7th Annual Green Eggs Grading Contest - Round 4 6 6

[JJ Speederman]

Finally... double bullseye! 

[skypinkblu]

52 minutes ago, kav said:

Here's what I saw on the Kamandi but still felt it was more than a 9.2:
 

I lowered it to a 7.5 for the stain and the corners. That's a pretty big stain.

The ASM I was between 5.0 and 4.5, so I did what I always do and lower it. 

Maybe there is a reason my books usually come back higher than the grades I give them, lol. I should send more in.

[Black_Adam]

Yeesh 

 

[spidermanbeyond]

57 minutes ago, skypinkblu said:

I lowered it to a 7.5 for the stain and the corners. That's a pretty big stain.

The ASM I was between 5.0 and 4.5, so I did what I always do and lower it. 

Maybe there is a reason my books usually come back higher than the grades I give them, lol. I should send more in.

Don't magnify so much.  Believe me, it does not help.  You end up killing the book for every defect even though not that big if you looked at it in normal size and actually had the book in hand.

[kav]

2 minutes ago, spidermanbeyond said:

Don't magnify so much.  Believe me, it does not help.  You end up killing the book for every defect even though not that big if you looked at it in normal size and actually had the book in hand.

This

[Harry Lime]

Wow, I'm almost shocked that the Kamandi got a 9.4 with all those flaws.

The ASM was one ugly looking book but I knew it would get another gift grade and raised the bar accordingly although not quite high enough.

[skypinkblu]

3 hours ago, spidermanbeyond said:

Don't magnify so much.  Believe me, it does not help.  You end up killing the book for every defect even though not that big if you looked at it in normal size and actually had the book in hand.

[Get Marwood & I]

1 hour ago, Harry Lime said:

Wow, I'm almost shocked that the Kamandi got a 9.4 with all those flaws.

The ASM was one ugly looking book but I knew it would get another gift grade and raised the bar accordingly although not quite high enough.

I'd be embarrassed to sell that ASM as a 5.0 personally and was thinking my 4.0 was a gift. But I think I tend to punish moderns more for grade characteristic flaws and, comparing it to an old silver age 5.0, I can kind of see how it meets the 5.0 criteria. Also, the black covers over emphasise everything. 

I do think my own standards are too harsh and out of step with the hobby in general based on what I see here, on ebay and from dealers. I've always had a problem giving books with clearly visible flaws 9.0 or above. As a bloke at work once told me, find your standard, lower it 20%, and you'll fit in.

[Point Five]

4 hours ago, skypinkblu said:

Maybe there is a reason my books usually come back higher than the grades I give them, lol. I should send more in.

Honestly Sharon, I have always been super conservative about slabbing. I don’t think I’ve ever submitted more than 1-2 books a year, due to the cost, effort and wait time involved. But keeping tabs on the grades that folks were getting back in the past year, I concluded exactly the same thing re current CGC standards vs my own raw grading. 

I submitted six books in the summer and have another eight being graded right now, and results have been very, very good, with everything so far coming back either right on target (even after recalibrating my thinking a touch higher), or still higher yet than expected.

In fact, the massive GA bump to 5.0 I got on one book alone (vs the price I would have put on it as the raw 3.5/4.0 I was sure it was) quite easily paid for the full grading fees for all 14. A good lesson to take more chances!

 

[Harry Lime]

2 hours ago, Get Marwood & I said:

I'd be embarrassed to sell that ASM as a 5.0 personally and was thinking my 4.0 was a gift. But I think I tend to punish moderns more for grade characteristic flaws and, comparing it to an old silver age 5.0, I can kind of see how it meets the 5.0 criteria. Also, the black covers over emphasise everything. 

I do think my own standards are too harsh and out of step with the hobby in general based on what I see here, on ebay and from dealers. I've always had a problem giving books with clearly visible flaws 9.0 or above. As a bloke at work once told me, find your standard, lower it 20%, and you'll fit in.

We certainly seem to be in a time of great leniency. Perhaps I should send in my FF 14. It should make at least a 3.0!

[1Cool]

I’m keeping pace with someone who doesn’t submit grades.  Was debating between a 9.0/9.2 with all those corner crunches and went 9.0.  I looked at a few 4.0 and 4.5 ASM 300sand that one was worse so I went 3.5 but I’d have probably picked 4.0 if I was selling it.

