I Wonder What COnrad Eschenberg Thought when he first saw this book?

[slym2none]

I'd take this copy over no copy at all, I'll tell you that.

 

 

 

-slym

[bronzilla]

And thats why this hobby is great.

 

Where some people see a pos book with holes punched in it , others see a HG book with a set of acceptable flaws.

 

I personally would rather have the binder copy over a similarly grade dog eared, chipped up copy because while the holes are distracting, the right edge trumps them because of how unearthly perfect it is.

 

 

 

 

I agree this hobby is Great, and what bothers one person in a comic hardly matters to another. But we are talking three HOLES! Three Holes running through the entire book!! I dont see how that gets a qualified grade. Does this mean that an otherwise 9.4 book with water damage running through the entire Book will get the Qualified grade?? Howzabout Subscription creases? How many times has that happened? Has that ever happened on any Book? If it did I guess you could argue that it makes sense for the Qualified Grade since the book is in one peice.

CGC offers a great and reputable service. They are THE, Blue Ribbon Grading company, but books like this hurt credibility, and that goes against the entire point of their service which of course is Credibility.

I lean towards agreement with the Folks who say they would rather have this book than a ratty vg copy. But that is a moot point. We arent talking about personal preferance we are talking about Verification and Consistency.Not to mention Grading standards set down by Overstreet and pretty much agreed to by most in our Industry.

Not trying to PIZZZ anyone off here If I did my apologies. I just dont get this grade. And I dont think I have heard any one who can explain it in a way that makes sense.

[the blob]

well, in some ways this is a silly qualified grade, but in other ways it makes some sense from a market liquidity/information perspective.

 

if it said 2.5, you wouldn't know, based on a fuzzy scan or whatever how much of the downgrade was due to the holes and might wonder if it had some other problems too.

 

here, you know the book is really very tight OTHER than those 3 holes.

 

by the way, those holes are absolutely pristine.

 

 

[Ze-man]

Because CGC acquiesed to dealers suggestion that a Qualified label might better help them sell otherwise HG books with a one major flaw?

 

Just a guess, but it makes sense if you think it through.

 

I have long said the Qualified label drives me bananas because a case can be made for both pro or con needing and not needing it.

 

[rob_react]

I agree this hobby is Great, and what bothers one person in a comic hardly matters to another. But we are talking three HOLES! Three Holes running through the entire book!! I dont see how that gets a qualified grade.

 

then you simply don't believe in the idea of a Qualified Grade.

 

The plain fact is this- calling this book GD+ is inaccurate. It doesn't even BEGIN to tell the story of this book. Which is why it's a PERFECT use of the Qualified Grade. The Qualified Grade indicates that there's one, unique, tragic flaw with a book that needs further explanation to fully detail the book's "condition."

 

Ask yourself this- if you were selling this book raw, would you list it as GD+ and not qualify your description in any way? Any sane dealer would list it with something like the following QUALIFICATION in their listing

 

"it appears to be a Near Mint book, but there are three perfect binder holes running through the entire book"

[Bronty]

I agree this hobby is Great, and what bothers one person in a comic hardly matters to another. But we are talking three HOLES! Three Holes running through the entire book!! I dont see how that gets a qualified grade.

 

then you simply don't believe in the idea of a Qualified Grade.

 

The plain fact is this- calling this book GD+ is inaccurate. It doesn't even BEGIN to tell the story of this book. Which is why it's a PERFECT use of the Qualified Grade.

 

"it appears to be a Near Mint book, but there are three perfect binder holes running through the entire book"

 

I agree but I think you need the before and after grades for the qualified grade to mean anything. (ie. not all Q9.4s are created equal)

 

Much in the same way dealers used to say "vg+ (otherwise NM but chunk missing from cover)"

[Bronty]

Of course, some guys took that to excess back in the day and you'd get descriptions approaching

 

"good (otherwise NM but copy is missing a piece from front cover, has water damage throughout, 'Elrod' written on back cover in magic marker, 5" mouse chew at bottom fc, cover detached from staples, centerfold missing, and rusty staples)"

 

...and that was before the undisclosed color touch lol

[AtlasFan]

I agree this hobby is Great, and what bothers one person in a comic hardly matters to another. But we are talking three HOLES! Three Holes running through the entire book!! I dont see how that gets a qualified grade.

 

then you simply don't believe in the idea of a Qualified Grade.

 

The plain fact is this- calling this book GD+ is inaccurate. It doesn't even BEGIN to tell the story of this book. Which is why it's a PERFECT use of the Qualified Grade. The Qualified Grade indicates that there's one, unique, tragic flaw with a book that needs further explanation to fully detail the book's "condition."

 

Ask yourself this- if you were selling this book raw, would you list it as GD+ and not qualify your description in any way? Any sane daler would list it with something liek the following QUALIFICATION in their listing

 

"it appears to be a Near Mint book, but there are three perfect binder holes running through the entire book"

 

I, for one, always thought that the "Qualified" grade was indeed a distraction from a book's true condition and price. It is very confusing for a buyer to know how to price a qualified book. I say, if a Qualified AF15 9.2 is priced the same as a AF15 4.0, then the book should be called a 4.0. The holes in the book take the condition down -- despite the fact that it may have white pages, razor sharp corners, and blinding cover gloss...

 

Using the Qualified grade is like saying. NM- except for 3 holes punched out of the book - a obvious marketing ploy to make something sound better than it really is. I say, discontinue the "qualified" grade.

 

I would revise the above quote as:

"its precisely a GD due to the fact that there are three perfect binder holes running through the entire book"

[Sal]

I agree this hobby is Great, and what bothers one person in a comic hardly matters to another. But we are talking three HOLES! Three Holes running through the entire book!! I dont see how that gets a qualified grade.

