Get Marwood & I

I don't have any books to sell - they're all pence copies, so no one would want them anyway - but I have sent some funds to Jim by PayPal, wishing him well and a speedy recovery. I'm in awe of all the people here who are giving their time and rallying round to support one of our own. CGC may be in trouble again, and their eventual 'nothing to see here' response may well come from an AI robot, but we here - the members of this community - are what this place is all about. People first, comics second. OK, maybe pence comics first, people second, cents copies third. I'm joking! Probably. Jimbo, if you're reading this, I look forward to seeing you posting again very soon. Merry Christmas everyone!

Exactly. AI can grade books like this one below and no one is going to complain about the resulting grade any more than they did when humans were doing it. 9 point something will do. The chances of there being something nasty inside - and it then being discovered - is almost certainly low enough to accept the risk on. As for older books, the grading contests show that a group of people can more or less get within a grade or two of a final CGC grade by looking just at front and back cover scans. And those that miss by two increments say that CGC got it wrong, not them. We all know roughly what a 4.0 looks like, a 6.0 an 8.0 and a 2.0. Give AI enough examples and who knows, maybe it could then make assessments that would be near enough to go widely unchallenged. If it is a grade or two out, who is going to put that down to AI assessment failings? Humans are a grade or two out, day in, day out, and we all live with that. So, does you book matter? That is to say, is it worth anything?: Human grading intervention likely. Does it not?: AI grading, with built in content risk acceptance likely (which is no different to QC not being undertaken. We pay to have it inspected, and we see examples all the time where it clearly wasn't). Anyway, that's the plot of my new Marvel film sorted. "I, Robot Comic Grader". All I need now is my Diversity Check List satisfied and I'm off and running to losing hundreds of millions of dollar pounds

Haven't we had this discussion already Roy - in the CGC QC thread and also in a separate AI thread that you started? Based on the CGC article below, I suspect the technology exists to allow them to safely grade moderns without much / any human intervention. Page count could be assessed by weight, and the software can detect sizing and cover flaws. In the cases where CGC slab moderns, fresh from the printers, what percentage of them do you think would have internal issues like missing pages or coupons? If historic data, say, showed that less than 0.001% of moderns have page count issues, would any business still count them? If a modern is missing pages, it will flag by weight in the same way that supermarket self-checkouts do. Or it will get slabbed, and no one will ever know unless they crack it out. Who cracks open moderns, having purchased them in a slab, or sent them in to be slabbed? Do you remember that high grade modern that was printed to look like it was a old beat up comic? CGC graded it a 2.0 or something like that and we all laughed thinking a person had made the error. Maybe no human ever looked at it. Think about it - how exactly did Carney's AI platform eliminate a backlog of 1M collectibles, if not by grading them too? If it identified 1M collectibles in a flash and sent them to work queues, people would still have to manually grade them so the backlog would remain. Or do we believe that CGC had graders sitting around waiting for collectibles to be assigned to them? People are always commenting on how their 9.6 should or could have been a 9.8, and vice versa. We're all open to the possibility of two different graders arriving at two different grades. So for moderns, would you build a manually intensive grading operation if you knew that AI could do the majority of the work and hit the same error margins as people do? People will likely always grade the older, expensive books. What company is going to pay people to check that the latest Spider-Gwen has the right number of pages? https://www.cgccomics.com/news/article/11945/ "Carney has been the instrumental leader in building a proprietary platform that enables CCG to identify a collectible from among millions of possibilities in a near-instant using artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and advanced computer vision and image processing technologies."

Same here, Jim. You're part of the fabric of our board lives and we're all sending positive vibes your way from across the pond

That is marvellous

Blimey, I'd forgotten that. A few of them escaped. Looking forward to being reminded which it was

It's a bit busy, on reflection, but thank you And a very Merry Christmas to you too Richmond. Sterling contributions from you this year. Looking forward to UST in the New Year!

