I'm very much not a fan of grading, but if it's going to exist and be worth a damn, it HAS to be consistent, at the very least within the same grading company. To give anyone preferential treatment resulting in inconsistent grades, or to grade foreign or rarer figures less stringently than others, is to fundamentally undermine the market's confidence in their product. It amazes me that the graders are willing to do it, as they clearly can't value their reputations very highly. And of course, once they learn about these sort of antics, any buyer with any sense should steer well clear, or at the very least inspect the item carefully themselves and draw their own conclusions regarding its quality before buying it... although obviously that completely defeats the object of the thing being graded in the first place :roll:
:shock:
