It is with much interest I've read the discussions on this topic
which is, for us, of high importance of course.

First on the grading of dealers: of course there will be lawsuits in
case a dealer or a company is judged negative by subjective opinions.

But there is an intermediary solution of which I got long talks with
several of the major dealers: we could form a professional
organization that only incorporates genuine dealers who provide the
necessary conditions such as documenting shells - quality research -
possibility to return shells etc..    It is obvious that most shells
today have little value without information. People buying from this
"Chamber of conchologists" have a guarantee they deal with honest
dealers and that they receive a quality material, documented.     The
Chamber cannot intervene in respective prices of dealers as this is
merely an agreement between seller and buyer.
Opinions on the above are welcome.

Second on the grading of shells:
The system invented by HSN was for the mere purpose of helping the
paper listings we all received to very recently.
It is completely useless compared to the quality of photographs one
gets on the web today.
The grading of shells is something one learns over many years only
and by handling thousands of shells. We tried here in the company to
find a computer system so that everyone can judge on a given shell,
but the number of parameters that makes the quality - grading - price
of a shell - is by way to high. We ended up with over 80 parameters
and we could not work out the mathematical background of such a program.
To name just a few: perfectness - which family - beauty - size -
general appearance - colour - freak or not - WRS size - rarity -
locality (an Antarctic shell does not have the same price as one from
Great Britain) - depth - way of collecting - etc. etc...
Apart from the grading of the shell is the price of the shell. This
fluctuates in time, goes with tendencies, the general health of world
economy, gasoline prices, place of selling,
To combine the grading for quality and the grading for a price is, in
my humble opinion, still a matter of an expert human brain and
difficult to put into points from 1 to 10.

So far for now,

curious to read all of you on this topic again,

Guido

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