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PGM Guidelines, Helpful Hints and General Etiquette
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84 posts in this topic

This thread is here thanks to all the wonderful people of the Collectors Society & the CGC forums. Everyone here is encouraged to contribute in a positive manner to this thread as much or as little as they want and we truly look forward to hearing from you.

 

I am still working with Jeremy (tjanse) and David (DavidTheDavid) to help continually build this now fixed in place thread. It will always be open to your thoughts and ideas and so will forever be evolving into something better. As we all grow and learn so to will this Guide with your help. Thanks again!

 

imgur and Photobucket Tutorials added 06.18.14 9:18 PM Mountain Time by Tim

 

Welcome to the PGM Forum

In the hopes of making this place more fun and generally a more enjoyable experience for both new and veteran forumites, we would like to suggest some general guidelines and best practices. It should make your experience less frustrating and easier to manage when it comes to questions and answers. Remember that grading from a scan is not 100% reliable, but it is fun and interesting.

PGM = Please Grade My

GENERAL GUIDELINES & ETIQUETTE

RESPECT
1. Please respect all others while you are partaking in the PGM Forum. Critique is valuable, but sometimes it can cross the line. PLEASE be conscientious of what you post.

POSTING LIMITS
2. Please post only one (1) book per thread and a maximum of three (3) books per person in a 24 hour period. It will make it more enjoyable for people to grade and will also encourage more people to grade your submission.

DESCRIPTION & INFORMATION
3. Provide a brief description of the book's condition and any hidden defects such as loose or detached cover/centerfold, spine splits or tears that are not discernible from a scan. Original Poster shouldn't mention what they feel the grade is for the book they're posting. Most people like to have a clean palate when grading. If you do wish to share your own score, wrap it in spoiler tags.

QUALITY SCANS
4. Please provide adequate size scans or at the very least clear photos of the book you are submitting for grading. Quality scans always get more feedback.

FRONT & BACK COVERS
5. Post scans of both front and back cover as a minimum. Additional scans or photos of problem areas are helpful and encouraged. Pictures of the interior can assist as well, but please don't scan the inside of a comic as you could damage it!

RECOMMENDED IMAGE SIZES
6. The recommended size of the scan within the thread is a maximum dimension of 850 x 1169 pixels of 100DPI resolution. Anything larger/higher tends to skew the screen dimensions of the entire thread. However, you can link to larger scans, which will open in a new browser window or tab, making it easier on graders.

FILE TYPES
7. The recommended file type is .jpeg or .png.

COLOURED BACK GROUND
8. Place a coloured backer board or paper behind your book prior to scanning. This will help to accentuate the edges of your book making it easier to grade. Be sure that the backer board is not the same or similar colour as the general colours of the front or back cover. A great suggestion is to tape a piece of coloured paper to the top of your scanner. That way it doesn't move around. Blues seem to work best.

PGM to CGC FOLLOW UP
9. If you post your book in the PGM forum for grading and eventually send it into CGC for professional grading, be kind and post the CGC results and if possible an image of the slabbed book. Many here would like to see how well their grading skills match up to those at CGC.

 

HINTS

Have fun! This forum is meant to be enjoyable for those looking for grades and those looking to grade.

It's recommended not to post your own perceived or an advertised score/grade as it can influence the scores/grades from the people you are requesting scores/grades from. If you do wish to share your own score, wrap it in spoiler tags.

Ask questions and learn from the guys here who have a keen eye.

Be sure to clean your scanner glass often. Refer to the manufacturers recommendations for type of soft cloth etc.

 

TIPS ON SCANNING

Don't crop the edges of your scans too tight to the book, edges and corners tell a lot about a grade.

Worth repeating! Place a coloured backer board or paper behind your book prior to scanning. This will help to accentuate the edges of your book making it easier to grade. Be sure that the backer board is not the same or similar colour as the general colours of the front or back cover.

Link to Legal Size Scanner Thread

 

TIPS ON POSTING & LINKS TO THIRD PARTY IMAGE PROVIDERS/HOSTING SITES 

photobucket

imgur

flickr

 

Tutorials

  • Imgur Demo - click on the spoiler tag below to expand

 

 

5sLioWk.jpg

 

Items 3 and 4 give you the two sizes you'll want to use. Remember, you should have scanned an image at an appropriately large size.

  Click on either Original or Large Thumbnail. The thumbnail size is not appropriate for grading but can give people a preview of the comic. The Original size is what you want to use when requesting a grade.

