What if Q.David Bowers owned PCGS????

[sanmary]

What kind of company do you suppose PCGS would be if Mr.Bowers was able to rid himself of HRH and control day to day operations at PCGS??? Just fuel for thought.

[gmarguli]

That's hard to say. Bowers is ethical, honest, a scholar, intelligent, and cares about the hobby and the people in it. Basically the anti-Hall.

 

My guesses:

 

Grading standards wouldn't change in order to generate submissions. No loose/tight periods.

 

No gift grades for friends of Hall. No bad grades for enemies of Hall.

 

Problems would be addressed. Pedigrees wouldn't be taken off an insert without compensation. Fingerprints were be taken care of, not blame thrown at the submitter AKA customer.

 

Customers would be treated with respect.

 

Grades would be tighter.

 

[mark]

QDB (or B&M, not that it made much difference) at one time owned a grading company, Hallmark. As Conder101 notes, the company was in business for only 4 years before failing and selling its slab shells to PCI. Now, I wasn't collecting at the time (1987-1991), but I thought Hallmark's grading was a bit looser than PCGS and NGC, which lead to its downfall. Can anyone confirm this belief?

 

But, I guess it is interesting that QDB's company went belly up while HRH's company continues to chug along. I don't think I would have expected this outcome when Hallmark was founded....

 

Mark

[truthteller]

From what I remember, Hallmark was a success for the first six months. Then B&M began to market the coins with B&M coins in the holder. Conflict of interest set in, and there was no financial backing(ie. sight unseen bidding network) and B&M appeared to be the only major company to buy and sell the Hallmark coins.

 

Unfortunately, Dave Bowers would be too smart to touch PCGS. Too much liability in holders at this point. Imagine, $3 billion in coin value in PCGS holders. If only 1/10 of 1% of the coins outstanding have problems, that's $3 million in liability, not to mention litigation costs.

 

TRUTH

[BushMan]

No gift grades for friends of Hall. No bad grades for enemies of Hall.

When non-members of the clique "across the street" make mention of gift grades, then 40 or 50 of them come out of the woodwork to attack the poster. They go on and on about no such thing. At times, they can be THE most naive collectors in the hobby!

[EVillageProwler]

My guesses

 

Do not guess. Idealism has little room in an industry that is largely un-regulated.

 

Many of you might be very surprised at how things really are, and how the numerous "faces" of the industry really are. Remember that this is a very tough business.

 

EVP

 

[gmarguli]

My guesses

 

Do not guess. Idealism has little room in an industry that is largely un-regulated.

 

Well considering he is asking a hypothetical question, the best any of us can do is guess.

[jom]

Guessing is all you can do on a hypothetical.

 

Therefore, I'll "guess" that Dave Bowers would probably be in the nut-house by now if he had owned PCGS.

 

jom

[truthteller]

The nuthouse? That's the Watercooler.

 

 

TRUTH

[sanmary]

Thanks for all the replies as of now...interesting answers. I've never personally met the man, only corresponded with him on a few occasions via mail. His personal interest to my matters was astounding considering how busy he must be and how miniscule my questions were. I do not know the reasons that B&M decided to sell into the CU world years ago, but my thinking is that he may have some regrets or feelings of betrail. I suspect that if QDB ran PCGS they would focus A LOT MORE on customer satisfaction and be, oh just a bit less biased.