eastcoaster

Thank you! Makes sense to me.

Weird for there to be no observable consistent meaning for a grade. 10 spine ticks is a 9.8. Zero spine ticks is a 9.8. Dog chewed is a 9.8. It's my secret and no one can say what a 9.8 is! I thought grading used written criteria to compare against. So if my meaning for a 9.8 means 1 allowed small spine tick, I would be in error if I graded a comic with 20 spine ticks a 9.8. Seems pretty sensible to me but you guys are kind of saying all grades are valid and there is no such thing as an error.

OK, I am going to try to return it.

There is a such thing as a bad grade, otherwise grading has zero meaning or value. It is possible for errors to happen.

What did you base your opinion on then?

Really? What are the signs? I thought a case gets noticeably damaged when cracked.

No, it was an eBay purchase.

If you are far enough they all look the same. The point of a fine grading scale is to be picky about fine details.

I'm not saying everyone has the exact same ideas but seriously do you think one CGC collector on the planet would call my comic a 9.8? I'm inclined to think a grading or labeling error was made.

If the seller refuses to take it back can CGC remedy what looks like a serious grading error?

Not really arguing just saying it's bizarre that there is a clearly a general consensus on what a 9.8 looks like that CGC isn't expected to follow and also gets a pass for varying from their own observed grading standards.

No the label is in the case. Maybe there is some misalignment but I think that isn't unheard of. I am not inclined to suspect fraud over a grading issue.

Right so we circle back to the idea that the community knows what a 9.8 looks like but it's OK for the industry leading grader to have their graded results vary wildly and not be aligned with the community. I feel like you're really giving black box grading a pass.

Sure but clearly the number determines market value. You will never get more for a nice 9.2 than a crappy 9.8.

Yeah I guess so but that doesn't put much value on the grade! I get the 'unknowable, subjective' aspect but find it weird that a grade has no definable characteristics that the community agrees on, i.e., most 9.8s have one small spine tick but others have 10 huge ones. An observer would either conclude spine ticks do not matter for 9.8s or errors in grading occur.

In an extreme case, if I grade two comics at 9.8 and one is in ideal condition while the other is missing the cover, how could my grading be trusted? Can I just say my rules are secret and the grade is correct? Sure I could but why would anyone want me to grade their comics?

Here are some pics!

I put some trust in CGC's grade but thought the book was in better condition otherwise I never would have bought it. I only saw the true condition when I received it. I feel like the seller would have been aware of the issue and chose not to highlight it so they could unload it.

So basically just shrug at any and every grade? Just send in any old book and getting a high grade is a black box random function? I'm sure there is some rhyme or reason to grading process but if it defines itself as never wrong with no discernable criteria then it is simply a random grade generator and grades are not linked to condition. Bizarre.

Why not just buy cases and forego 3rd party grading?

If I write a standard saying more than one small spine tick disqualifies a comic from being a 9.8 and a comic with 8 bad ticks still is graded a 9.8, what is the point of grading? Everyone may have their own ideas but certainly any grading body has to at least be self-consistent for their grading to have meaning!

Bought it on eBay from someone who is an experienced collector. They didn't mention the spine ticks and they are barely visible in the photo. I bought a lemon.

I thought there was an announcement that they were pretty much in sync with Overstreet. Clearly the collecting community has ideas about each grade. Not many people replied so far but I'm doubtful a single person on this board would think that comic was a 9.8 or 9.6 candidate. Well, a proper test would be submitting the same comic hundreds of times and plot the grades. Something that's difficult to do, unfortunately. But there would be errors...errors we have to live within the real world because of one-shot grading. Still, the grading goes through several people to protect against this.

Mr. Magoo is making millions based on providing a standard for grading comics. If the process has no remedy against grading errors, then you can assign any grade and it doesn't matter because whatever is on the case is "correct" and indisputable. I don't think re-grading would help beyond proving it shouldn't have been a 9.8. I mean do they stand behind their grading with any warranty? If that's a 9.8 I am very shaken about buying CGC 9.8s. Grading is subjective but there are written standards and I can't believe several bad spine ticks still qualify as a 9.8. All 9.8s I own look pretty much perfect.

I have 9.4s and 9.2s that look much better. I can see maybe a 9.0 or lower. Does CGC help out if they've grossly misgraded? I mean the grades have to mean something otherwise the integrity of the system is compromised.