Quote:
Originally Posted by irv
LOL. That would go over well! 
I can picture a steady stream of TPG's arriving at each others places of business daily all crying afoul about what each company isn't doing that they should be! It would be a gong show, guaranteed!!
I like your second suggestion as I have always thought it would be nice to find out why your card got the grade it did.
I believe Beckett has quit doing this, but they use to have scores/grades on their flips that would state something like 8 for centering, 9 for corners, 7 for surface wear etc, then the final average grade in the top right. I believe most on here like this but for some reason Beckett was the only one who did this for some reason? |
Irv,
That would be funny but, it wouldn't be a steady stream like that. For example, CPAs, like most of the professions, are licensed and under a state by state authority. To maintain my license in Ohio, where I live, every three years I have to file for a renewal and also report that I have fulfilled the minimum requirement of completing at least 120 hours of continuing professional education, including at least 3 hours on professional ethics, during that three year period since my previous license renewal.
To even become a CPA in Ohio, you now have to have a minimum of 150 hours of secondary (college) education in an applicable major involving accounting. You must then sit through and pass a multi-part, standardized test put together under the auspices of the AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants), the national group that oversees and promulgates the standardized rules and practices that CPAs go by. This CPA exam is now done via computer and involves a minimum of four different sessions, and trust me, these aren't half-hour or 45 minute tests. Back in the day when I originally took the CPA exam, before all the computers, the standardized test was only offered twice each year, the first Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of every May and November. In Ohio, at that time, everyone in the state traveled down to Columbus, Ohio and went to one of the massive exhibit buildings on the Ohio State Fairgrounds. It was in one huge room with nothing when you walked in but a sea of tables, each with two chairs all facing forward, and a block of wood in the middle of the table with a piece of cardboard stuck in it to supposedly keep the other person sitting at your table from looking over at your paper and answers, and vice versa.
Back then, the exact same test was given to every single person taking the CPA exam in the U.S., at the exact same date and time. There was an afternoon session on Wednesday, followed by separate morning and afternoon sessions on Thursday and Friday. And these sessions were each like 3+ hours. There were about 2,000 people taking the test in Columbus at the same time I was. There were proctors all over the place watching you, and you weren't allowed to leave the main room (other than a bathroom break where you were also watched) until the people taking the test on the West coast were similarly locked in their test center and had begun the exam. That way, because of the different time zones, they didn't have someone go into the test in say Ohio, check out the questions and then just leave early to then run to a phone to call someone out in California and tell them what was on the test so they had time to look up answers real quick before they started the exam out there. The five different sessions covered four separate sections of testing, and you had to pass all four parts to complete the exam. You used no. 2 pencils and paper, no calculators, no computers, no cell phones, no nothing. If you didn't pass all four parts the first time you sat for the exam, you had to wait six months for the next round of tests to be given to try and then pass the parts you had missed. Oh, and the average pass rate for all four parts for someone taking the CPA exam for the very first time was something like 5% or less, at best. Then assuming you finally got lucky and had passed all four parts, you still weren't a CPA in Ohio till you had completed a minimum of two years of accounting related work experience, then completed and filed your application with the Accountancy Board of Ohio, and included along with that at least two (I think it was two) references from already registered CPAs in the state vouching for you and your application. Only then did you get a CPA license.
And that is just for each individual CPA. Each CPA or CPA firm that then forms a practice must also register that practice with the Accountancy Board of Ohio. And if in that practice the CPA or the CPA firm then performs any attest functions and issues opinions on any financials or other such information, they are also required every three years to have what is known as a peer review performed whereby a licensed, registered peer reviewer, who is also a CPA, comes in to review the CPA firm's practices, interview their people, look at their controls and requirements in place for performing the work they do for the public, and also selecting on a test basis, a sample of every type of attest function they performed in the current preceding year. Those selected engagements are then reviewed by the peer reviewer and/or peer review team and they look to see that the engagements are performed in conformity with firm's and the AICPA's rules and practices, and most importantly in accordance with GAAP ( Generally Accepted Accounting Principles). If the peer reviewers find errors and deficiencies in the work done, there can be various levels of actions prescribed and taken, depending on the quantity and severity of errors found. The worst case scenario is that a CPA or CPA firm can have their practice license revoked, and no longer be able to offer their opinions on financial statements. And to add insult to injury, the CPA or CPA firm being peer reviewed also has to pay the peer reviewer for coming in and subjecting them to the testing, at their normal, standard rates.
And people may wonder why I think like I do and question why a TPG company giving an opinion on graded cards should be doing a whole lot more than they do now to ensure they are fairly, properly and consistently doing their job in providing card evaluation and grading services, and also do so by utilizing a universally standardized, consistent and agreed upon set of grading measurements and criteria.
BobC