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Would a visual guide in the Marketplace forum for grading and packing help?

Started by alecholland,

40 posts in this topic

alecholland

alecholland

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Regarding packing:

 

This should be a no brainer, but I see screw up happen all the time. I believe its no more then someone being lazy enough to take the extra effort to secure a book properly for shipping.

 

 

Regarding Grading:

 

I hate saying this but grading is all over the place around here, myself included.

 

Unless you have submitted a fair share of books to CGC for grading, it is hard to properly grade a book in hand.

 

Buy a raw book at a given grade from Nick (FT) or Andy(GAC) to get a better feel/understanding of how to properly grade a book. There are others of course but these two come to mind for me.

 

That's why I was thinking that something like this would just serve as a general guideline. It couldn't cover every possible permutation of every grade, but it could help as a way to visually match a scan of a book you are selling or buying to scans in the thread and get a better understanding what board members like you and others feel represents that grade. That is also why I suggested adding some notes, so people could use those as well to make a determination about grade.

 

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nik

nik

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See, that to me is a major problem. We openly criticize/argue about books slabbed by CGC, but not from boardies.

 

I also am guilty of not outing anyone on the boards due to poor packaging or over grading as I feel it would open up a whole new can of worms.

 

 

The problem with over grading, and this is just my personal opinion, is that some have money vested in the book, i.e. overpaid. They don't want to loose or take a big hit on it so they tend to over grade to recoup as much as they can.

 

If you can be honest with yourself when selling, say you paid $50 for a NM book and you know it's no where near that, sell it at the grade you feel comfortable with even if it means taking a loss, believe me, in the long run this will work best for all parties involved.

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dwip99

dwip99

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Setting it up to where you have to read a guide on packaging and grading before you can sale on the forum would be a great idea and a way to control the amount of people not following the rules of the for sale forum.

 

For me a packing guide would have been great.

 

On the grading side of things the guide should be something simple like:

 

Step one: Submit your books to CGC

Step two: Use the time while you are waiting for them to return to read the forums and get to know some of the people in the community.

Step three: Read the packing guide four or five times.

Step five: Sale all your Daredevil volume one books that you just got back from CGC for 50 percent off the GPA 12 month average.

 

Done.

 

Danny

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alecholland

alecholland

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The best to learn how to grade is to understand the Grading Guide (read it a couple of times) and then just check out books in hand.

 

Definitely the best way to learn (in addition to submitting books to CGC), but it appears that not everyone is doing that.

 

There is no ther way as like you said with the intangibles it's imopssible to get aross in 2D media.

 

This is definitely the main drawback to the idea. However, my thoughts are that if you scan in a comic to sell and grade it say VF/NM and it has a 2" dog ear crease in the lower right corner and a small 1/8" piece missing from the back cover, you could simply check the visual reference in the marketplace and match your scan to some of the scans there and see what grade it matches the closest. It might help to insure for those sellers that are not intentionally overgrading and want help, that their grades were at least close, perhaps only half a grade off instead of 2 or 3 full grades.

 

But the grading guide already offers that. All people have to do is read it and there is no way you'll get a newbie to learn grading in one night when he's drooling over all the Spawn #1's he's about to unleash on the forums.

 

 

I was just about to post all my Gem Mint Spawn #1's I found in my Uncle's garage for sale in the selling forum too. :(

 

I hear what you are saying. My thoughts were basically that something like this might help with some of the issues that have been discussed recently regarding the selling forum. I'm not sure that every person selling in the marketplace has a copy of the OS grading guide or is willing to shell out the money to get one. Of course, this might be part of the problem. hm

 

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alecholland

alecholland

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See, that to me is a major problem. We openly criticize/argue about books slabbed by CGC, but not from boardies.

 

I also am guilty of not outing anyone on the boards due to poor packaging or over grading as I feel it would open up a whole new can of worms.

 

 

The problem with over grading, and this is just my personal opinion, is that some have money vested in the book, i.e. overpaid. They don't want to loose or take a big hit on it so they tend to over grade to recoup as much as they can.

 

If you can be honest with yourself when selling, say you paid $50 for a NM book and you know it's no where near that, sell it at the grade you feel comfortable with even if it means taking a loss, believe me, in the long run this will work best for all parties involved.

