FlyingDonut

No, and even if you think this, stay at the official hotel.

So I set up at the local Annandale show on Saturday here. It didn't snow, just rained. There were more comic books in the room than at the New Orleans show, I'd put money on it. Admission was $3, tables cost $75, and there was no hassle. Big shows are almost entirely - Heroes and Baltimore are the big exception - not comic book shows anymore. Go to a little show.

Around here - DC metro area. Feel free.

Are you referring to this one? If so, these are all over the place around here.

No they're not. This will go away, like every other CGC "scandal" over the last 25 years.

Not sure what theory I'm opining on but sure. None, but fine robotics has nothing to do with this. A great deal. Hardware exists to do this. Like anything it is expensive for quality, but this is not an AI issue. I've used this one - this is a medium-level non-destructive book scanner. You could do a comic book on here in maybe a minute at 600 DPI. A higher-end one would get much higher DPI at the same resolution. I have no idea but this would be essentially a one time expense and you are not creating from whole cloth. It already exists. Many companies do this already. Yes. No, but stop moving the goalposts. Can AI do this? Absolutely. Can it do it in a cost efficient manner quickly? If someone wanted to, sure.

You didn't ask how much it cost. You asked if it could be done in an economically feasible manner. It is completely impossible to answer either of those questions because no one knows how much it would cost to purchase the hardware required - which has nothing to do with the AI - nor does anyone know what the actual software would cost. You are arguing an angels on the head of a pin argument that cannot be answered. Based on my understanding of the technology, the software, and the implementation of AI across multiple industries, if a grading company wanted to use AI and wanted to invest in the hardware required that company would, after about 12 months at the absolute outside, have a grading system that could do many multiples of the throughput that grading companies do now at a significant cost savings. There would also be a very added benefit of no subjectivity in grading - the AI would grade everything the same. There wouldn't be the "Golden Age" bump, for example (unless that was built into the algos by the information at the beginning).

This was your original post. i) This isn't an AI issue, this is a hardware issue. Imaging hardware at a high level already exists and if there was a desire to do so, it could easily be implemented by a grading company. ii) This shows a fundamental lack of understanding what AI is and does. If you 'feed all my info into a computer" the AI will learn. That's the whole point of AI. iii) Not an AI issue, a hardware issue. iv) Not an AI issue, HR and hardware issues, both of which could be addressed by a forward-thinking grading company. v) Again, a fundamental lack of understanding of what AI is and does. The system learns. That's the whole point. vi) Fundamental lack of understanding of what AI is and does. The system learns. That's the whole point. The variables are myriad but the only one that isn't easy to solve is the hardware issue. AI will learn all of the variable, and AI learns at an exponentially higher rate than humans.

Roy - you keep moving the goalposts. The three things you cite all have subjective issues. Grading is objective - or could be made to be - through AI. When would it be economically feasible to implement? Within a year at the outside if they (1) had the hardware technology problems fixed to image pages (and that technology already exists) and (2) wanted to do so. Assuming the imaging issue - which should not be minimized - could be addressed to a satisfactory point, a grading company could increase throughput exponentially. 100% guarantee there will be AI grading of cards at a high level by the end of this year as the technology issue there doesn't exist.

That's not four days apart, that's one day apart - the book was done on Friday. One business day is Monday.

Decades? If someone wanted to and the economics were there you could do it within 12 months, based on the advances in the technology now.

I would imagine that is in AGS cards' business model. Note that the automated grading part of what they're doing is easy as they appear to have solved the hardware issue.

These are not AI problems, they're hardware problems, but ones that could be initially handled through an human operator opening everything and imaging them. Imaging items in a high resolution and high-quality environment is not difficult. Google has been doing it for years and their systems are getting better and better. None of the things you have talked about in this thread (or the other one) are AI issues. If someone wanted to find an econometric model that worked AND was willing to invest in fixing the hardware problem, AI grading of collectibles would be very quick to get to a very high level of confidence - its just learning and continual examples teaching the system how it works. Grading cards using AI is probably coming because the hardware problems would go away.

I work for a firm that is pretty far out on the edge of AI so I'm pretty aware of what is out there because I'm trying to sell it. Everything in this post can be easily fixed with data and changes. AI learns. That's the whole point. There is already AI doing things that were "impossible" 18 months ago and the curve is moving extremely rapidly. If you think AI couldn't be adopted to grade comics, you're just flat out wrong. The reason why it wouldn't happen has nothing to do with the software/how it would work, it wouldn't happen because there's currently no economic reason to do it.

Picked up by local news. Textbook case of corporate clownage.

No you don't.

My dude. Don't over think it. Your comic book is not a comic book, it is a widget. Sell it on the platform that gets you the most eyeballs with the lowest cost. Try to sell it here, but for a book like that I'd use Comiclink. 10% selling fee and they do a great job. It might get lost at Heritage.

Please enjoy and feel free to block supermario_84. I certainly did. supermario_84 (44) Could you cancel and refund the two purchases please, it’s really not worth the shipping cost when I get outbid on almost all of the items im bidding on

Easy seven figures.

Its just money. You can always get more.

Also monster books in January means no income tax paid on them until April 2025, for what that's worth.

Many of you may know - or at least know of - Larry Charet, who is a legend in the Chicago comic community. He, along with other Chicago comic community legends Ross Knight and Joe Sarno, created the Chicago Comicon in 1976 - which is still going today as a Fan Expo show! Larry has come on some hard times recently and our old pal (and my first LCS owner lo those many years ago) @Moondog has started a fundraiser for him for expenses this winter. Moondog has written it out much better than I can - so go to his Go Fund Me page and, if you're so inclined, please donate what you can give. Thanks in advance for your help!