Stolen from "think outside the box"? What I have observed in coin collecting field is that the coin collectors are lost in details. With my limited knowledge in this field, I think the Original Post too is about this, "lost in details", lost in details by "thinking too much inside the slab".
Agreed. It has been until lately an almost exclusively U.S. disease. Like other diseases, it is transmitted by travelers. And it usually devastates the new territory. What ever happened to learning to grade oneself and tell the TPG’s to go take a flying leap? In TPG plastic is a wholly unsatisfactory way to collect coins, IMO. Way too many coins are in plastic for no earthly valid reason. And don’t feed me any garbage about “liquidity” either. All that means is rich stupid people want to dabble in coins. Learn! Don’t just throw money at a problem.