I suspect that most people of a certain age would agree with you. I find it hard to compare the new with the old in a way, as the show is very different now to what it was. Tom Baker is the Doctor, yes, but so is Peter Capaldi, for me. They occupy equal status in my mind, but in their different eras, if that makes sense. There will always be good and great Doctor Who, I suspect. The last three specials each had some really good moments and, though they were a sea change in quality from the Chibnall era, I found them oddly superficial. Tennant was too human, quaking where Capaldi would've just shrugged, solved and ate chips. The bigeneration thing doesn't work for me at all, but I've always disliked big grand, modern attempts at rewriting the basics. The idea that there are now two current Doctors, each with separate - from the point of splitting - lives, experiences and memories, is a dilution that I do not like. That's very different to 15 Doctors flying around in their respective time streams, each with only their knowledge of their own and predecessors experiences. I suppose I'm a bit old fashioned in that respect though. I like there to be one Spider-Man, not a thousand spread across multiple universes. I'm not a fan of RTDs fondness for ridiculous silliness being used to overcome a plot issue. Need a TARDIS for each Doctor? Just hit it with a big hammer. Maybe that would have worked back when I was ten. I do think, in a way, RTD is making the show for families now. Much has been written about his focus on diversity and, whilst I'm all for it in many ways, I do think he's laid it on with a trowel this time. I suspect he's revelling in it to a degree. I'd prefer he revelled a little more in the storytelling myself. Overall, I much prefer an older actor to play the Doctor as they carry a sense of gravity. Or mavity, I should say. And I like the series to be cleverly written. He didn't always get it right, but Moffat had an intelligence in his writing that I miss. His humour, too, was more intelligent than slap stick. Anyway, I said I wasn't going to bang on but here I am starting to bang. I know what I'd like to see, but I know that I'm unlikely to see it again now. That's OK. I got to see it while it was the best it could be (for me). That'll do.

$1234.56

I'd watched it for years prior, but that was when I really started paying attention. Some of the Davison episodes haven't held up that well, but there's something magical about it all still. I've quite enjoyed posting in this thread over the years but the participation has always been on the low side so it's nice to see some new faces. And a nice reference to AYBS there by the way, Red. I won't repeat my Mrs Slocombe joke, as I got a strike the last time I did. At least that got someone's attention Yes. It's probably illegal to say it out loud nowadays, but it certainly added to the magic...

The little priest, is he dead yet?

I also like that the other proper Doctor steadfastly avoids returning lest the memory of his tenure be tarnished by associating with the seemingly relentless box of horrors that the show became from the precise moment he left.

I like that he beholds the others with mild contempt.

A motley crew, if ever I saw one. I'm hoping that I haven't missed anyone

It's in the DC thread Stephen - starts about here and goes on for a few pages after: https://boards.cgccomics.com/topic/415409-dc-uk-price-variants/?do=findComment&comment=10079475

And then there's the boxes on the floor. I can't remember exactly when it happened, but I can no longer get up from looking in them without groaning.

Thank you, Dee Two I've always mucked about with labels and stuff for my books. It's all part of the fun. Indeed. I've been going to comic fairs and shops for 40+ years and in all that time it still hasn't occurred to most dealers to not overstuff their boxes and to not - and this is a pet hate - put them two deep on a table so you have to break your back reaching over to see what's in the one furthest from you. The clue is on the box label Always make your comics look pretty, Stormflora Ultimate Guard:

Ta. If a job's worth doing....

Well said, Justafan. I think the volume of variants was overwhelming and drove a lot of us to give up ASM completism. I gave up at issue 700, and the disillusionment with the variant situation probably affected my overall mood and played a part in my eventual decision to sell. Space was a big issue for me - when you nearly fill a box with the variants of one relaunch issue, and you don't own a mansion, your hand is forced. I wouldn't mind, but 95% of the ASM v3 relaunch covers were awful anyway. And then there was the 143 issues for #666.... A collection based on endless growth is UNSUSTAINABLE!

Krang a lang, ding dong Krang a lang, ding ding dong Krang a lang a langa langa langa ding dong, Krang a lang a langa langa langa ding Oh, oh, I've got a monster named Krang a Lang, a lang a Langa Ding Dong He's everything to me Krang a Lang, a lang a Langa Ding Dong I'll never set him free 'Cause he's mine, oh mine!

Someone call me?