In the early days of slabbing, Americans had a lot of disposable income. Things like pet rocks were actually bought.
While the idea of paying someone to grade your own coins from you was generally seen as ridiculous, it had a following - just like pet rocks, beanie babies etc. And there were many of us back then that were puzzled at all of these situations/services/items.
In fact we laughed, back then, at the gall of someone setting themselves up as being THE experts (I am including my dealer friends) when there were so many people just as experienced. In fact were later soliciting local coin shop owners to be their graders.
As I have posted before, the piecework aspect of the hiring is what made two of my dealer friends quit being graders b/c the claims by the company was nowhere near the reality. They always felt rushed as graders since the more grades they gave per day meant the more they got paid. The did not want their own reputations hurt if this became general knowledge.
The TPGs have been able to grow taking advantage of the psychological need of the human for "an expert." Their marketing plans have also greatly increased their business such as creating a sort of "competition" on their websites to see who can have the nest slabbed set.
I have posted before that two well known dealer friends of mine are totally convinced grading ASEs from monster boxes is a sham. They consistently, as their dealer friends they polled, got a 20% return of MS70s on monster boxes. These same dealers told me to compare the MS70s with MS69s - you can find flawed MS70s without too much problem. Both told me (two dealers, 400 miles apart, and at different times) they are convinced from inspecting what they get back than TPGS just pick a random 20% and slab them as MS70.
When there are JUST enough MS70s on the market, psychologically it can aid people willing to gamble the price of slabbing to see if they can get an MS70.
As I have said many times - if these experts were what they say they are, then the CAC business would have been laughed off the scene as was the attempt a few years ago to make a sticker to check up on CAC (I think it was called the MACAC - its here on CCF someplace).
When the slab business started we used to laugh that some day (this is actually what we said back then this is not pointed at anyone nowadays) people would be foolish enough to grade a system claiming to be able to grade the slabs as to how accurate the graders who slabbed it were.
I have heard it said that the CAC is just a second experts opinion. So why did they waste their time with the first expert if they need a second opinion. The word expert, or professional has become very cheapened by marketing pressure and practices.
The very idea that CACs may or may not be applied to a slab indicates a degree of non-professionalism in the original slabbing system.
And who are the better experts of the CAC to say they can judge the experts of the TPGs anyway?
I the slabbing system had never been dreamed up, we would still be doing what we used to... We would grade something, and if someone did not agree with the grade, they would (here comes accountability which the TPGS refuse to do) discuss why and then adjust the price either way.
No accountability and fuzzy logic/guidelines grow the TPGs.
When:
1. The same coin cracked out and re-slabbed will have the same grade assigned as before - always.
2. The same grade will be assigned to every coin no matter which
TPG looks at it.
3. The TPGS are willing to explain exactly why they assign the grade they did per each coin as a typical part of the grading process.
4. Implement the technology that has been available since the 90s to make the above points a reality - especially in the year 2017 where even a phone in our pocket can instantaneously project 30,000 infra red points onto our face and correctly ID (3 dimensionally even!) us as its owner - regardless of wearing glasses, growing a beard/musatche, wearing differet hats, etc.
Then the TPGs will have attained the status they already claim.
The very fact that one companies "we have the best experts" system will not grade a coin the same, consistenly, as another companies "we have the best experts" is exactly why people outside the States are not acepting of TPGs and their systems.
The above points would likely change things. Americans have always been a much more spending society - the marketers know, and take advantage of this.
It is also human nature that when we spend money, we like to believe it has been money well spent. When pet rocks were selling, I never met a person who had one say the money wasted despite the ability to pick the same thing up in their back yard for free.
The more money we invest, the harder it is for us to abandon what we have spent the money on.
Becoming a science would make the TPGs' products scientifically repeatable, proveable, and above all, accountable.
The following is just my opinion - please note that - but I personally feel in the late 90s when the large TPGs were investing in making a computer grading system, they realized that making such a system would surely, and greatly, minimize the growth of their own businesses. There are only so many coins to be slabbed, and if the grade assigned is undeniable, then the "gamble" people are willing to take to get a perfect grade, re-slabbing to attain a higher grade, crossover, etc. profits would not exist.
That also was a day before computers were in everyone's homes. Mainly it was computer geeks who trusted computers - not the general public. It took a few years, a new generation, and the internet to make people see computers as trusted en masse.
If the TPGs were what they claim, there would be no problem embracing the technology to (at last) make grading a factual science (that we have been capable of for more than 20 years now). However, their continuation hinges a lot on non-accountability - so the science likely is not going to be adopted until somehow it is forced on them.
Granted the one area tech *might* not work is on eye appeal - so have a human give a separate note of 1 to 10. Anyone looking at a pic of the slabbed coin assigns their own eye appeal "grade" to it anyway.
The TPGs have killed the base of the hobby in that every coin used to have its own value. Looking up each coin by MM, mintage, and condition was enjoyable. Hardly any coin was categorized by terms such as "junk silver."
Again, I will say if people like to collect slabs, then all the more power to them. Slabs look great lined up together. A hobby is about the fun. So if people like slabs for the aesthetic value and/or fun of collecting them - go for it.
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Posted 10/07/2017 11:35 am