[adampasz]

I had 9.0 on the Kamandi. LLFC killed it for me.  (Thanks @kav for the close-ups.)

Went 4.0 on the ASM. Looks like someone dropped it in the garbage disposal.

Edited September 29, 2019 by adampasz

[adampasz]

10 hours ago, skypinkblu said:

I lowered it to a 7.5 for the stain and the corners. That's a pretty big stain.

Are you referring to the vertical smudge on the back? Or something else?

In my experience, CGC is pretty lenient about ink smudges -- which is what I thought it was.

[skypinkblu]

7 hours ago, Point Five said:

Honestly Sharon, I have always been super conservative about slabbing. I don’t think I’ve ever submitted more than 1-2 books a year, due to the cost, effort and wait time involved. But keeping tabs on the grades that folks were getting back in the past year, I concluded exactly the same thing re current CGC standards vs my own raw grading. 

I submitted six books in the summer and have another eight being graded right now, and results have been very, very good, with everything so far coming back either right on target (even after recalibrating my thinking a touch higher), or still higher yet than expected.

In fact, the massive GA bump to 5.0 I got on one book alone (vs the price I would have put on it as the raw 3.5/4.0 I was sure it was) quite easily paid for the full grading fees for all 14. A good lesson to take more chances!

 

Jon, I rarely slabbed anything until about 5 or 6 years ago. Maybe 10-20 books a year? At the time I had at least 6,000-7,000 books, so it was a really small percentage. Then I sent a Miss Fury 5, that both I and Billy Parker graded at 5.0 and it came back as an 8.0, so I started sending a lot more in.

I kept a spread sheet two years ago, I was under on 75 of  100 books, on target for 22. The next time I submitted that many I "loosened" up and I was on target 60% of the time and under 35, over for 5%. Kind of like what I'm seeing here. I should add that I was personally not happy with my "loosened" grades and the original ones I had on my spreadsheet were still around 75 % lower.
 

I am going to try the rest of this thread without magnifying, it was a kind suggestion, so thank you @spidermanbeyond

I magnify when I sell anything except really inexpensive books, so that's probably what happens a lot. I use a lighted magnifier or I scan and blow up the scan. Then when I post a sales thread sometimes i see things in scans I missed and I lower them again.

It's OK, I don't sell books for a living, so I'm happier if I am conservative, I worry about overgrading a lot more than undergrading. I try to be fair and if I'm in-between, I go lower.

I've never gotten feedback from someone saying they were mad at me because my grades were too low;) 

Edited September 29, 2019 by skypinkblu

[skypinkblu]

2 hours ago, adampasz said:

Are you referring to the vertical smudge on the back? Or something else?

In my experience, CGC is pretty lenient about ink smudges -- which is what I thought it was.

That never crossed my mind, I thought it was a moisture stain. Thank you, learn something every day.

[adampasz]

1 hour ago, skypinkblu said:

That never crossed my mind, I thought it was a moisture stain. Thank you, learn something every day.

Relative to other defects, they can be pretty brutal about back cover stains that go into the interior. 

[kav]

4 hours ago, adampasz said:

15 hours ago, skypinkblu said:

I lowered it to a 7.5 for the stain and the corners. That's a pretty big stain.

Are you referring to the vertical smudge on the back? Or something else?

In my experience, CGC is pretty lenient about ink smudges -- which is what I thought it was.

You guys havent you ever seen the back of a comic?  That is grime from rubbing on dirty surfaces and very common and easily removed with a white eraser altho Joey would tell you not to do that.

[kav]

12 hours ago, Harry Lime said:

The ASM was one ugly looking book but I knew it would get another gift grade and raised the bar accordingly although not quite high enough.

It's the gift that keeps on giving.

[adampasz]

18 minutes ago, kav said:

You guys havent you ever seen the back of a comic?  That is grime from rubbing on dirty surfaces and very common and easily removed with a white eraser altho Joey would tell you not to do that.

None of the comics in my collection look like that. :P

[kav]

Just now, adampasz said:

None of the comics in my collection look like that. :P

buy some raw SA lots-you'll see