Why are grades so different even among the same graders?

No they wouldn’t. They rate at which series get stickered would just change.

TPGs aren’t constantly changing to get looser either though. Somethings they’re much tighter on, but yes grading will continue to evolve as it always has

 

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Yeah...they are in the business to make money. So, I highly doubt we will see a reduction in number of stickers they issue.

 

They don’t make their money by putting stickers on, they make it buying and selling what they’ve stickered already.

 

I'm an authorized CAC submitter. Although I've never discussed the matter with Mr. Albanese, I believe their business model for investment is based on acquiring Quality coins at a "Fair Market" price. Believe me, they are very selective about which coins they accept.

I located one of the most experienced professional graders to initially submit my coins to CAC before eventually calling Mr. Albanese for a personal discussion of my "collection". He immediately allowed my direct submissions.

I had allowed the grader to select up to 8 coins (based on total shipping value costs) from an assortment of my scarce condition/type/date/grade coins. I then would add one-two coins of my choice, of which the grader normally disagreed. I generally had an equivalent "score" of acceptance, as I believed that CAC was more concerned about quality than scarcity/quantity. This was verified when my lustrous better-date less than Gem $20 coins received a bean rather then nice "key" coins.

I believe that you're correct that CAC "beans" coins based on the current grading standards of the TPG. The past is irrelevant, and future unknown, so who would normally use either as a basis for grading?

LOL I'm laughing because I still use the illustrated Copyright 1977 OFFICIAL A.N.A. GRADING STANDARDS FOR UNITED STATES COINS as a basis for my selections. It was the verbal "standard" for the first 28 years of my collecting.

JMHO

 

You guys can believe what you want. But, CAC is just another type of TPG founded by a guy who founded a TPG. There's nothing wrong with that...but TPGs as a whole have shown they will loosen their standards as time goes by because that is what the consumers show they have want.

For this reason...I don't put a huge amount of stock in their grading. They are excellent for authenticating coins but that's about all they are to me. I'll buy the coin I want slabbed or not...stickered or not. That's just how I do it.

 

They're really not another type of TPG, they're really just dealers that sticker the best stuff and have a lot of experience that people value. It's really genius, they get to review tons of coins in the market and sticker the ones they would buy and sell. It was supposed to just be for high end coins but it got so popular they raised their prices twice to try and discourage the cheap coin submissions

 

So what your saying is...their original business model was to just focus on high end coins and when they found there was more profit in expanding that they altered their business model. That sounds an awful lot like what the TPGs have done with their grading. It seems to me that CAC could just as easily continue to alter it to match the TPGs...if they don't they will have nothing to sticker.

 

They didn't expect it to become as popular as it did even for lower grades and lower values. The higher valued coins were where they thought the demand would be, it just grew even more than that. There was never any plan where they thought their time was worth 12-14 dollars a sticker when they don't even charge collectors for coins that do not sticker. The the stickering is a means to an end, if they sticker none they sticker none. Just look at how few of some things sticker.

 

I guess we will have to agree to disagree then.

 

Problem is that unlike the TPG slabs, as far as I know there is no way to know when a CAC sticker was applied. Sure for a new slab you know it was put on recently, but for an older slab you don't know if it put on several years ago or yesterday.

 

I went by a local coin store today to pick up a couple of gold coins.

I couldn't help but to buy these two ($65). I've never heard of the TPG but have a feeling they are no longer around. MS66 and MS67?



I'd say MS60 would be called grade inflation.

 

There’s not other than asking, but it doesn’t really matter. Their sticker is them saying they’d want to buy it so

 

Just depends which one it is. Ones above our head does mean a lot, but yes their acceptance is more for the second opinion than the fact they'll buy most of them.

 

I believe you're correct, analogously to purchasing and then selling through Heritage or any prominent Numismatic firm of equal capability. They establish a "market", and you establish their worth relative to a possibly lesser market.

I use CAC services, and purchase their products in various venues, but normally wouldn't utilize them for a sale, as occasionally their services result in little net value increase. If I don't envision any net loss, but possible future additional value for numerous factors, I'll purchase their "beaned" product, especially scarce date coins with a Gold "bean". I establish possible future scarcity, rather than current market indicators.

JMHO