Originally Posted by BobC
Scott,
You're absolutely correct that this was probably a blanket marketing email being sent out to everyone. But go back to what I originally said in post #2 about how for a TPG to truly be doing what they should, and projecting that aura of honesty and fairness in their work and grading, they need to exhibit and show a complete lack of bias and conflicts-of-interest in both fact AND APPEARANCE!!! The simple fact that the OP posted about the email and questioned the potential possibility for some implied grading favoritism that could arise from it, clearly demonstrates that at least one person has perceived that there may be some implied bias or conflict-of-interest that could be attributed to using someone's vault. And even if only one person, that is one person too many!
The simple fact that the OP posted that has probably gone ahead and spread the same question/thought now to others as well, that may not have been aware of or even thinking about this possibility before reading his post and this thread he started. I mean come on, how many threads and posts have we both seen on here where it is either subliminally, or even outright blatantly, put forth that certain "players" in the hobby are getting preferred treatment and grading that normal collectors/dealers are not given? This is just a logical extension of what is already suspected thinking by many in the hobby. Heck, there was even the recent thread putting forth the question/notion that some TPGs may purposely refuse to give out "10" ratings/grades to certain cards to artificially keep the condition rarity of those cards already graded as "10's" as they are, resulting in some stratospheric prices. If that is the case, that could/would potentially benefit other collectors/investors/dealers of those same cards, albeit in lesser conditions, as well. By artificially repressing the number of a particular card graded a "10", it allows for prices paid for those highest graded cards to be potentially higher than they would ever be if there were more "10's" of that card in the marketplace. And though not always a perfect measure or mechanism, the idea and concept that "all boats rise with the tide" is still in full force and effect as a carryover concept to many in the hobby from back in the days when it was initially ingrained in collector/dealer/investor minds that lower graded cards are typically priced as a percentage function of what that same card is worth at a much higher grade. Even though they may not always follow the old percentage patterns, you know damn well that some dealers and others will still push a higher price for their lower graded versions based off of those highest graded example prices when they set new sales records. And before you go saying that most people here on Net54 would never fall for that, you and I both know that the membership on Net54 comprises an extremely small percentage of the overall hobby community, and I'm talking about the hobby community as whole. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to find that the active membership here on Net54 only comprises roughly the equivalent of pimple on an elephant's butt when it comes to illustrating how much of the hobby our active membership actually represents.
Quite honestly, in a perfect world, one would/should expect a TPG that was potentially accused/linked to even the appearance of such a perceived bias or conflict-of-interest would immediately jump on it and publicly deny and put to rest such a potential issue. But also thinking honestly and in the real world, with the potential and expectations for no actual retribution or negative consequences that ever seem to appear for any TPGs that exhibit even the slightest perceived appearance of such biases or conflicts-of-interest, I wouldn't be at all surprised if marketing departments for such TPGs didn't start high-fiving each other and breaking out the bottles to toast their good fortune. Without them doing anything that can potentially come back and be linked to them, they now have received the benefit of the implied notion that possibly, if someone having them grade cards for them agrees to now use their vault to store/handle those graded cards for them, the seed has been planted that they may receive higher grades for their cards than they maybe would have otherwise. And it doesn't really matter if it is actually true or not, the seed has already been planted in the hobby community.
Happy New Year by the way!
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