the fourth tier slabs because everyone tells them to &quot;only buy slabs&quot; and they don&#039;t know yet about the different services and they drop a bundle on stuff they wouldn&#039;t have touched if they had taken the time to do some studying and LEARN about their series and learn to grade!&nbsp; They say the slabs will protect the newbies until they learn how to grade for themselves.&nbsp; The problem is a lot of them NEVER DO LEARN.&nbsp; Instead the TPG and the slab becomes a crutch and they become dependent on the grade on that label.&nbsp; Even most of the auction houses have now fallen to that point.&nbsp; It used to be their experts LOOKED at the coin, graded it and discussed the coin.&nbsp; Now they either insist coins be already slabbed or they send it out to be slabbed and then tell you what the TPG says it is and then some superlatives to try to get the bid up.&nbsp; Don&#039;t like it once it arrives?&nbsp; Check the terms of sale, slabbed coins are not returnable, take it up with the TPG.&nbsp; Someone posts a coins and one of the first few comments about it will be &quot;What does the TPG call it?&quot;&nbsp; WHO CARES WHAT THEY CALL IT!!&nbsp; The question is do YOU like it??</p><p><br /></p><p>They say it stops dealers from buying at one grade and selling at another.&nbsp; Not really.&nbsp; You take a slabbed coin to a dealer and if he doesn&#039;t feel it comes up to grade on the holder (and he may tell you it doesn&#039;t even if it does) So he will try to buy it at the lower value.&nbsp; But once he gets it in his case and someone wants to see it it becomes &quot;Well the TPG says it grades X so I need.&quot;&nbsp; And back before the slabs you might have lost $20 or $30, but today you may be out much more.</p><p><br /></p><p>And I am also a &quot;old time&quot; collector who feels a connection with his coins and their history.&nbsp; I prefer to HOLD my coins.&nbsp; If you are buying a coin and you have to depend on somoenoe else to tell you what it is, and what it grades, and it is sealed away from you, why bother?&nbsp; I can get a picture of a better one, it will be prettier, I&#039;ll have just as much connection with it, it will be cheaper, and I don&#039;t have to worry about security.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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