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Can we really trust CGC? Why are grades on my books so low?
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254 posts in this topic

Thanks for the comments,

 

I know that people may see things a little different but a solid est. of 9.8 downgraded to 9.4 not once but twice in the same set is not good. I paid an expert to help me because I am not a comic book grader. As far a learning, do you think I can learn from this guy when he is 43% accurate. Let me put it this way if grading is not a science then it would be a good idea to work to make it more like one. Because it sure is not art, you get hundreds of books in front of you and you should be consistant in your grading and pass that consistantcy on to the people who work under you. If you go to your job and you perform at 43% what would happen. Try going to work and being on time 43% of the time or getting your work done at a 43% rate. How many Watchmen #1 are out there graded at 9.8 or better by CGC? Well, my books came from my collection and they had never been in the system before. Maybe my with a 9.8 on my book it would have been too much for the good old CGC. I send in a Watchmen #1,4,8,3,11,12 est. at 9.8 and a #10 at 9.6. The 1,4,8,3 come back lower than expected and the 10, comes back higher. I am also tired of the shipping excuse, people send things way more fragile than comics and they make it just fine. I believe and expert in the industry knows how to ship a box.

 

 

 

A baseball playe that was succesful at bat 43% of the time would be a gazillionaire.

 

How many zeros is that?

 

 

a Gazillion is a brazillion brazillions.

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Please do not beat me up on this but how do I even know these are the books I sent?

I missed this line from his opening paragraph the first time... this was a gem. :applause:

 

But in fairness, this fellow was a model of restraint compared to the current loon in General.

 

 

I'll tell you though, I had a discussion about the same issue with some people at a local store and they were insistent that this is ow CGC stayed in business--making copies of the covers people sent, and selling the real ones elsewhere. It was about as stupid as you could find.

 

Which one? The one in Newington or Bristol?

 

Newington. Bristol uses PGX because it's cheaper and has a quicker turn around. I've explained to them a few times that PGX actually lowers the prices garnered but I guess they have a few loyal eBay customers so it hasn't really been an issue for them. I'm bummed though as Bristol hasn't had any new collections in almost 2 years now--no new back issues = little room for me to purchase :(

 

(I know I'm a bit late but ) please tell me you're talking about Omni and not Art at the Eye Opener.

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I just sent off my first batch of books and I tried to make my best guess on the grades before I sent them. When they come back I'll see how close I got, if I'm off I'll know better what CGC is looking for and try to adjust my grading to comply. Your call for standards is right on, but I think CGC is it! They are the accepted standard and their value only increases as more collectors comply to those standards. Calling for wider grading and alleging conspiracy does more harm to the industry more than any 9.4 ever could.

 

;)

 

And could I get that imaginary link to CGC's grading standards?

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I just sent off my first batch of books and I tried to make my best guess on the grades before I sent them. When they come back I'll see how close I got, if I'm off I'll know better what CGC is looking for and try to adjust my grading to comply. Your call for standards is right on, but I think CGC is it! They are the accepted standard and their value only increases as more collectors comply to those standards. Calling for wider grading and alleging conspiracy does more harm to the industry more than any 9.4 ever could.

 

;)

 

And could I get that imaginary link to CGC's grading standards?

 

Why do you care? Isn't the lack of a public posting of CGC's standards one of the very bases of your whole "CGC Is Evil"-spiel?

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I just sent off my first batch of books and I tried to make my best guess on the grades before I sent them. When they come back I'll see how close I got, if I'm off I'll know better what CGC is looking for and try to adjust my grading to comply. Your call for standards is right on, but I think CGC is it! They are the accepted standard and their value only increases as more collectors comply to those standards. Calling for wider grading and alleging conspiracy does more harm to the industry more than any 9.4 ever could.

 

;)

 

And could I get that imaginary link to CGC's grading standards?

 

Why do you care? Isn't the lack of a public posting of CGC's standards one of the very bases of your whole "CGC Is Evil"-spiel?

