Why coin sales flat

Now the argument to my post above is that the top TPGs are really only in business to serve dealers. Put in place by dealers and for dealers and that is fine. It is a system stacked against the average collector and I get that. Just don't try to sell this crazy idea that this is somehow a "standard" because it is not.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Standards should be set be those engaging in a practice every day not theoretically from a far behind a desk. The market itself actually sets the standards anyways.

Being a nonprofit doesn't make something better nor does being for profit make something worse. Plenty of nonprofits waste countless amounts of money, some even support terrorism. The people that run nonprofits are very much for their own profit and salary in general. There's a reason why one of the major thing the last decade was for charities and nonprofits to disclose how much money they get actually goes to the cause it is supposed to and many of them failed miserably.

The difference is that nonprofits have no one to answer too, they can just shame people into donating or rely on people who think they're doing a great thing. Real companies have to answer to markets. If they do a poor job they get dropped down. The TPG situation of today is the market giving values even if some people don't like the result.

For the record there are plenty of great charities and non profits, it was just an example of how just being one doesn't make something better.

Also there is no such thing as non-partisan when it comes to coin grading. Sellers want the best reasonable grade on their coins and buyers want draconian grading to get something as cheap as possible, that is of course until they send their coins in as it's time for them to sell and then they want upgrades and complain if they don't. Even people with no coins have agendas even if they're just nostalgic.

The market decides grading, it is the only thing that can and does remove personal bias and the trends that have been happening overall in terms of preferences, CAC etc the ships have sailed.

 

That's not what they are at all

 

Just replace the word market in the above post with dealer and you will see the true meaning.

 

The TPGs are the equalizer between dealer and collector.

 

And that may have once been true when they first were created. But clinging to a nostalgic view of TPGs and dealers is a little naive.

 

What nostalgic view would that be?

 

The one you just stated about being the relationship between TPG, dealer and collector.

 

How so?

 

See your post above. I know I won't change your mind and you won't change mine. I would say we will have to agree blah blah but I kind of dislike that phrase. Just suffice it to say that if the "grading standards" have evolved over time so has the the rest of business so that original intentions or services provided are now something different as well, including the "equalizer" relationship you mentioned above.

 

I will add that the equalizer premise of your statement above really was for dealer to dealer and collector to collector relationships. To authenticate and grade series that some dealers and collectors had knowledge deficiencies within compared to their colleagues to "level" the playing field, so to speak.

 

The "evolution" is over blown on forums that's the one constant.

But regardless grading has evolved for thousands of years. Collecting is not new, collectors 50 years ago had "graded incorrectly" according to a 100 years ago etc. This complaint has nothing to do with the TPGs.

The one bad part of this hobby is the whole it's not how it was 50 years ago aspect and the lack of self awareness to know that 50 years before their elders were saying the same thing. It's just like the no young people collecting is dying stuff, all of it's been said for centuries but now it's different. It's not and a 100 years from now 50+ year olds will be complaining the grading evolved and there's no young people spending thousands on coins at shows.

 

It wasn't. Collector is by far the biggest benefactor. If collectors want to believe marketing or think just because someone has a table or a store they're honest that is on them. There is a tool that have leveled the field, two actually for US coins and multiple selling avenues if a dealer is trying to squeeze them.

Plenty of dealers crack out AUs to sell as MS or details to sell as straight graded.

Next time someone is trying to sell you an "undergraded" coin ask them where their supply of overgraded ones they'll sell you for lower than the holder grade is

 

I would only add that I don't add a value statement of whether it is good or bad; it is a part of the hobby/business and always has been and likely always will be.

 

I don’t have a judgement on it either really. IT really is what it is and history shows always will be. Things will always change over time and it’s not an issue to go to war over. It’s also nothing new nor nothing that started with the TPGs, my one complaint is really just when people really think this is the first change or evolution in grading and they had it right before. There have been changes long before any of us were born and the same complaints have happened

 

So are you saying that SOME dealers are now using tactics to extract more money from collectors using the TPGs own grading standards? Something that evolved over time from when the TPGs were first created and when their knowledge exceeded that of even the TPG graders?

 

I have literally no idea how you came to that conclusion because there are dealers out there cracking out coins to sell for higher prices than the slab would easily allow them too.

The TPGs became successful and gained their market influence over them helping collectors, not because dealers want limits what they can sell or to spend more money having their coins graded.

Are there good honest dealers absolutely, are there plenty that aren’t or change their demeanor based on who the think you are yes again.

 

So much for the equalizer aspect for TPGs then because that has always gone on and will continue to go on.

 

Of course it will and the equalizer is now you don’t have to be subservient. If they wanna low ball you their loss you can use auction houses or eBay or social media and by pass them.

if you don’t like them that’s your right, but it’s hard to argue they haven’t opened up avenues or given collectors more information in their decisions.

 

It's not that I don't like them as I think they do provide a great service but the TPGs are not the be all end all of this hobby; business perhaps. I think they have provide a more stablized market and along with the internet and access to information like never before (knowledge is power), have and will continue to revolutionize this hobby/business.