Should there be a "forum" grading for dealers?

REDHORSE

I'm not out to anger the dealers, but don't you think it's about time that a way of grading a dealer
(much like they grade restaurants) was accepted. How would it look, what would it include?
Lots of food for thought.

fantasiize

I would suggest:
1 wooden nickel - stay away always, period, " (end of quote)
2 cents - consider using as a last resort
3 dimes - ok, probably mediocre, but will do based on convenience, price, knowledge, inventory
4 dollars - positive to deal with always puts the customer and hobby second (making a FAIR profit is first)
5 stellas - a stellar (pun intended) performer, top notch

Gerry

For the past 5 years a publication called The Vintage & Classic Baseball Collector has conducted an annual baseball card dealer survey.

Subscribers to that publication are asked to return a survey form which lists dealers and space to rate them on 10 criteria: friendliness, selection, knowledge, response time, grading, integrity, pricing, problem resolution, packaging, and recommendation.

The rating on each can be 5 (in a class all by himself), 4 (excellent, would recommend), 3 (good, have no complaints), 2 (fair, needs improvement) or 1 (poor, should rethink approach). Individual ratings are reported for each dealer. Also, an average of the 10 ratings is shown as the dealer’s overall score.

In 2001, 3802 subscribers participated, each rating up to 87 different dealers. That is, not every participant rated every dealer – presumably each one only rated those with whom he/she had some dealings. Dealers had the option to be excluded from the survey – only two exercised that option last year. Average ratings for the dealers included ranged from 1.9 to 4.5, a wide range indeed.

When the survey first was introduced a few years ago, many dealers were not enthusiastic (to say the least) about the prospect of being rated by customers. But, apparently most have adjusted to this brave new world and live with it. Perhaps some have even changed some of the ways they do business.

Having reported this, I should add my own feelings about the survey: I always find the results of this formal evaluation interesting. However, invariably I see one or two of my favorite dealers with below average ratings, and other dealers rated much higher than I think they should be. In any case, I find my own experience with a dealer to be the best basis for deciding whether or not I want to pursue business with him. And if I haven’t dealt with him before, I have enough hobby friends to get a reading on him. Perhaps, the survey is of most use to a hobby newcomer.

Would I recommend that the coin hobby follow this lead? No, not necessarily. I personally would not find it particularly useful - interesting maybe, but not especially useful! I prefer to rely on hobby friends. There are eBay ratings as well. Lastly, I have found this PCGS message board to be a valuable resource to make new hobby friends, and on occasion to get readings on dealers from them.

solid

If we did, it might make sense to use the following scale

Poor, Fair, Good, Very Good, Fine, Very Fine, and Extra Fine

Or, maybe we should grade them just as we grade coins - by their looks! Those dealers
with outstanding eye-appeal would garner higher grades. But we should also allow for
problems such as questionable color, altered surfaces, harshly cleaned, etc.

fantasiize

Maybe we can even get 3rd party independent dealer evaluators (I am personally going to reserve IDE as my company). Given that approach, we can even encapsulate their pictures in plastic through all the different firms.

An IDE Wondercoin in F would be worth at least 20 ACG Wondercoins in XF (since the pictures would be airbrushed and artificially polished). A PCGS Ultimatecameo in VF would be worth 2 NGC Supercoins in F etc. etc.

I like it, we may have something here !!!

P.S. Oh my, the visuals are starting to kick in now LOL !!!

shirohniichan

This is starting to sound like a JD Power survey or Consumer Reports.

REDHORSE

I don't know...I think Gerry was on to something there. I buy "raw" and depending on the
dealer....I sometimes get burnt pretty bad. On the other hand, there are some fantastic
"buys"....there should be a way we can or should share our knowledge, experiences, good or bad.
Someone out there can figure out the "how's", a lot of talented people on this forum.
I don't think it should turn into a "rag-session" on dealers in general, more a heads up on which dealer
can and will produce. Just some type of information, some type of rating: ****'s, ABC's, 1-10,
"Thumbs up Thumbs down. Like I said just food for thought.

shirohniichan

I bought a coin from a dealer that got only positive comments about him on the US Coin forum, but found the coin to be overgraded and misrepresented. The scan was poor, so I couldn't tell that it had scratches. The dealer told me it was nice for the grade and all that. I returned it right after I got it, and the dealer refunded my money but told me I was wrong. He said the dealer he got it from cracked it out of an NGC slab, that he agreed the coin was a nice AU-58, etc. After that I looked through some of his other auctions and saw that all of his coins that I looked at were overgraded, raw coins.

If four members I know on the boards says he sells good coins my experience shows he sells overgraded coins, he'd probably still end up with an XF grade.

Drizzt

The worst dealers would find a way to "upgrade" themselves eventually.