  To insert the image directly into a post, simply copy the code from item 2 and paste it into your PGM post.

Some people like to provide a thumbnail and then link to the image, which will open in another browser tab. To do this, copy the code from item 1, click on the link icon in your post window, and follow the wizard to generate the link.

 

 

 

  • Photobucket Demo - click on the spoiler tag below to expand

 

 

 

 

Photobucket_1_zps4aeb9491.jpg

 

Click on Item 1 for a link to your picture. When you follow the link, you will see a magnifying glass icon on the bottom right of the image. Users will have to click on that icon to zoom into the image at full size.

Click on Item 2 to embed the image directly into your post. You will have make a simple edit to the code that is copy-pasted when you do this.

You will see this:

 


[url=http://s1353.photobucket.com/user/DavidTheDavid/media/Photobucket_1_zps4aeb9491.jpg.html][img=http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/q679/DavidTheDavid/Photobucket_1_zps4aeb9491.jpg][/url]
 

Remove everything except what is included in the IMG tags. Be sure to leave the IMG tags, too. You want only this part:

 


[img=http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/q679/DavidTheDavid/Photobucket_1_zps4aeb9491.jpg]
 

 

 

 

 

TERMS USED TO DESCRIBE BOOKS AND DEFECTS

Abbreviations

 

 

 

FC = Front Cover

LFC = Left (Side) Front Cover

RFC = Right (Side) Front Cover

LLFC = Lower Left (Corner) Front Cover

BLFC = Bottom Left (Corner) Front Cover

LRFC = Lower Right (Corner) Front Cover

BRFC = Bottom Right (Corner) Front Cover

TLFC = Top Left (Corner) Front Cover

ULFC = Upper Left (Corner) Front Cover

TRFC = Top Right (Corner) Front Cover

URFC = Upper Right (Corner) Front Cover

BC = Back Cover

LBC = Left (Side) Back Cover

RBC = Right (Side) Back Cover

LLBC = Lower Left (Corner) Back Cover

BLBC = Bottom Left (Corner) Back Cover

LRBC = Lower Right (Corner) Back Cover

BRBC = Bottom Right (Corner) Back Cover

TLBC = Top Left (Corner) Back Cover

ULBC = Upper Left (Corner) Back Cover

TRBC = Top Right (Corner) Back Cover

URBC = Upper Right (Corner) Back Cover

 

OTHER USEFUL & IMPORTANT LINKS

An In-Depth Comparison of Green Label and Blue Label Grading

Q&A Comic Production Flaws

I love joey post

Comic Book Grading and Restoration Issues General

The NOOB GUIDE by Harvey Swick

PGM Forumites have rights too!smiley-signs028.gifthe cause and give us suggestions to help improve this great forum!

Cheers!

Tim, Jeremy, David, et al

Many thanks to Hado, MR-SigS who encouraged us to reach farther! And to all the other forumites for your kind words, encouragement, thoughts and ideas. We promise to not let you down!

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The Watcher (Angelo) gave me a great suggestion a few years ago. He said to tape a piece of colored paper to the top of your scanner. That way it doesn't move around.

 

Blues seem to work best.

 

Nice idea, btw...this thread:)

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Suggestion... when or if the comic comes back post what it grade it actually got so we can see how close we got...

 

We have discussed this. We will do something similar to the grading tournament point system. And keep track that way too.

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Suggestion... when or if the comic comes back post what it grade it actually got so we can see how close we got...

 

This makes sense only if you are planning to have it pro-graded by CGC – not always the case with submissions… :)

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If you submitted books after PGM, post a warning and give 24 hrs for more comments/participation before reveal the actual grade or provide scans of the graded books if it is submitted for cosmetic work, big different from original scans. I like Guess my grade more than PGM threads, just to have a confirmation that how close are my guesses.

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When I look at the PGM threads I'm hoping to see independent ratings from different boardies, new and veteran alike. Unfortunately, I think it's easy - and speaking for myself here too - to be influenced by other members' grades before putting down my own. I wonder if there's any way that the CGC programmers could ask for your grade first then reveal the other grades and comments....??

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When I look at the PGM threads I'm hoping to see independent ratings from different boardies, new and veteran alike. Unfortunately, I think it's easy - and speaking for myself here too - to be influenced by other members' grades before putting down my own. I wonder if there's any way that the CGC programmers could ask for your grade first then reveal the other grades and comments....??

 

I for one do not look at anyone else's grade score prior to arriving at my own. I usually scroll down to the bottom or top of the post being sure not to see any scores that may influence my opinion.

