Is CAC Losing Its Appeal?

Too much ignorance in your thread to respond to it all and your poll is worded with choices reflecting your obvious bias.

oooh, this ought to get good...a debate!

At the sake of my initial feelings of insult and belittlement as to have been so harshly judged from another's opinion, I am prepared to hear(*edited spelling) what makes me so factually ignorant.

Beyond this enlightenment I'll pray we will all be able to become privy to, I'll share my feelings that are not stated outside of the poll questions.

You can begin to read what I think in my rant of ignoramus babble, as you've so eloquently implied it to be. You see, in my knowledge of the subject, I've been in observance and participation of the process as I am to believe the "Green Bean" is a defacto "best-of-best" indicator in today's market of so many choices in any given grade level. I like the conceptual undertones of such a service especially when it self-serves my own collection or any one of our coins that read this.

But when will it grow to a place where there will be as much debate as to what CAC deemed worthy as there is for what a TPG sets a grade at? I think that time is upon us and I have seen more and more examples in the market where it should not occur. I'll show a case in hand in a moment.

I'm fairly certain that Mr. Albanese has a formula in play to not "over do it" when it comes to percentages as to not flood the market. I mean, you cannot CAC everything. But what is the true analytical approach to this? Case in hand:

This 1821 Lg Date 10c is up for auction and it is CAC. I do not agree and I will tell you why once you look at the coin:

http://www.davidlawrence.com/invent...imes-&-Dimes

Of course when CAC had this coin in-hand it was probably the only 1821 Lg Date in the office at the time. Maybe there was another but I doubt there were 5. Now, if I were running a true "best of the best" service, I would go to a site where I can see maybe a dozen or two or three of the same coin in very high, reliable resolution photos. I would wind up with a search that looks like this:

http://coins.ha.com/c/search-result...294966793+64

And by doing that even now, as an observer, I can see a bunch of coins that TRUMP the one that got the label but of course, IMHO which is the whole point. So again, I ask, "Are my eyes broken?"

And what do YOU propose as an answer?

That I am not qualified to develop such an opinion or ask a community of fellow collectors to offer theirs as well? It's okay I disagree with a service such as this as long as they way I disagree meets your approval?

That was a little bit overboard.

Good day to you sir.

This topic should be a fun discussion ... I call it un-filtered debate constrained within the norms of civil discourse.

For me ... I believe CAC is producing what they intended ... coins solid for the grade and worthy of the green bean.

I will readily listen (read) about those situations ... where other collectors feel CAC has fallen short ... however in my judgment as an intelligent and educated collector the CAC model stands as a powerful and useful tool for the modern collector.

David

The point of CAC is to point out where God (PCGS) and Jesus (NGC) have messed up. Now, as God is supposed to be infallible, which is what most would have us believe of PCGS, then what IS the point of CAC? Considering how much bull feces I read about how flipping superior these two are over the rest of us mere mortals, this should not be needed. ESPECIALLY since this is just the same guy who started PCGS in the first place.

Notice that only two folks so far have checked the positive choice. All the others say the same thing in different ways. Its just more overblown hype to try to get moremoney out of the zombies who shuffle around blindly moaning out P...C...G...S... and sucking down that Kool Aid like refugees from the desert.

It always amazes me how those who will spew Buy the coin not the plastic will fall over themselves for the priveledge of paying more for PCGS plastic and even more for a stupid sticker.

Buy the coin, not the holder. not the sticker.

As SD noted, CAC makes a market in coins that sticker. The sticker means CAC likes it and believes it's worth the money (their money) for the assigned grade. That's about it.

As many have noted - CAC is tougher on gold and that might better reflect what they really want to buy and the higher values gold usually commands. I'd guess 5% to 10% of the CAC'd silver I've seen did not appeal to me and that VF30 dime at DLRC would fall into that group.

Based on the tenant of the all mighty Green Bean....the mantra of the "best in class", the core issue is that this standard can only work once. What do I mean by that? Once? OK...let's do a thought experiment....

Let's imagine a quite rare coin of which only five coins are graded at VF20 in total population and each and every one are submitted for CAC at the same time and only the best one of the five gets the CAC sticker. Cool, great and yes, the best one of the pool gets the recognition. In a sence now, that coin that got stickered sets the bar for any and all future submissions. So let's continue....

A few years later another five coins are found in a hoard in the same grade, and all five of these are again submitted. All five of these are better that the stickered coin from the first five submitted. Does this then by default make all five of these coins qualify? If so, now more than half of the total population have a sticker...so how does that define the "best in class" if more than half own a sticker? In contrast, has bar now been raised and should the coin in the first batch have its designation repealed? See the conundrum when thissort of designation is given over a period of time? Or is this designation simply a statement that "Hear yé, hear yé, the coin that resides in this thar slab is officially under graded"....given the unescapeable issue of new additions to any graded series, this grading is fraught with impossibilities.

Thank you Dave....I learned something new today. I had the wrong idea of this designation