Quote:
Originally Posted by BobC
Don't disagree at all Steve, but the TPGs have already been rife with huge biases and conflicts from their virtual start. Look at all the people who have owned/controlled these TPGs over the years, and also been involved in the hobby as collectors themselves to some extent. Want to make a bet on which TPG they would submit their cards to be graded to? LOL Or what about TPG contingent grading fees based on cards values? In supposedly providing a completely unbiased and equal service to ALL submitters, it should take approximately the exact same amount of time and efforts to grade and slab a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card as it does for say a common '52 Topps card from the low series. So why the huge difference in grading fees? This is an absolutely inexcusable, direct bias and conflict of interest on the part of the TPGs, yet the hobby community forgives and allows it to happen anyway.
So, before you go saying these acquisitions of related hobby companies would make for unacceptable conflicts of interest, the hobby community for decades now has already shown they don't really care about such conflicts of interest. At least not as long as they can still get the "stuff" they want. Again, another old adage at work, "Stuff trumps everything!?"
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It's a bit of a paradox, we want the graders/authenticators to be entirely independent, essentially non-collectors in many ways.
But we also want them to have a lot of in depth knowledge, and non-collectors aren't likely to have that. Many collectors don't, which is part of the reason to have authenticators.(maybe less so for grading)
The difference in fees is common in several hobbies, I think it's based on a few things, like insurance risk while something expensive is in the building, how much value is added by the grading, maybe the cost of the more experienced person doing the grading, stuff like that.
I do wonder just how far things can be pushed along the lines they're headed. I want that answer to be "not much further at all" but realistically I think people will put up with any level of potential or actual crookedness as long a there's money to be made. The grading companies have pretty much proven that already.