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Grading Experience
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20 posts in this topic

24 minutes ago, Taneleer Tivan said:

What are the best ways/methods to learn accurate grading, yourself?

Go to the hey buddy, can you spare a grade section.  You will see front and back cover scans of books, where boardies guess the grade.  Study the threads for a while, then participate.  

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2 minutes ago, comicdonna said:

Go to the hey buddy, can you spare a grade section.  You will see front and back cover scans of books, where boardies guess the grade.  Study the threads for a while, then participate.  

I'm interested in knowing how they come to their conclusions, though. Like how their grading notes stack up to the grade outcome. Is monitoring that forum still the best resource for that?

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One of the tings I did when I wanted to start to learn about the process was to pick up a copy of the Overstreet Grading Guide to Comics.

Plenty of cheap used ones on Ebay.  CGC standards aren't the same as OS but it's a very good start IMO

On the PGM forum, posters often return to the topic they created and post the grade they eventually received back from CGC.   Usually they mod the title to indicate a grade has returned from CGC.   So you could look at some of those threads to see how the estimates stacked up against the eventually grade

Keep in mind though, many times the comic which is posted about has not gone thru a press/cleaning service.   Quite often that comic is then pressed/cleaned before going to CGC so the comic can be in better shape than what was originally posted.

 

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3 hours ago, Taneleer Tivan said:

What are the best ways/methods to learn accurate grading, yourself?

I was intimidated at first how to start out and wondered the same thing. I too studied the "Hey Buddy, Can you Spare a Grade?" threads. Invaluable for getting experience. I don't put my guesses out there, but I usually come close to where the "experts" here land. Most of these guys know their stuff and you'll notice the grading is usually consistent from post to post. 

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And you never stop learning. I started grading/trading/selling comics in 1987 and was considered a tight grader among my peers. A couple of decades later I started dealing with MCS and learned that I still had things to learn.

If you want examples of pzzz poor grading I would say check out about 75% of ebay's listings.

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6 hours ago, comicdonna said:

Go to the hey buddy, can you spare a grade section.  You will see front and back cover scans of books, where boardies guess the grade.  Study the threads for a while, then participate.  

^^
https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/forum/42-hey-buddy-can-you-spare-a-grade/

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6 hours ago, Taneleer Tivan said:

I'm interested in knowing how they come to their conclusions, though. Like how their grading notes stack up to the grade outcome. Is monitoring that forum still the best resource for that?

You can also go to the Heritage Auction site and study the graded comics from current and past auctions. It allows you to examine books in all grade ranges to get a better idea of how CGC views certain flaws. It's an invaluable tool for anyone, even experienced graders...  :foryou:

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I will also say t hat I bought an Overstreet Grading Guide and studied it.

Grading comes with experience. If you are just starting out, familiarize yourself with one of the Overstreet guides. This will allow you to at least narrow down a wide range such as your Fair/Poors, Goods, Very Goods, Fines and Very Fines

After that, experience will hone your skills. If you are selling and are worried about assigning a bad grade, just include lots of pictures. Notate any flaws such as creases, rips, tears, writing, clipped coupons, stains etc. And let the buyer decide.

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Spoiler

 

On 1/9/2019 at 9:47 PM, BlowUpTheMoon said:

To see how the Tournament works, here are links to previous Tournaments:

March Madness 2018

March Madness 2017

March Madness 2016

March Madness 2015:

March Madness 2014:

March Madness 2013:

 

 

 

 

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I started with googling how to grade comics and picked up a copy of OS grading guide and spent a ton of time in the "hey buddy can you spare a grade" section of the forums researched about certain defects. Currently trying to hone my skills at Resto detection but tools help that along otherwise with Resto its just best guesses and watching for suspect clues. 

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1 hour ago, Krishosein said:

I started with googling how to grade comics and picked up a copy of OS grading guide and spent a ton of time in the "hey buddy can you spare a grade" section of the forums researched about certain defects. Currently trying to hone my skills at Resto detection but tools help that along otherwise with Resto its just best guesses and watching for suspect clues. 

After awhile it will jump right out at you... :gossip:

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8 minutes ago, Karl Liebl said:

Send a few books in and you will learn fast...

I have and I'm starting to get better at CT but trimming still eludes me as there are so many different and bad cuts on silver age books that even when it looks suspect to me it might be ok. So still learning the ropes there. (:

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6 minutes ago, Krishosein said:

I have and I'm starting to get better at CT but trimming still eludes me as there are so many different and bad cuts on silver age books that even when it looks suspect to me it might be ok. So still learning the ropes there. (:

Trimming is one of the most difficult things to detect, because every book is trimmed, it just depends upon who did the trimming and what tool was used. There are many examples of books that have been trimmed after the manufacturing process, but sometimes it's very difficult to prove. I can guarantee you that even the experts will occasionally miss it. So keep looking, and keep learning...  (thumbsu

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1 minute ago, The Lions Den said:

Trimming is one of the most difficult things to detect, because every book is trimmed, it just depends upon who did the trimming and what tool was used. There are many examples of books that have been trimmed after the manufacturing process, but sometimes it's very difficult to prove. I can guarantee you that even the experts will occasionally miss it. So keep looking, and keep learning...  (thumbsu

Thanks @The Lions Den.. I will keep learning more every day.. been lots of fun and I keep getting better which is fun as well. 

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