 

Be honest and diligent. Review the book and come up with a grade that you are comfortable with. Enter your grade and post. Then go back and do comparisons to the other forumites.

 

Short of that we could ask that everyone put their grade scores in spoiler tags but that would be impossible and in my opinion a hard sell as it means every time you want to see the other grades you have to open the spoiler tags for comparison. Logistically a nightmare I would think.

 

My grade score:

 

9.6

 

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The old web site that is not running now from metro, show off your comics was great for grading. They had a poll system set up where you selected a grade from .5 to 10 and after you submitted up comes the results of all other grades and their percentages. just like the polls do here

that would be ideal for people doing grades and not being influenced by others.

I don't look at other grades before I post mine but like to post grades here on the new books with no or very little initial response (thumbs u

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The old web site that is not running now from metro, show off your comics was great for grading. They had a poll system set up where you selected a grade from .5 to 10 and after you submitted up comes the results of all other grades and their percentages. just like the polls do here

that would be ideal for people doing grades and not being influenced by others.

I don't look at other grades before I post mine but like to post grades here on the new books with no or very little initial response (thumbs u

That's an interesting idea SC! We'll definitely look into it. If you have any other ideas or thoughts about it please forward them, they are truly appreciated.

Cheers!

Tim

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Sometimes I look at the other grades, sometimes not. But I don't let another person's grade influence mine. I'm more interested in what they viewed in the scan because they may have spotted something that I missed (especially the lower grade books) and it saves me from having to go back and edit my post. I see this Forum as more of a collaboration than a contest (unless noted). Many sets of eyes are better than one.

 

Ultimately, the grade I give is the grade that I am comfortable with, or sometimes I'll simply +1 another grader. If I can't determine a grade I feel good about (without influence) then I won't post it. I'll just close the thread and move on to another.

 

 

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PGM Forumites have rights too!

If you'd like to be heard........

please post your

contributions,

suggestions,

thoughts,

questions and/or ideas here!

 

smiley-signs028.gifthe cause and provide us with new ideas, suggestions or feedback anytime!

 

Any contributions/suggestions/thoughts/questions/feedback and/or ideas to help improve the PGM Forum would be greatly appreciated as well.

Edited by timern
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Sometimes I look at the other grades, sometimes not. But I don't let another person's grade influence mine. I'm more interested in what they viewed in the scan because they may have spotted something that I missed (especially the lower grade books) and it saves me from having to go back and edit my post. I see this Forum as more of a collaboration than a contest (unless noted). Many sets of eyes are better than one.

 

Ultimately, the grade I give is the grade that I am comfortable with, or sometimes I'll simply +1 another grader. If I can't determine a grade I feel good about (without influence) then I won't post it. I'll just close the thread and move on to another.

 

 

DITTO!

I do look sometimes because I once in a great while miss something and

that brings it to my attention.

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Only have a second to post, and I don't know if it's been suggested- I've mentioned many times that the OP shouldn't mention what they feel the grade is for the book they're posting. May be no big deal, but I like to have a clean palate when grading.

 

Congrats on the sticky :)

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Only have a second to post, and I don't know if it's been suggested- I've mentioned many times that the OP shouldn't mention what they feel the grade is for the book they're posting. May be no big deal, but I like to have a clean palate when grading.

 

Congrats on the sticky :)

Hi Scott,

 

I had posted it under hints but I have since added it under the guidelines item #3 as well with your wording provided. I too believe that a clean palate is best when looking to grade a book.

 

And thanks for your inspiration!

 

Cheers!

Tim

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Excellent work Tim, on building this thread.

 

I've added it to my Watched threads.

Thanks Don. We appreciate everyone's encouragement and hope to help make the PGM Forum a more fun and enjoyable experience for all.

 

Cheers!

Tim

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The Watcher (Angelo) gave me a great suggestion a few years ago. He said to tape a piece of colored paper to the top of your scanner. That way it doesn't move around.

 

Blues seem to work best.

 

Nice idea, btw...this thread:)

Incorporated into Guideline #8! Thanks and thanks for the vote of confidence!

Cheers!

Tim

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Suggestion... when or if the comic comes back post what it grade it actually got so we can see how close we got...

Incorporated into the Guidelines #9

Thanks for the thought!

Cheers!

Tim

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Suggestion... when or if the comic comes back post what it grade it actually got so we can see how close we got...

 

We have discussed this. We will do something similar to the grading tournament point system. And keep track that way too.

 

I really like the idea of keeping track.

 

 

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