Licensing Professional Graders

MICHAELDIXON

David,
People seem to be under the impression that if graders are licensed there won't be inconsistencies in grading? What is your opinion?
Mike

homerunhall

Hi Mike,

The problem is "Who would do the liscensing?" The different grading services have different agendas...but they all want to make money. The find a hole that needs filing...stake out their territory ...and try to generate some business.

There's a PCGS grading standard, a NGC grading standard, an ANACS grading standard, an ICG grading standard and others, and they are all a little different. It's not so much about a specific industry wide grading standard. If there were such a standard, there would be little need for most services.

In additional, there is no motivation for any of these companies to submitt to a "higher authority," especially when the "higher authority" could be less qualified to pass judgement than the pros at the top grading companies.

As far as individual graders go, the same conceptual problems exist.

David