There comes a time in the affairs of men, when we must take the bull by the tail and face the situation. -- W. C. Fields

I have been reading the journal articles concerning grading and turnaround time, and I've decided it's time for me to put in my 2 cent piece. :-)

I truly feel that possibly all of us, we as customers and NGC as professional graders, are both right and wrong. Please let me explain.

First let me say, that I'm probably a mellow and laid back person. I've finally have learned that happens, and no amount of complaining or whining is going to change that fact. Any of you fellow collectors could come talk to people who know me, and they would tell you the same thing. So my point here is this...sometimes the squeaky wheel DOES NOT get the grease, and NGC has to realize that sometimes we do make mistakes (we're all human after all) and they have to learn to admit to their mistakes. As an example, if any of you are big baseball fans like I am, you know that a batter or pitcher who contiually whines about balls and strikes, will usually not get the calls, no matter what. I know personally, I work in a retail environment, and the customers we break our backs for are all the sweet people in the world who never give us trouble, who call in their orders early to give us time to fill them, and in general treat us the way we all want to be treated. But here again, we have to treat everyone the same, as they are all customers. (NGC, do you understand?) So my point is I guess is quite simply the golden rule.

Secondly, I can understand the complaints on grading. But honestly, I don't know if my 52 year old eyes can really tell the difference between a 69 or a 70. I offer as an example my 2001 D American Buffalo commemorative dollar. I guess I can understand why we all would be upset with a beautiful coin getting graded as a 69 rather than a 70. And I can understand the assumption that we as customers are paying professional graders to tell us what our coins grade. As in any profession, the payment for a service leads to an assumption of professional expertise! But on the other hand, we ARE all human, subject to all the human frailities of making mistakes, personal preferences, etc. As an example, I hate toned coins. I've looked at coins in very catalouges and auction brochures, and wonder how anyone could pay some of the prices for an ugly toned coin. But this is a personal, subjective preference, and I don't presume to tell anyone how to spend their hard earned money. But on the other side of the coin, I feel NGC needs to maybe be a little more human, and if they make mistakes, at least admit to them, and try to make them right, like we all have to do in our jobs.

Finally, I guess I just want to say, maybe we as customers need to go back to our roots, to our passion for coins that got us started in this fabulous hobby. I'm having so much fun, so much joy, and so much fun in learning new things with my Wild, Wild West set. Some of the coins we collect are the most beautiful designs, on the most beautiful metals and we need to remember this. But, maybe NGC needs to remember that we are human customers, with all our idiosyncracies, and they can't just treat us like a bunch of coins to be graded.

Thank you all for reading this, and letting me blow off a little steam. I truly do not mean to offend anyone, I still feel we are a band of brothers and sisters enjoying a truly great hobby.

AmericanBu