Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="samclemens3991, post: 25925489, member: 82181"]I have been a coin collector since I was a 7 year old kid.  (1967).  I collected Lincolns like everyone else. I branched out into other types of coins and have done; collecting from circulation, searching rolls for silver and wheats, building sets, forming type collections.     The closest I ever came to quitting this hobby was in the early 1980's.  I discovered that even advertisers with big full page ads in Coin World could be outright crooks.  All those alphabet soup designations of fidelity were worthless if there was even one crook in the system.     I was then and am now a huge fan of slabs and believe they have in many ways saved our hobby.  However, I learned an important lesson around 1989/1990.  At that time I was VERY fortunate that most of the slabs I bought were as type coins with high end circulated coins.  Before my eyes I watched grading standards implode.  In many ways it was like watching the famous tulip collapse that happened with investors in Holland.    I learned that I, I repeat (I) was responsible for grading my own coins and that their true purpose (grading companies) was to make sure my coins were authentic.    Today I swear no oath to any grading service.  I put the new CACG grading service coins in the same basket as I do all other coins.  I will decide what is or is not graded correctly.  James[/QUOTE]