Intro and Grade Issue 0

[Antimaster]

Hello to all, this is my first topic here, and long overdue.

 

Not going to bore yall to tears, but after 40+ years of buying and selling, I've begun to fulfill a lifelong dream of acquiring high grade silver and bronze books for clients (and myself).   Overall, I'm going to give myself props for grading, I'm extremely critical of my own books, let alone ones I'm getting for others.

 

That being said, I have one issue that continues to bother me.  I struggle grading beautiful books that have one glaring defect.  I tend to look at all the grade defects and see none of them present save for one, and it makes me less trustful of my instincts.

 

For example, look at this copy of Silver Surfer 6.  Outwardly and inwardly, it's gorgeous.  One light crease on the FC lower right. One staple abrasion causing a 1/4" spine crease. But.

 

Somewhere along the way, someone tore the spine upward along the binding, 7/8".  And then put what looks to have been tape up the spine.  The tape has long come and gone, but the color from it stained the spine along the tear area.

 

Again, the covers are flat, corners sharp, no stains, OW or better pages.

 

Without that tear, this is a VF+ book. 

 

One major bad makes it what?  VG?  VG+? VG/F?  Surely no better than that.

 

Anyway, a wise man told me if you don't know know, ask someone who does.  So I am.  I'd appreciate your thoughts.

[marvelmaniac]

Welcome To The Boards!!!

Just from the two pics you have shown I say that book is in the VF- 7.5 to VF 8.0 range without the spine split.

(Minor edge/corner wear, color breaking stress line by the word "without", slight cover discoloration)

IMO, with the spine split the book drops to a FN- 5.5/FN 6.0 since this is the first grade allowing/mentioning any spine split.

What would CGC grade this book...Unfortunately nobody knows that, you would have to submit it and see.

The only other way is if a member has a CGC graded book in similar condition with the same defects...

[theCapraAegagrus]

I wouldn't grade this above 4.5.

[The Lions Den]

For what it's worth, the problem with this copy isn't just that the spine is split at the bottom. A book in otherwise high grade condition could still receive a grade in the 6.0 range with a 1" spine split---I've seen numerous examples to support this. But the flaw that really compounds the issue is the tape stain and residue. So you first have to decide which grades are going to be ruled out. I personally can't see giving this book a 6.0 or higher. And I think we could agree that this is better than a 4.0. So what we have left are 4.5, 5.0 and 5.5. In cases where there are three possible grades, I usually shoot for the middle one, but I don't disagree with the other grades either... 

 

 

 

[1950's war comics]

VG+

[William-James88]

As lion's den said you have 2 major bads: the spine split AND the tape. So that makes it much easier to judge it. I would assume a 4.5 for this book.

[The Lions Den]

18 hours ago, The Lions Den said:

For what it's worth, the problem with this copy isn't just that the spine is split at the bottom. A book in otherwise high grade condition could still receive a grade in the 6.0 range with a 1" spine split---I've seen numerous examples to support this. But the flaw that really compounds the issue is the tape stain and residue. So you first have to decide which grades are going to be ruled out. I personally can't see giving this book a 6.0 or higher. And I think we could agree that this is better than a 4.0. So what we have left are 4.5, 5.0 and 5.5. In cases where there are three possible grades, I usually shoot for the middle one, but I don't disagree with the other grades either... 

 

 

 

And this is based upon the presumption that there's nothing else going on with the rest of the book...

[Antimaster]

That's exactly what I was hoping to hear actually.  The compound spine issue really was bugging me, but I feel like my grading skills are still intact lol.

 

Thanks for the input guys, I'm finding the topics really fun.