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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GoldFinger1969, post: 2087600, member: 73489&quot;]Fair point, but I think <b>if the photos are pretty good that most of the time there isn&#039;t much of a difference vs. examining it in person under ideal lighting conditions.&nbsp; </b>As good as in person under proper lighting ?&nbsp; Of course not...but unless it&#039;s a super-high end coin where you have to look for tiny details, most of the time high-end photos are satisfactory.</p><p><br /></p><p>Even when they have done tests using actual graders who have the coins in front of them, they find that the pros come to different grades and have trouble ID&#039;ing which coins are MS-65, 66, etc. when asked to choose.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Agreed....while I can understand that the purists might look down to the TPGs, all-in-all, they do a good job and provide a useful service.&nbsp; <b><span style="color: #0000ff">That&#039;s why I think they are a big plus overall.</span></b></p><p><br /></p><p>My only quibble is that it means they need to maintain their standards of consistency when grading.&nbsp; NOBODY expects perfection, but they shouldn&#039;t be off by more than 1 grade for the most part....2 grades off should be very rare, especially for more common coins (i.e., Saints, Morgans).</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Agreed....what I find troubling is that nobody seems to agree on WHEN (or sometimes IF) the loose standards took place.&nbsp; I thought it happened during/after The Bubble years (1988-91), mostly the mid-1990&#039;s and lasted a few years, maybe up to a decade.</p><p><br /></p><p><b><span style="color: #0000ff">Pros I have talked to have said that the presence of the internet in the late-1990&#039;s/early-2000&#039;s led to the inability to pass off overgraded coins or series that were notorious for being overgraded.</span></b>&nbsp; Seems logical to me, look at how much information you can get from 1 hour reading this forum or just Googling a topic as opposed to trying to get that same information 20+ years ago (phone calls, Gray Sheet, going to a LCS or coin show, etc. -- tedious and slow and time-consuming).</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b><span style="color: #00b300">Bravo <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie33" alt=":cigar:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />.....</span></b>unless this person is spending an hour on each coin and cataloging/listing every blemish/nick/scratch/ding he/she sees under a 5x lens, how can you make a 1/2 point grade differential ?</p><p><br /></p><p>MAYBE you can do it between MS-70&#039;s, 69&#039;s, and 68&#039;s where the amount of imperfections is alot lower.&nbsp; But to use it on MS-66&#039;s, 65&#039;s, and lower is....ridiculous.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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