So Tell Me About This CAC Thing.

I see that they are not accepting new Collector Members at this time, but that in order to be placed on their waiting list, one would need to be a member in good standing of the ANA. Is the service affiliated in some way with the ANA? I didn't see any other indication on their site that it was, but the site doesn't seem to have a whole lot of information of any kind.

They are and they arent, I think they just dont want to make it automatic and advertise it. When I got on their waiting list the wait wasnt long at all, a membership packet just randomly showed up one day.

Im not sure how much they actually check the background. My take is its more to discourage scammers from signing up and people just doing it on a whim who may or may not keep collecting. Theres no membership fee so they dont gain anything by having someone who wont ever use it being signed up

CAC is a creation of, and by, a group of major dealers. It's in reaction to the fact that the original purpose of the TPG's - to allow confident sight-unseen buying and selling of coins - has been perverted through the years via varying grading standards. If one dealer happened to have a customer who wanted, say, an MS65 $10 Eagle, and another of his dealer friends had one, it was no longer possible to just send the coin and expect everyone to agree that it was a true MS65. Maybe not so important for circulated Morgans, but when you're putting $10k on the line it gets important pretty quick.

We, the average collectors, aren't necessarily CAC's original intended audience. Of course they knew that we'd end up involved - with the advent of the Internet, colectors are getting more sophisticated by the day - but they were just sick and tired of seeing crap coins in high MS holders. So far, I think they're doing pretty well with it. Perhaps my experience isn't everyone's, but I've yet to see a CAC bean I didn't agree with.

Just sticker already graded coin. It is an assurance not a " grading " per se.

CAC only has three grades, Gold (premium quality), Green (what the average for the grade should be), and not stickered (which means the coin was either deemed not accurately graded or in the lower end of what constitutes that grade.

Yes, that was him. Now you know the reason for the doubling of the initials in my username; it's in his honor.

I'm sorry to keep going off topic (I don't know yet how much that's frowned upon in this community), but Fred was kind to me when I was new to the hobby and I am very sad to hear of his passing. I'm glad to hear he's fondly remembered here, as he will be by me.