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Posted By: hankron

You have to start with the assumption that everyone makes mistakes (I find it funny when imperfect people expect others to be perfect). Assuming the institution is competent and knowledgeable, you have to assess the frequency and magnifitue of the mistakes, the reason for the mistake (honest miscalculation versus trying to 'maximize' the sell price), but most importantly how they deal with the errors. The later is not just if they give a refund or simularly address the error (which of course is important), but how the institution changes their methods and learns and change the way they do things. Personally, I'm not disturbed by an auction house making a significant factual or dating error-- I'm disturbed when the error is pointed out and they don't fix it.

If a collector expects an auction house or grader to fix or reasonably address their errors or reduce the amount of errors in the future, that is more than reasonable. If a collector expects the auction house or grader to never make a mistake, I find that strange thinking.