Before people sent their coins from here to PCGS

[trout]

IF a  Reliable, Honest, Accurate and Viable TPG was established in Australia I would certainly use its services .
However this is yet NOT the case and that APCGS mob is quite frankly at best a laughing stock or at worst Simply a bunch of crooks trying to emulate PCGS (Even their name is deceiving ) overgrading their own coins and trying to pass them off as  Honestly graded and slabbed coins, The same as some shonky dealers doing the same with 2x2's but these are in a fancy slab.

IF you insist on buying The APCGS slabs then you may as well buy all your coins from Peter Wallace, Both have the same degree of accuracy in the grading and at least the coins are nice and clean/shiny :laugh2:

 I'll stick to PCGS and NGC at the moment because there is NO other alternative :ok:

[wwwww]

The Australian system never used to be that bad, it only really started to deteriorate the last few years which is why PCGS was so successful.

One of the causes was the bullish nature of the market from 2000-2008 which took a lot of the good coins off the market encouraging dishonest dealers to "make" new good coins to satisfy demand.

The other is the rise of eBay which dealers just couldn't compete with so the dishonest ones resorted to overgrading and doctoring in order to maintain their profit margins.

[trout]

the rise of eBay which dealers just couldn't compete with so the dishonest ones resorted to overgrading and doctoring in order to maintain their profit margins.

I imagine that quite a few of these "Dodgy Individuals" are STILL members of ANDA or are affiliates of that organization.
To me this a "Deplorable" state of affaires :ok:
I agree that before the advent of the internet 99% of dealers were reputable and honest, But as the "Net" grew and other options opened up for collectors ( Newsgroups were a trading option WAY before eBay) the "Old Guard" couldn't adapt and resorted to dishonest and deceitful practices.
I consider that the actions  of these Inept and dishonest individuals are primarily responsible for the acceptance and need to have coins graded impartially and certified as genuine by a TPG.
I think it is totally shameful that a minority of dealers have destroyed the reputation of B+M Dealers as a group and the reliance on TPG's has become more prevalent as the years go by.
There ARE MANY reliable and Honorable B+M  dealers out there But quite frankly they are hard to find.

[lacey]

I agree with that.  There aren't any around me as far as I know.

 I was buying raw coins of ebay sellers but a friend of mine started pointing out how bad some of the coins were and that's why I started buying PCGS slabbed coins.  I don't think I have been disappointed more than 3 or 4 times, so now I just make sure if I can afford it to buy a higher grade.

[emu666]

The Australian system never used to be that bad, it only really started to deteriorate the last few years which is why PCGS was so successful.

One of the causes was the bullish nature of the market from 2000-2008 which took a lot of the good coins off the market encouraging dishonest dealers to "make" new good coins to satisfy demand.

The other is the rise of eBay which dealers just couldn't compete with so the dishonest ones resorted to overgrading and doctoring in order to maintain their profit margins.

From what I understand the "doctoring" well preceeded ebay.

[drakesterling]

The Australian system never used to be that bad, it only really started to deteriorate the last few years which is why PCGS was so successful.

One of the causes was the bullish nature of the market from 2000-2008 which took a lot of the good coins off the market encouraging dishonest dealers to "make" new good coins to satisfy demand.

The other is the rise of eBay which dealers just couldn't compete with so the dishonest ones resorted to overgrading and doctoring in order to maintain their profit margins.

From what I understand the "doctoring" well preceeded ebay.

Coin doctoring preceded Christianity.