"Ian" wrote in message
...
Bruce Remick wrote:
"Ian" wrote in message
...

Bruce Remick wrote:

Where there is competition, the cream will rise
to the top, as it usually does.

Here in Scotland the quaint old expression "sh*t floats" about sums that
up. ;-)


Dead bodies float, too. So do most ocean liners, sh*t, and cream. Gold
and
silver sinks. So do drowning living bodies, and sh*t (eventually). I
don't know what any of this means but it doesn't sum up anything for me.

Bruce


Yep. Branding works. All slabbing companies would like you to make their
particular brand of slabbing an integral part of your collecting habit.

Fortunately (so far) those of us in the UK with a collecting habit are
not having our addictions manipulated quite to the same extend as you
guys are / have been. There simply hasn't been the same amount of
marketing done over here. Then again, there isn't the same kind of money
to be made from it to warrant heavy marketing over here either.

The more faith you put in the slabbers the more power you give them to
determine what `the market' will accept as being a moveable standard for
grading and other conditions, thus sanctioning grade drift etcetera....

So while to you these slabbing companies are `the cream' to me they are
as i've already described. I guess at the end of the day some collectors
treat slabs like money. An idea backed by confidence. If the confidence
is there, the slab has a perceived value. If the confidence goes, so
does the perception of `value'. All down to `trust'. From what i've
seen, `trust' is the last thing I would put on the`plus' side of
slabbing, but that's just me.

Billy and I have already discussed much of this here. Actually, slabbing is
not as compelling here in the US as you folks seem to believe. Indeed much
more so than in the UK, but certainly not universally accepted here.
Regardless of how much faith one has in slabbed coins, it's hard to ignore
when dealer lists and auction results show coins slabbed by ABCD selling for
$30% more than identical graded coins not slabbed at all. We can all choose
not to play the game, but it's hard not to take a peek once in a while.
Everyone complains about grade creep, inconsistencies, etc. among grading
services, but they still patronize these services.

I certainly did not mean to imply that *all* grading services are "cream".
I meant that the reputable ones will be the "cream" that rises to the top
over time. Look at the blind confidence we place in whomever appraises and
grades a diamond. Pure "trust" here for 99% of purchasers. And the
diamond isn't even in a slab.

Bruce