Grading Service Survey: End for ACG??

dpoole

Re: article in the 9/9/02 Coin World (p 3): "Grading Service Survey in Progress"

Says dealers from the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG) and the Industry Council for Tangible Assets (ICTA) are being surveyed about seven grading services: ACG, ANACS, ICS, NGC, PCGS, PCI, SEGS), with the opportunity to comment on others.

The members will be asked about grading accuracy in different grading ranges, ability to detect altered and counterfeit pieces, accuracy of attributions (color, errors, etc.), grading guarantees, marketability, availability of pricing info, customer service, turn-around time, and quality of holder.

Is this FINALLY the move in the industry to set some standards, and to put some heat on the ACGs of the world? This looks hopeful, on the face of it.

I'm sure some of us here know something about the survey and what inspired it.

Anybody have any information about this?

zenny

they say roaches will be able to survive nuclear war. i don't see a survey taking down acg.

FC57Coins

This sounds like great news Dave - I'm sure it will be interesting to see what the outcome of this survey is and what is going to be done about it!

Regards,

Frank

prooflike

Quite the pessimist, eh, zenny?

flaminio

If anyone feels like taking the PNG/ICTA survey themselves, I put together one here:

Coin Grading Service Survey

Enjoy...

-Bob

HuliganRS

Bob,
You got too much free time!!!

RotatedRainbows

Is this FINALLY the move in the industry to set some standards, and to put some heat on the ACGs of the world?

It may bring a little pressure but most of the people who sell ACG coins are not members of those two groups and people who end up buying their junk are unaware of these groups until it is to late.

JJacks

Unfortunately, the survey will probably do little or no good as far as removing ACG. What they do may be unethical, but it isn't illegal (they don't claim to use the same scale as PCGS/NGC, etc.).

There are about a dozen card grading companies now that will give just about anything a GEM MINT grade. What's funny is that cards graded by these companies as GEM MINT usually don't sell for hardly anything anyway!

JJacks

koynekwest

I still don't understand how a grading service can slab a counterfeit coin-. If knowingly-it HAS to constitute fraud-if unknowingly-it HAS to constitute incompetence at best. I would think the former has to be illegal, with or without a grading guarantee. Unfortunately, a survey will probably do little good. Those who know anything about Numismatics already avoid this outfit like the plague

dpoole

My perspective of the importance of the survey is that some people are taking the step to formalize what most of us here have painfully and informally observed. Silence about Accugrade has been dramatic in formal publications like Coin World and the Numismatist up to now. Not only that, but ANA has accepted donations from ACG in the past, and Coin World has accepted their advertising.

I'm wondering (and hoping) that this publicized and high-profile survey may be a way some have devised to bring market pressure on these less reputable grading companies.

A well-assembled survey of respected people in the field will constitute information that can be issued publically, more safely than making editorial statements based on anecdotes. Then perhaps people new to the field will have access to useful information about slabs and grading companies, that they simply don't have now, unless they stumble upon places like these Boards.

And then finally, there may come to be market pressure on ACG and its imitators, forcing them to reform or quit.