A Grading Experiment: Anyone ever tried it?

[minutekev@50]

Specifically, I'm talking about purchasing the same book from three or four different dealers (in stated NM condition) and shipping them off to CGC for grading?

I'm thinking about trying this.

[sfilosa]

I would be very interested in the results.

 

You probably would need to pick an older book (late Silver-Age or early Bronze-Age) to get the best comparison. Then either buy a NM or at worst NM-. Then send to CGC and see what happens.

 

I picked the time frame because you need to find a book that many dealers have.

 

I picked the condition because the grade can be (should be) more subjective in the lower grades. I say this because of the accumulated defect rule. Where as high-grade books have a limited amount and limited type of defects allowed, lower grade books have a wide range of defects allowed.

 

Sounds like a good experiment. While you might not financially benefit at first, if you can find a dealer who is very accurate grader, it could save you a lot in the long-term.

 

[joe_collector]

Actually, Scottish did this awhile back and posted his results. Let's just say MH Chuck didn't exactly come out smelling like a rose...

[minutekev@50]

I wouldn't even consider Chuck in this...

[Fan4Fan]

Why would you need to send them to CGC?

 

It seems optimistic (based on my experience with mail-order dealers) that you would have books that were so close in grade and so close TO the desired grade, that you would need a pro to tell you the difference.

 

That said, I'd think that you'd need same-grade copies of several books from different dealers to get a more accurate assessment of their grading practices.

 

Thanks,

Fan4Fan

[minutekev@50]

They'd all be noted as the same grade by the dealers...also, I think I'll try two different experiments...one with a Key book and one with a non-Key. Let's find out if a dealer overgrades a book just because of desirability alone...

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

Let's see...grading is a tad subjective, right? So...

 

You may be purchasing raw books that are overgraded/undergraded because the dealer is: bummed/happy/tired/bored/stressed/oversexed/undersexed/blah blah blah

 

Then, you want to see how they "really" are graded by our friends at CGC, who may or may not overgrade or undergrade your books because they are:bummed/happy/tired/bored/stressed/oversexed/undersexed/etc.

 

Hmm..what exactly do you hope to accomplish here?

 

I have a better suggestion...why not buy a half dozen books from the same dealer and see how his grading compares first to his own, and then to yours.

[sfilosa]

I think the point of the experiment is to see how a dealers grade compares to CGC.

 

No question that one book form each dealer is not a large enough sample to get an accurate assesment, but if one dealer sells you a NM book and it comes back VF, draw your own conclusion.

 

[Fan4Fan]

All I'm saying is that I know that a book that has 4 spine creases is not NM... and I have gotten several from several dealers that fall into this category. I didn't need the added expense of CGC to tell me this.

 

Thanks,

Fan4Fan

[sfilosa]

All I'm saying is that I know that a book that has 4 spine creases is not NM... and I have gotten several from several dealers that fall into this category. I didn't need the added expense of CGC to tell me this.

 

Thanks,

Fan4Fan

 

I believe the serverity of the stress line makes a huge difference. I know that I have a CGC NM Bronze-Age book that has at least three extremely small stress lines that do break color. And I'm pretty sure that if this was a Golden-Age book, it would probably be graded higher.

 

Take a look at the close up scans of Gaines File copies on Heritage's website. I've sold a CGC NM+ Gaines File copy that had a very faint, corner crease that was at least 1/4".

 

My real point was that a perfect (no defect book) is a 10.0, then it stands to reason that a 9.9 has some defect and a 9.8 could have an additional defect or the one defect is more servere.

 

 

[Fan4Fan]

Oh, I agree that the higher purported grade the easier it is to call them out on it.

 

However, those are easier to grade, too, exactly for the same reason since there is less wiggle room.

 

My main interest is Bronze, so it is generally easy to distinguish a 9.0 from a 9.6 for example.

 

Or you would think... I have gotten 8.0's that were said to be 9.4.

 

In those cases, CGC is superfluous.

 

Thanks,

Fan4Fan

[mrwoogieman]

But how will you know which book is from which dealer when they're returned by CGC?

[minutekev@50]

Good question. Hopefully the books are a bit different.

If not, I could just ship them one at a time.

[fantastic_four]

All I'm saying is that I know that a book that has 4 spine creases is not NM... and I have gotten several from several dealers that fall into this category. I didn't need the added expense of CGC to tell me this.

Amazingly, CGC disagrees with you! This is the first 9.4 with four spine stresses I've personally seen, but someone told me last night they've seen several others. Check this out:

Click for larger image

[Fan4Fan]

Well, I did later qualify that I was talking more in terms of Bronze books. I have also seen leniency with Silver.

 

My LCS showed me some of his returns and a Bronze Age book that looked at pristine was graded .6 lower than a Silver book with obvious problems.

 

I'm not big on CGC for the same reason that I don't think this experiment is the best. Everyone has an off-day and the standards are not sufficiently tight enough to prevent subjectivity.

 

What we would need is a robo-grader that has all of the standards (and then some) programmed in and various non-invasive ways of determining them.

 

Thanks,

Fan4Fan