Posted By:
Frank WakefieldIn the country it is a fox guarding the hen house... but almost the same thing.
We (you and I) agree that it should not be the grading companies, dealers, and auction houses who run the protective organization that you propose. They aren't the ones who potentially get burned, it is the collectors.
But $100 is a significant amount of money to me. And I don't see what $100, much less $100 a year, would protect me from. Seems to me that I protect myself satisfactorily already. And I don't offer this to bash slabbed cards, but you (not we) fans of graded cards must concede that one aspect of grading is that a few collectors rely on the opinion of grading companies and fall short in developing their own knowledge for determining card authenticity. In the old days a collector had to figure it out on their own, or rely on the knowledge of fellow collectors. They'd learn from another collector. I think that today some folks see a card in a slab and figure that what's on the label is what's in the slab.
I do hope you guys can get such an entity up and going, one that isn't driven by the grading companies, dealers, and auction houses. I can see that the need for such an organization is greater now, than it was 25 years ago. As the value of authentic collectables soars, the incentive to forge, alter, or fabricate increases. That, coupled with a reliance on the slips on slabs, has increased the need for such an organization.
25 years ago more collectors attended shows of varying sizes. They personally interacted with other collectors more, they saw more items in person. Today a greater portion of transactions occurs on the internet, so collectors look at digital images instead of cards. Nothing beats having the card in your hand.