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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;NPCoin, post: 1063988, member: 5629&quot;]Dealers grade <b>because</b> they buy and sell.&nbsp; The problem is that grading is subjective.&nbsp; I would personally term many dealers&#039; grading practices as &quot;anti-market grading&quot;, with a propensity to consider their coins at &quot;market grade&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>In some cases, however, I would.&nbsp; Thus, caveat emptor.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Extremely sound advice!&nbsp; A &quot;market grade&quot; is a grade assignment that demonstrates the value the market may be willing to accept for a particular coin.&nbsp; I term an &quot;anti-market grade&quot; as the grade assigned by either a buyer or seller of a coin to facilitate the most advantageous gain knowing, yet disregarding, the value the market is actually willing to accept for the coin.&nbsp; It is what many may term as &quot;gradeflation&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p>Knowing that the item is only valued at the money a typical MS-64 would bring, they &quot;grade&quot; the coin as MS-65 (or even MS-66).&nbsp; An uneducated buyer may come in, talk with the dealer, and be convinced that the coin grades as an MS-65 and pay accordingly.&nbsp; However, a more knowledgeable buyer may come in and notice that the coin would only bring MS-64 money and make verbal note of detractions and other technical items that would make the coin MS-64 (or even MS-63).</p><p><br /></p><p>This is part of the haggling process.&nbsp; Some sellers do this, and are prone to accept the proper grade for the coin.&nbsp; This in no means shows that a dealer or seller is not a grader.&nbsp; In fact, I would pose that a dealer would necessarily have to be able to grade in order to stay in business for long.</p><p><br /></p><p>Imagine if the dealer is on the other side of the table as a buyer.&nbsp; A raw coin is brought in and the seller states his belief that the coin is MS-66.&nbsp; What is a dealer to do if they are not able to grade??&nbsp; Simply accept the coin as an MS-66 based on the seller&#039;s own statement of his opinion?&nbsp; No, the dealer would have to have at least some knowledge of grading and the particular coin in question in order to make a proper purchase and possibly profit from it.</p><p><br /></p><p>I would say that dealers in fact are graders, but are prone to grade manipulation (&quot;anti-market grading&quot;, &quot;gradeflation&quot; or whatever other term) in order to profit from their sales.&nbsp; Not all MS-65s are graded equal.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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