Market grading

Coin Finder

Hello. I am a firm beleiver that PCGS does not tighten or loosen their grading standards. In a bull market, some coins that may have the same technical grade receive better grades than others it seems. Is this an example of market grading? What is market grading?

Thanks

Tbig

homerunhall

Market grading is not a term we use. I suppose that it refers to tightening standards in bad markets and loosening standards in good markets. This is definitely what dealers did in the old days before third party grading became widespread.

PCGS does not change its grading standards with market conditions. I do suspect that some other grading services may do this. They can do this, and drive more submissions by doing it, because of two things. First, when the market is hot, people don't pay as much attention to the actual coin. Second, the price of coins is largely determined by the price of PCGS graded coins and other services can loosen up when things are hot and dealers can still sell the coins by pointing out the PCGS prices.

David