Due Diligence
I know this topic is sensitive but as a collector, I would like to express my personal comment to share with the other members. Please accept my apologize first if I hurt anyone here (I have no intention to hurt anyone).
My personal comment for Third Party Grading is to do your homework (comparison, observation and research). No matter how accurate the professional grader was, there still a possibility of deviation from notes to notes amongst the graders. (not only limited to graders, dealers also)
I sent out total 12 notes, split into two lots, one to CCGS and one to BCS for certification. When I received back, I took all the notes out from the protectors and then sent the one graded by CCGS to BCS, the one graded by BCS to CCGS.
The reason why I am doing this is I would like to build up the creditably for these two professional graders, and of course building up my personal trust on them.
Amongst the notes, 6 were 1954 DF, 4 1954 MP and 2 1937. All of the notes are original with majority graded by me as UNC and some AU. I pick these notes up because I would like to compare how these imperfection notes were graded by these two professional graders. I don't need to talk about embossing & counting creases because every member is well aware of.
Here is the result:
Scenario 1 – UNC UNC61 UNC63 1 note
Scenario 2 – UNC UNC60 UNC60 5 notes
Scenario 2 – UNC AU58 UNC 2 notes
Scenario 3 – UNC AU55 UNC 1 note
Scenario 2 – AU EF45 AU50 1 note
Scenario 3 – AU AU55 AU55 1 note
Scenario 4 – AU AU58 UNC 1 note
Under the result, I guess my standard is like the US professional graders (or better) and one of the grader set a slightly higher standard than others. (be honest with you guys, I set a very high standard for my main collections)
As a collector and we don't want to have our collections like Nortel falling from over $1000 / share to less than $10 / share (the same theory for our valuable house falling in value like the US market now), then we better do more homework and check the note(s) careful before buying it. We need to decide whether we buy the note(s) or to buy the folder(s).
Below comment is out of topic:
Did anyone ask himself (herself) the objectives to collect the note(s)? Not the dealers or reseller because they are doing to earn a profit or to promote the hobby.
[1] As a hobby
[2] Investment (long and short term)
We needs to use our actions to express our idea to the dealers and let them to reflect in the products and makes the community healthy. If it is not healthy, sooner or later the collector's interest will drop and dealers will get hurts ……
