What is consider "High Grade" for Golden Age ?

[jimjum12]

I guess everything is relative...I don't find most of the GA that I collect "readily available" over 5.0 , and for me, that's the start of high grade. I actually have a few 8.0's and 9.0, but since most of my collection is lower grade, I think highER grade at 5.0 to 6.0. To me, relatively available, also means affordable...without my taking out a mortgage on my house;)

 

As a collector I'm not real interested in 9.6's in GA unless I'm just viewing Richard's (or Jon's or anyone else's ) lovely pictures. I'd be afraid to keep them in my house, and I like looking at the covers, so bank vaults (although I do keep some there) just don't really do it for me.

 

Back when Fine was half of NM guide there were many beaautiful books to be found in the "fine" range. When OSPG dropped the Fine spread to one third NM....it seemed like everyone's VG's suddenly became Fine. In my opinion, a tightly graded Fine ...like Ciorac and Moondog say...is also a "beautiful book". To me a fine copy should not look too out of place in a HG run. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

[skypinkblu]

I guess everything is relative...I don't find most of the GA that I collect "readily available" over 5.0 , and for me, that's the start of high grade. I actually have a few 8.0's and 9.0, but since most of my collection is lower grade, I think highER grade at 5.0 to 6.0. To me, relatively available, also means affordable...without my taking out a mortgage on my house;)

 

As a collector I'm not real interested in 9.6's in GA unless I'm just viewing Richard's (or Jon's or anyone else's ) lovely pictures. I'd be afraid to keep them in my house, and I like looking at the covers, so bank vaults (although I do keep some there) just don't really do it for me.

 

Back when Fine was half of NM guide there were many beaautiful books to be found in the "fine" range. When OSPG dropped the Fine spread to one third NM....it seemed like everyone's VG's suddenly became Fine. In my opinion, a tightly graded Fine ...like Ciorac and Moondog say...is also a "beautiful book". To me a fine copy should not look too out of place in a HG run. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

[RareHighGrade]

High grade for GA in the abstract is VF. But everyone on these boards has heard the expression "that's high grade for this particular book" used in reference to lower graded books, which is also an accurate use of the term. As a collectoor who focuses primarily on books from the 1930's, there are many books for which high grade would be as low as 6.0, because they simply don't exist in a higher grade.

[DarkKnightReturns]

For me a "High Grade" book is 8.0 or better no matter what. If a books highest graded copy is a 6.0 it is still a mid grade book.

 

I understand what people are saying about best existing and than calling that high grade but to me its not a "High" grade if it isn't VF or better.

 

 

[jacks2start-migration]

rest easy knowing that the GA books will keep selling at all grades because there is such a wide range of collectors looking for different grades.

[Forbush-Man]

I guess everything is relative...I don't find most of the GA that I collect "readily available" over 5.0 , and for me, that's the start of high grade. I actually have a few 8.0's and 9.0, but since most of my collection is lower grade, I think highER grade at 5.0 to 6.0. To me, relatively available, also means affordable...without my taking out a mortgage on my house;)

 

As a collector I'm not real interested in 9.6's in GA unless I'm just viewing Richard's (or Jon's or anyone else's ) lovely pictures. I'd be afraid to keep them in my house, and I like looking at the covers, so bank vaults (although I do keep some there) just don't really do it for me.

 

Back when Fine was half of NM guide there were many beaautiful books to be found in the "fine" range. When OSPG dropped the Fine spread to one third NM....it seemed like everyone's VG's suddenly became Fine. In my opinion, a tightly graded Fine ...like Ciorac and Moondog say...is also a "beautiful book". To me a fine copy should not look too out of place in a HG run. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

Good post, Jimbo.

 

I do love a solid Fine GA book. Doesn't brake the bank and looks great.

[markseifert]

You have a good point. However I think folks got played by Overstreet. Overstreet started putting forth the fallacy that there was no such thing as NM as a vehicle to dramatically increase prices across the board for NM books. On Gold, this might be a correct move, but on Silver and especially on Bronze, he was (and is) dead wrong. The highest grade in the guide should have been left at 9.4.

 

I've actually always liked the idea of leaving Mint as a theoretical grade. I looked over untold thousands of silver age books pre-cgc and remember the small handful I ran across that I considered true nm very clearly. I'm not a high grade collector, but still -- like a lot of people here I've seen a ton of books.

 

As an old school collector I've never bought into the current theory that common grading standards were less tight than cgc back in the day (meaning mid-80s and up in my case), as there were always tight graders around, and experienced collectors had a good idea of who could grade and who couldn't, and adjusted their expectations when considering purchases.

 

There's a little too much spread at the top for my old school sensibilities -- I'd start nm at 9.8 and adjust the rest of the scale accordingly.