Reality Or Rumor? "High Grades Don't Go To Just Anybody"

There is no actual knowledge of who gets and doesn't get a high grade. Large dealers by sheer volume will always get more high grades than you and I but we don't send thousands of coins to get graded. I've been happy with what I submitted and felt the grades were fair. If you don't like your grades chances are you aren't grading accurately. On average the 3 major TPS get the grades pretty good.

HFJ and Panzaldi kinda hit it on the head. The Ol' Boys club isn't really a thing, especially with the fact most of the newer highers are younger guys as far as I'm aware. The dealers tend to get better grades because they have access to much more volume than you do, because of that they pick out the nicest coins and send them in greater volume. That said though PCGS and NGC are very protective of their top pops, I've had more than a few subs where I felt that I was skimped half a point or a full point but such is life. However, if you feel like that's happening with a lot of your coins as HFJ said, it's probably more on you than them. I've always had issues grading Indian cents and after the last group I sent I really sat down and studied the series again because that gap in my knowledge was a problem. Though on the other hand I sent a group of about a dozen V75 Tallgrass Prairie quarters in and got exactly the grades I predicted with the exception of a single one I was a little optimistic on. It's really just experience.

Or could it be just there are very few 67 or 68 out there?

Thank you for your input. I'm not good at grading. I've studied Lincoln Cents for the past 2 years an average of 70+ hours a week. There's so much to learn. My problem is trying to sell, everyone wants a certified coin. I really don't know what's worth submitting and what isn't.

I agree that there is no preference for the submitter, and that it is kept out of sight from the graders, as that would cause many liability issues for the company grading the coins. I imagine that massive class action suits would be brought against the company if a grader could do favors for friends type of deal and it was found out. Does it happen? Well your guess is good as mine.
I do agree that top pops are protected and have seen many coins with better all around appeal and technicality sitting in lower holders than the top pops. If you flip through coinfacts very long, you'll see plenty of them. Another point to be made is that most of the grading is done with the naked eye, they roll the coin to view the luster at different angles looking for glints, spotting, or any distractions and pretty much determine if a coin is gem or not at that point from my understanding, then take a look at the imperfections they see under magnification (typically a 10x-ish hastings triplet loupe) and make their assessments as to what level of grade is deemed worthy by their "opinion". They don't typically stay on one coin for very long and scrutinize them the same way we do. Eye appeal, distracting marks and spots, strike, all of which play a role are evaluated. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, not the holder...