Call it what you may, I think the facts speak for themselves.
Soooooo... the facts are that one note, graded twice in 8 years by the same company, comes back with two different grades?
And..........??
Did I miss something important?
I will assume that I don't have all the details. Two possibilities exist. One, the note is exactly the same across the 8 year span and the grading company assessed it differently across that time span. Two, the note was altered in some way, thus explaining the difference in grade. When I say "altered", I am intentionally being non-specific because I don't want to comment on this specific note in question. The fact that it is a $50 Osborne-Towers note, and thus very expensive, is actually beside the point. If the note in question was a 1867-1967 $1 Centennial note, my comments would still be the same. Altering a note could mean making a change that improves it or is detrimental to it.
A grading company cannot be responsible for what happens to a note from the time it leaves their hands inside a slab to the time it comes back to them removed from the slab. Removing a note from a TPG holder invalidates the grade on that holder. That reason by itself makes it completely unnecessary for grading companies to keep detailed lists of every note they grade. They cannot turn back time and tell you everything about a note on a prior assessment, nor can they travel through time to compare a note to itself when it is of two different ages.
I have no need to approach CCCS for their explanation, I didn't buy the note in question, nor would I ever buy a CCCS graded note. That is a personal choice I have made, just as others have stated they would not buy a PMG or PCGS graded note.
BWJM is right, there is no need to bring this matter up on the forum, especially given what I said above about taking notes out of TPG holders and resubmitting them. CCCS is 100% not responsible for a grade assessment after the note leaves the holder.
I have been in this hobby 25+ years and have seen the dark underbelly on too many occasions. I could be a whistleblower and fill this forum with documented examples of what I will only term "unusual grading scenarios" but I will not subject myself to frivolous slander claims.
Umm, looks like you just did.
I am part of a silent majority that share their stories in the dark recesses of trade shows and auctions out of fear of retribution. Many of this silent majority are recognized stalwarts in the hobby who can only accept that this is the new status quo.
Retribution? We are still talking about paper money collecting, are we? I hope we're not going to start throwing around words like "underground" and "cartel".
Those of you who would question irrefutable facts only serve to condone and support these questionable incidents.
It is clear that you have a lot of confidence in your "facts", but you should never question the logic or intentions of someone who wants to review independently the "facts" for themselves. A note jumping from Unc-60 to Unc-63 in eight years does not automatically grab me as scandalous. A note going from damaged VF to repaired Unc, now that's a story! We could dredge up that story of how a rare chartered note rose up through the ranks from mid-circulated condition to pristine, but people who own forums like this don't enjoy lawsuits, so that's why we don't bring them up. There are lots of rich collectors who prefer to spend their dollars on, well, dollars instead of lawyers.
I have taken great effort to word my post in such a way to avoid making any accusations of wrong doing, but who knows what editing and censorship will take place by those who control this forum. Only time will tell.
You're a smart guy with power and influence, so instead of dumping on this meager forum, why not start your own? Be silent and censored no longer.
I have survived within this hobby by the principle of caveat emptor (Latin for "Let the buyer beware") and I make every effort to do my due diligence before buying a note. I highly recommend that every collector adopt the same principle to protect their investment.
Aye, there's the problem, you said the "i" word (investment). Too many people approach Canadian note collecting from the perspective that it is an investment, and that's why we have this problem of notes going up exponentially with increasing grade. To me, there's not a whole lot of difference between Unc-60 and Unc-63, at least not enough to want to pay 2-5x more for an Unc-63 over and Unc-60. But so many collectors are willing to pony up big cash to get "the best", and that creates opportunities for profiteering as people alter notes to push grades higher and wreak big profits. Investors are like collectors, but investors tend to have deeper pockets and they come up to you with an aura about then that just screams "I am a sucker!" And with so many people like that around, doesn't it just make sense to take a rare note like a $50 Osborne-Towers in Unc-60, a note you could sell for $10k, press out a couple of creases and/or trim a couple of edges to remove rounded corners, call it a Choice Unc-63, and charge $25k?? Suckers can't grade and can't tell an original note from an altered one, so the chances of being called out for crimes against rare notes are negligible.
I guess the bottom line for people with deep pockets is, simply, what are your collecting priorities?
