What I mean is that CAC is popular (and adds a premium) because it takes a tedious task (cherrypicking for quality) and makes it much easier. (That's not, in and of itself, a bad thing!) Many people are gladly willing to pay extra for precisely that reason; I have done so myself on many occasions.
I buy 99.9% of my coins online, due to the absence of a local coin shop within 40 miles. I have quite a few CAC coins, as well, because they do offer some level of assurance that the coin in the holder is reasonably accurately graded. Looking through 10,000 ebay listings a day gets old, quickly.
Basically, my point is that if you know that a large % of old coins have already been cleaned by someone at some point in time, noting that they're cleaned is somewhat a case of stating the obvious. It's the extent and outcome of that cleaning that determines a "details" grade or a full grade.
(It wasn't that long ago that toning was considered a defect in the eyes of many, and toned coins were not desirable; if TPG's had existed back then, we'd have been complaining that they were giving full grades to coins that "should be details" because they had toning.)
I buy 99.9% of my coins online, due to the absence of a local coin shop within 40 miles. I have quite a few CAC coins, as well, because they do offer some level of assurance that the coin in the holder is reasonably accurately graded. Looking through 10,000 ebay listings a day gets old, quickly.
Basically, my point is that if you know that a large % of old coins have already been cleaned by someone at some point in time, noting that they're cleaned is somewhat a case of stating the obvious. It's the extent and outcome of that cleaning that determines a "details" grade or a full grade.
(It wasn't that long ago that toning was considered a defect in the eyes of many, and toned coins were not desirable; if TPG's had existed back then, we'd have been complaining that they were giving full grades to coins that "should be details" because they had toning.)
Member ANA - EAC - TNA - SSDC - CCT #890
"Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done." -- Louis D. Brandeis
"Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done." -- Louis D. Brandeis
















