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Message:: [QUOTE="NPCoin, post: 400400, member: 5629"]Not really.  They simply refer to them as guidelines, or "suggestions" if you will, since nobody listened to them anyway.  I have not gotten a copy of the new "guidelines" yet, but from what I hear, they have a focus and tendency that shifts more toward the market aspects of grading, and with this part I agree to the "Thanks to PGCS and their ilk" part of your comment. The "manipulators" only have so much sway because one of the first thing anybody will tell a "newbie" is "join the ANA, it's one of the best investments you can make in coin collecting".  The problem is that investing IS the problem.  There are so many involved with coins today that are truly investors and NOT collectors. As the numismatic society becomes saturated with investors instead of collectors, the focus will tend to shift from propagating ideologies and practices that reflect the diversity of its collector constituents to propagating market issues and condoning more openly the practices of organizations such as the TPGs, since such things are common among investors. And then, of course, the situation outlined in this thread become more a possibility, since the focus being fed and propagated to the numismatic community is one of profit and greed.[/QUOTE]