Couple of things...
1. The difference between 9.4 and 9.8 is half a grade. Lemme say that again: the difference between 9.4 and 9.8 is half a grade. The vast difference in price is solely a function of the market, and the market's desire for perfection. It is not a function of CGC, nor is it a function of the actual differences between 9.4 and 9.8, which are minimal, and cannot be detected by 75% of comic book readers, and 99.999945% of the general public.
2. Your "grader" didn't get it "wrong"...he/she actually did quite well if they came back 9.4 from CGC. There are literally hundreds of "people" who submitted thousands and thousands of books to CGC, especially from 2000-2003, who expected "9.8" and got....7...7.5....8.5....9.2....etc, etc, etc. That's simply because they didn't know how to grade. Nothing more, nothing less. Grading isn't magic. It simply takes experience. Which leads me to....
3. You must learn to look for flaws on a near microscopic level. You cannot "gloss over", as so many have done for decades, minute flaws in the 1/32" to 1/16" range, because those are what seperate 9.8s and lesser graded books. That also means you must look at thousands and thousands and thousands of comics.
I just had a "virgin-esque" overstock find of about 5,000 early-mid (1983-1985) Marvels & DCs that I went through...I spent about 30 hours total, and ended up with about 180 9.8 candidates.
Those were just candidates. 5,000 books, untouched since they went into 10 packs 25 years ago...and only came up with about 180 candidates. That's less than 5 percent. And I turned down all the 9.6 candidates because the owner wanted $1 each (which are now 5.0 candidates, cause they went on store shelves in a used book store. ) 9.6 early-mid 80's Marvels don't sell for much over slabbing cost. We'll see how many pass CGC's pre-screen.
And just because a particular set of graders thinks a book is a 9.6 doesn't mean it's not a slider (either way, but not both.) On another day, a "high side slider" 9.6 could get a 9.8. Or that "low side slider" 9.6 could get a 9.4. Or, a middle of the road 9.6 could conceivably get a 9.8 OR a 9.4 (not likely, but certainly possible.) THAT'S the subjectivity of grading. What you won't get, and won't the OP doesn't seem to understand, is a 4.5 book...without having any work done to it....resubbed and come back a 9.2.
And I've seen plenty of sellers with a straight face try to sell 4.5 books as 9.2....they just use the nomenclature instead.
When everyone stops being obsessed with having that ".8, .9, or 0.0" after the first digit in the left hand corner, the market will level off and stabilize.
It's happened twice before, there's no reason it's not gonna happen now.
Couple of things... 1. The difference between 9.4 and 9.8 is half a grade. Lemme say that again: the difference between 9.4 and 9.8 is half a grade. The vast difference in price is solely a function of the market, and the market's desire for perfection. It is not a function of CGC, nor is it a function of the actual differences between 9.4 and 9.8, which are minimal, and cannot be detected by 75% of comic book readers, and 99.999945% of the general public. 2. Your "grader" didn't get it "wrong"...he/she actually did quite well if they came back 9.4 from CGC. There are literally hundreds of "people" who submitted thousands and thousands of books to CGC, especially from 2000-2003, who expected "9.8" and got....7...7.5....8.5....9.2....etc, etc, etc. That's simply because they didn't know how to grade. Nothing more, nothing less. Grading isn't magic. It simply takes experience. Which leads me to.... 3. You must learn to look for flaws on a near microscopic level. You cannot "gloss over", as so many have done for decades, minute flaws in the 1/32" to 1/16" range, because those are what seperate 9.8s and lesser graded books. That also means you must look at thousands and thousands and thousands of comics. I just had a "virgin-esque" overstock find of about 5,000 early-mid (1983-1985) Marvels & DCs that I went through...I spent about 30 hours total, and ended up with about 180 9.8 candidates. Those were just candidates. 5,000 books, untouched since they went into 10 packs 25 years ago...and only came up with about 180 candidates. That's less than 5 percent. And I turned down all the 9.6 candidates because the owner wanted $1 each (which are now 5.0 candidates, cause they went on store shelves in a used book store. ) 9.6 early-mid 80's Marvels don't sell for much over slabbing cost. We'll see how many pass CGC's pre-screen. And just because a particular set of graders thinks a book is a 9.6 doesn't mean it's not a slider (either way, but not both.) On another day, a "high side slider" 9.6 could get a 9.8. Or that "low side slider" 9.6 could get a 9.4. Or, a middle of the road 9.6 could conceivably get a 9.8 OR a 9.4 (not likely, but certainly possible.) THAT'S the subjectivity of grading. What you won't get, and won't the OP doesn't seem to understand, is a 4.5 book...without having any work done to it....resubbed and come back a 9.2. And I've seen plenty of sellers with a straight face try to sell 4.5 books as 9.2....they just use the nomenclature instead. When everyone stops being obsessed with having that ".8, .9, or 0.0" after the first digit in the left hand corner, the market will level off and stabilize. It's happened twice before, there's no reason it's not gonna happen now.