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Message:: [QUOTE="cladking, post: 361641, member: 68"]Vavet; There's no question that market grading is inconsistent.  This is the nature of the beast.  The market is composed of people and not only does this mix of people change but each individual changes over time.  Since market grading is an attempt to guess what these people will pay for a coin then it's going to vary.  Not only does it vary a lot as markets change but it even varies for many coins from day to day.  We're talking apples and oranges here.  If a coin is all over the map in quality with say extensive marking but great surfaces and strike a grader is going to have to guess what the market value is.  His estimation might be different from day to day and other graders might be more consistent individually but not collectively.  I've always been a big fan of actually grading the coins rather than pricing them but only a small handfull of people are in agreement.  Unless this happens collectors just have to realize that a lot of coins aren't a mere toss up between a couple of grades but maybe three or four grades and even more from one service to another.  Look for the qualities you like and buy those when you need them for your collection and the price is right.  But no matter how you cut it there is plenty of difference from one grade to another to see even though one 1979 cent may be an apple and another may be an orange.[/QUOTE]