 

This is why you are one of the best sellers on the boards. (worship)

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djpinkpanther67

djpinkpanther67

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See, that to me is a major problem. We openly criticize/argue about books slabbed by CGC, but not from boardies.

 

I also am guilty of not outing anyone on the boards due to poor packaging or over grading as I feel it would open up a whole new can of worms.

 

 

The problem with over grading, and this is just my personal opinion, is that some have money vested in the book, i.e. overpaid. They don't want to loose or take a big hit on it so they tend to over grade to recoup as much as they can.

 

If you can be honest with yourself when selling, say you paid $50 for a NM book and you know it's no where near that, sell it at the grade you feel comfortable with even if it means taking a loss, believe me, in the long run this will work best for all parties involved.

That's a great point Nik. I would rather take a hit on what I paid than to sell a book with a misrepresented grade...I consider myself a decent grader but I have had a couple of misfires. :sorry:

:foryou:

For some people this may pose a problem, as they may not be able to financially absorb such a loss as some of us might...

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kidcolt

kidcolt

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Couldn't people just use the overstreet guiding regulations. I am not a prof grader but with proper scans and a bit of common sense I think I can get it right. If not I offer a full refund policy, isn't that all we should require.

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alecholland

alecholland

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They can do that, but based on what I was reading in the thread about the forum marketplace, I don't think they are. My thoughts are that a visual guide within the forum could serve as a quick online reference for those that either don't have their OS grading guide handy or don't have one at all.

 

It could also be used as a way to politely (in a pm) let someone know that their grading looks like it could be a little off. Similar to what we use Usage Guidelines link for - you could simply refer them to the grading guide link.

 

Like I said, it is just an idea.

 

 

 

 

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Dick Pontoon

Dick Pontoon

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Edition 2 is supposed to be the best one, although that’s the one I have and I think it poops the bed. The pictures (in all versions, I think) are barely bigger than most ebay auctions. The pages measure about 5” x 7” I think.

 

There’s no substitute for experience, looking at books from CGC and raw books from people who can grade.

 

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Boozad

Boozad

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Just picked up a 3rd Edition from eBay UK for around $22. A bit pricey but I've wanted to read one of these for quite a while. I don't think I'm that bad at grading although still on a steep learning curve (my next submission should give me some idea of how I've progressed over the past year), but it's always good to take in as much information as possible.

Any type of grading guide on the boards, provided it's done by the tightest graders out there, should really be a good thing as some people may really be shooting in the dark. And really it's free education, and if the boards best graders are willing to put the time into sharing their knowledge with the less informed then they should be appluaded.

 

And a packing guide would be a damn good idea. It's amazing how many people out there don't know how to pack. I've always received top class packages from the numerous buys I've made on the boards, and international packaging is a tricky balance between enough packaging and keeping the weight down.

So for the majority it's probably preaching to the converted, but it would lower the risk of books with a big price tag getting damaged during shipping.

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Old Fashion PB and J

Old Fashion PB and J

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Edition 2 is supposed to be the best one, although that’s the one I have and I think it poops the bed. The pictures (in all versions, I think) are barely bigger than most ebay auctions. The pages measure about 5” x 7” I think.

 

There’s no substitute for experience, looking at books from CGC and raw books from people who can grade.

Agreed 100%. These boards, the people, conventions, and CGC have taught me alot about grading. While there are some things I admit I am still sketchy with. The best teacher is someone who already knows, and first hand experience.
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slym2none

slym2none

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A photo-guide for packing would be pretty easy...

 

hm

 

I could do one for raw books, and I would love to see how everyone else packs up their slabs. I have a pretty long sequence for raw books, but any slab I have ever shipped has been packed in SO much bubble-wrap it's almost ridiculous, and most of the time I try to double-box. A "regular" Priority Mail shipping box just does fit inside of a Flat-Rate box.

 

I think a grading guide would just be ignored by the people who over-grade on purpose. The best thing is to post scans of books worth more than a couple of dollars, or ask a seller for a large scan if not presented in their FS thread.

 

(shrug)

 

 

 

-slym

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