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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;gmarguli, post: 314050, member: 246&quot;]Something that I find very telling and very wrong is that of the people who answered &#039;yes&#039; or &#039;no&#039; (at the time of this post), a majority of them think that they can grade &quot;as Good or Better than some Third Party Graders&quot;. Either Coin Talk is home to some exceptional numismatists or home to some people who suffer from delusions of grandeur. And I don&#039;t say that trying to be mean. Most full time dealers can&#039;t grade nearly as well as the TPG.</p><p><br /></p><p>Excluding the modern coin graders, the people who grade at the TPG are some very gifted people. They do an exceptional job of weeding out the problem coins, counterfeits are extremely rare to slip thru, and grades are usually in-line with the markets expectations. As for consistency, I find NGC to be very consistent, PCGS to be poor, but I believe that is their business model, and ANACS and ICG to be decent. </p><p><br /></p><p>One thing that many people lack is the ability to grade across several series. While many people may be able to grade a Morgan $1 or Walking Liberty 50c fairly accurately, can they also grade a low mint state 2c, a poorly struck $1 gold, a circulated colonial, a high grade proof $3, a matte proof anything, and a flatly struck or possibly worn early copper? Oh, are you sure the above are all authentic? And never messed with? That&#039;s what these TPG graders do all the time. Can you do this?</p><p><br /></p><p>Anyone who really thinks that they are better or as good as the TPG, I&#039;d like to see you prove your faith in that belief by buying large amounts of raw coins. Will you step up to the plate when that raw High Relief Saint is offered to you, or that matte proof Buffalo nickel, or that superb gem looking early gold commemorative, or that circulated key date? Will you open your checkbook to back up your faith? </p><p><br /></p><p>Or perhaps apply to be a grader at a TPG. They pay well. If you are as good as you think, you can get a job easily starting at $100K a year and perhaps as much as $250K a year. </p><p><br /></p><p>There are a handful of people who are better than the graders at the TPG. They are the crackout dealers and they make 7-figures a year cracking out coins. </p><p><br /></p><p>And anyone who grades a coin online and happens to match what a TPG said is as much lucky as they are skillful. There is no way to accurately grade a coin from an image. The best you can do is take a guess based on certain assumptions.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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