 

Basis?

 

If CGC ever revealed their standards, they would get more respect, from me and a whole lotta collectors.

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Every time one of you quotes an akanni23 post an angel gets pistol whipped . . .

 

What happens when we quote a fingh post? hm

 

Entertainment abounds, outlooks improve, and ladies swoon.

lol(worship)
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I'm very new so if there are formal written standards from CGC about grading I don't know about them. I would imagine it would be almost impossible to write down EVERY single possible reason for giving a comic a particular grade. Given that damage to a book can occur an infinite number of ways how could you account for every possible defect? One book has a blunt corner and everything else is perfect, another has a semi circle ding where someone placed a coffee mug on it, another has a crease, the list would never end. So the CGC method of letting multiple graders give unique blind opinions seems to be the most honest way to conduct an otherwise "imperfect" process. But again, my point ultimately is that CGC is in my opinion providing a service that is needed, and seems to be well received and valued by other collectors. How do I know? Because CGC books sell for more than other graded books, indicating buyers seem to trust their opinions, and better yet they trust when they go to sell their book they can have a better idea what they expect to get for the book.

 

The very cash we spend every single day is just paper, but we accept its value because we know we can use it to buy stuff, we know stores will take the money. If I have a CGC book I know what it is worth because I can easily check the going price for it. If you feel that CGC grades unfairly, is crooked, manipulating the system etc then you dont accept their standards either written or unwritten, you dont accept that value, then thats your choice and you can go along collecting any way you like.

 

I stand by my statement that CGC is the yardstick by which to grade / compare comic book condition relative to the market as a whole. ;)

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Protecting their grading standards could also be considered intellectual property that they don't want potential competitor grading firms to copy or say "we use cgc standards" so there may be actual standards written somewhere but it would be considered proprietary information. Just a thought. I personally don't see any big secret between what is a 9.8 and a 9.6 and 9.4 and members are successfully submitting books and getting good grades all the time, just takes a keen eye and you have to remove the emotional attachment to a book you have saved for 15 years and never touched. Just because you were careful with it and loved it don't make it a 10!

 

LM410 ;)

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I just had my first batch of books graded and those grades have been posted. Superman Annual #1 came in at a 5 which I expected but the other two graded a bit lower than I would have thought. Not drastically lower so I am willing to think the higher grade was wishful thinking on my part (I got 6.0 on Adventure #277 and FF #1 GRR expecting a 7.0 on both). I was more concerned about protecting these books than the grades and in any event mid grade books are open to a WIDE range of grading opinions. My motivation is less about reselling than it is to preserve my Silver and Golden Age books. It is worth the money to me to have those books in the hard shell. Of course as i have more books graded I will play the game of seeing how close I come! I have already picked up a UV light and also a halogen mini light along with some nice magnifying glasses and will see if I can get as detailed as the folks at CGC are. What the heck? It's a hobby right?

 

Mitch

Edited by Holmes
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WTTB Mitch

 

Welcome to the boards my friend, as you may not have seen that abbrv in past.

 

A looney toon started this thread and it got reignited as he posted something else utterly ridiculous in a 120 page thread to draw attention to himself and some forum member linked this thread asking us if we wanted to read any other words from this characters mind. lol

 

 

I agree with you in a large part that paying 15 or 20usd to give your book almost impenatrable defense alone is worth slabbing said book.

 

 

2 more pluses are the improved resale value on said book, as you will not often have a person on ebay argue the grade once it's slabbed.

 

Lastly the books look awesome on display side by side in slabs.

 

 

Again WTTB & good luck in your collecting friend!!!!!

