At the end of the day, the volume of cancelled trades feels untenable. I've had more cancelled trades in the last two events than I have had in the previous 6 combined.
I love PnP and I love knowing that the pins I receive will be authentic.
The extreme closeups and marking pins as 'uncertain' just because they are older is ridiculous and leads to this environment.
I understand the spectrum of traders - but maybe it makes sense to have arcade events specifically for 'I Need My Pin To Be Perfect' group of people aside from more typical traders. Or we need the ability to block certain traders who cancel authentic and uncertain pins at a high rate so that we won't have to continue to deal with those persnickety folks making offers or seeing their tables
To me seems like a lot of the growing discontent with PnP is not the strictness of the grading itself but the fact that the current system gives PnP too much power to influence what traders think of the pins they will receive (i.e blemishes that cannot be seen by eye are flagged as uncertain authenticity).
I was thinking perhaps PnP should create a sort of scale and system if they are going to stick by their current grading practices.
Idea:
1. PnP creates a color code grading system, for example:
Color Meaning
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Green Authentic pin, normal manufacturing variance
(enamel dips, paint inconsistency or super tiny nicks, paint specks etc)
Yellow Authentic pin, VISIBLE cosmetic issue
(visual scratching, discoloration etc)
Orange Authentic pin, significant condition issue
(large scratches, paint loss, cracked enamel, bent posts etc)
Red Authenticity concern or likely counterfeit
(major issue causing authenticity to not be determinable, or your everyday scrapper red flags)
2. When users join, ask them to complete a preference questionnaire to set preferences for notifications and what to include in pin evaluations from the PnP team
Select one:
□ Casual - Report any Orange and Red issues. If Green or Yellow disregard and approve
□ Standard - Report any Yellow, Orange and Red issues. If Green disregard and approve
□ Ultra - Report issues of all colors
A system like this would ensure users get final say about what blemishes are being reported to them without PnP having undue influence on users approal decision. For instance, with most people in the poll selecting the "some" option, all they would have to do is select standard, and voila, PnP will note only the visual and major flaws as well as scrapper concerns and leave out the paint dips and other issues that can't be seen without a magnifier in their evaluation.
Perhaps an even greater addition would be PnP being able to see users preference ahead of time, so if they see a user has selected standard, they can know not to spend extra time going over pins with a fine tooth comb looking for dips and other magnified blemishes and only for the red flags the user specifically cares about. Would improve not only the main issue but also the evaluation turnaround from PnP and the waiting time for us traders to get our pins in the mail