 

 

Rich

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I just had my first batch of books graded and those grades have been posted. Superman Annual #1 came in at a 5 which I expected but the other two graded a bit lower than I would have thought. Not drastically lower so I am willing to think the higher grade was wishful thinking on my part (I got 6.0 on Adventure #277 and FF #1 GRR expecting a 7.0 on both). I was more concerned about protecting these books than the grades and in any event mid grade books are open to a WIDE range of grading opinions. My motivation is less about reselling than it is to preserve my Silver and Golden Age books. It is worth the money to me to have those books in the hard shell. Of course as i have more books graded I will play the game of seeing how close I come! I have already picked up a UV light and also a halogen mini light along with some nice magnifying glasses and will see if I can get as detailed as the folks at CGC are. What the heck? It's a hobby right?

 

Mitch

Just FYI, you can get a mylar/fullback and top loader for about 3$ total. It will be safer than a CGC case. Not as cool looking but better protected for a fraction of the cost.
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Thanks Green. I do that for a lot of my newer books and you are correct about how well they protect the books. Also have a smaller footprint than the slabs. The only problem I have with top loaders is that it is very easy to damage even a bagged and boarded book putting it in. I did see some hard clam shells out there for a while but they seemed to have dried up and all I ever see now are morern age shells.

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Thanks Green. I do that for a lot of my newer books and you are correct about how well they protect the books. Also have a smaller footprint than the slabs. The only problem I have with top loaders is that it is very easy to damage even a bagged and boarded book putting it in. I did see some hard clam shells out there for a while but they seemed to have dried up and all I ever see now are morern age shells.
Also another big factor imo is keeping them out of the mail system. Thats the most dangerous place they could be regardless of supplies used. :)
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My two cents:

I'm new here, I read this whole thread, it was illuminating. The first guy, I'm thinking that's what OP refers to, had a concern to which the first couple pages or so of replies were addressed rather reasonably by several other people. The OP wouldn't or couldn't accept any of the explanations and continued to hold onto his opinion but expressing it in ever stronger and more over the top tones until he was in a full blown rant. He may have felt ganged up on and just gotten defensive about it and lost some control. After a few more pages of replies of mostly people making fun of him he did more or less apologize but the other people seemed to not see that and just kept piling on. That's when I started feeling a little sympathy for him.

The reason I started reading this thread in the first place is because I just got back the first two books I ever submitted to CGC and was disappointed with the grades assigned to them. I thought because I had bought the books myself off the newsstands and comic book racks of local stores and stored them away without ever opening them much less actually reading them that they would come back with NM grades, not the shockingly low in my opionion 7.0 and 9.0 grades given. After reading this thread though, I understand more about why they didn't get the higher grades I had hoped for and accepting the lower grades they got is a bit easier now. I still hope that the other 8 books I submitted will grade high but if they don't I will just accept it for what it is since it has been made chrystally clear that CGC knows what it is doing and is the accepted standard in this hobby.

Thank you to everyone who posted in this thread.

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I thought because I had bought the books myself off the newsstands and comic book racks of local stores and stored them away without ever opening them much less actually reading them that they would come back with NM grades, not the shockingly low in my opionion 7.0 and 9.0 grades given. After reading this thread though, I understand more about why they didn't get the higher grades I had hoped for and accepting the lower grades they got is a bit easier now. I still hope that the other 8 books I submitted will grade high but if they don't I will just accept it for what it is since it has been made chrystally clear that CGC knows what it is doing and is the accepted standard in this hobby.

 

You may have been shocked & disappointed with your first submission to CGC, but at least you seem to realize that it's not because you can't trust CGC, but rather because buying a book straight off the rack has nothing to do with whether a book is high grade or not.

 

The guy who created this thread wasn't willing to do that at all - the reason he got hammered was because he kept on claiming that he was right and CGC was wrong, yet had absolutely nothing with which to back up his statements :thumbsup:

 

If you want to loose all sympathy you've expressed for the guy, try reading some of the other threads he's created - my favorite is the one where he insists that if you crack a CGC book to get it signed, CGC needs to guarantee that it will always come back the same grade no matter what might have happened to the book during the signing. He's a true certified loon.

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