 

then you simply don't believe in the idea of a Qualified Grade.

 

The plain fact is this- calling this book GD+ is inaccurate. It doesn't even BEGIN to tell the story of this book. Which is why it's a PERFECT use of the Qualified Grade. The Qualified Grade indicates that there's one, unique, tragic flaw with a book that needs further explanation to fully detail the book's "condition."

 

Ask yourself this- if you were selling this book raw, would you list it as GD+ and not qualify your description in any way? Any sane dealer would list it with something like the following QUALIFICATION in their listing

 

"it appears to be a Near Mint book, but there are three perfect binder holes running through the entire book"

 

Bah.

 

 

 

Bah, I say! The Qualified grade is STUPID. The grade is the grade. There is no "It would be a (blank) but it's got (defect x)" in my world, and when I am King, the Qualified grade is going the way of Entertainment Tonight and the Designated Hitter. Right in the rubbish bin

[Bronty]

but the problem is that coming up with a grade for a book like this is SUCH a judgement call. Two reasonable people could grade it miles apart. I grade that a 2.0. Seems others in this thread might grade it a 4.0.

 

So it does make sense.... but yes it is a distraction/stupid IMO without the before and after grades...

 

 

[VintageComics]

The qualified grade is useful because some people don't care about the technical grade as much as they do readability and eye appeal. It happens all the time. People pay top dollar for a lower grade book with super high grade eye appeal and readability. In this case I think it's justified.

 

Again, each will have his or her own spin on it but that's my take. There is no right and wrong...only preference.

 

R.

 

 

[rob_react]

I would revise the above quote as:

"its precisely a GD due to the fact that there are three perfect binder holes running through the entire book"

 

Really? If you were selling it you wouldn't mention that it was otherwise perfect? how about if you owned it and were describing it to someone without an image? It would just be a boring old GD+ because of the technical grade?

[FFB]

I agree this hobby is Great, and what bothers one person in a comic hardly matters to another. But we are talking three HOLES! Three Holes running through the entire book!! I dont see how that gets a qualified grade.

 

then you simply don't believe in the idea of a Qualified Grade.

 

The plain fact is this- calling this book GD+ is inaccurate. It doesn't even BEGIN to tell the story of this book. Which is why it's a PERFECT use of the Qualified Grade.

 

"it appears to be a Near Mint book, but there are three perfect binder holes running through the entire book"

 

I agree but I think you need the before and after grades for the qualified grade to mean anything. (ie. not all Q9.4s are created equal)

 

Much in the same way dealers used to say "vg+ (otherwise NM but chunk missing from cover)"

 

This is something we've discussed before. It's one of the few areas where I think PGX does it better than CGC. They mention both grades - the "Qualified" grade and the actual grade. That's how CGC should do it.

[the blob]

I agree this hobby is Great, and what bothers one person in a comic hardly matters to another. But we are talking three HOLES! Three Holes running through the entire book!! I dont see how that gets a qualified grade.

 

then you simply don't believe in the idea of a Qualified Grade.

 

The plain fact is this- calling this book GD+ is inaccurate. It doesn't even BEGIN to tell the story of this book. Which is why it's a PERFECT use of the Qualified Grade.

 

"it appears to be a Near Mint book, but there are three perfect binder holes running through the entire book"

 

I agree but I think you need the before and after grades for the qualified grade to mean anything. (ie. not all Q9.4s are created equal)

 

Much in the same way dealers used to say "vg+ (otherwise NM but chunk missing from cover)"

 

This is something we've discussed before. It's one of the few areas where I think PGX does it better than CGC. They mention both grades - the "Qualified" grade and the actual grade. That's how CGC should do it.

 

I agree totally.

[AtlasFan]

I would revise the above quote as:

"its precisely a GD due to the fact that there are three perfect binder holes running through the entire book"

 

Really? If you were selling it you wouldn't mention that it was otherwise perfect? how about if you owned it and were describing it to someone without an image? It would just be a boring old GD+ because of the technical grade?

 

That just poves my point that a "qualified" grade is really a marketing device used to muddy the waters when seeking to sell a book - there is an absence of clarity to the buyer.

 

If I were selling the book, I would be very tempted to label this book a "Qualified" NM in order to maximize my return..But in the end, when one describes all the books defects as well as all of its attributes...its still a GD.

 

I think it was Billy Joel who once said: "No matter how thin you slice it, its still baloney!"

 

 

[rob_react]

I would revise the above quote as:

"its precisely a GD due to the fact that there are three perfect binder holes running through the entire book"

 

Really? If you were selling it you wouldn't mention that it was otherwise perfect? how about if you owned it and were describing it to someone without an image? It would just be a boring old GD+ because of the technical grade?

 

That just poves my point that a "qualified" grade is really a marketing device used to muddy the waters when seeking to sell a book - there is an absence of clarity to the buyer.

 

If I were selling the book, I would be very tempted to label this book a "Qualified" NM in order to maximize my return..But in the end, when one describes all the books defects as well as all of its attributes...its still a GD.

 

I think it was Billy Joel who once said: "No matter how thin you slice it, its still baloney!"

 

 

I still don't think calling this book GD+ without any other qualifier tells the full story. It's like the perverse flip side of full disclosure, where you can't tell the full story of a book when it benefits the seller.

[Bronty]

I agree this hobby is Great, and what bothers one person in a comic hardly matters to another. But we are talking three HOLES! Three Holes running through the entire book!! I dont see how that gets a qualified grade.

 

then you simply don't believe in the idea of a Qualified Grade.

 

The plain fact is this- calling this book GD+ is inaccurate. It doesn't even BEGIN to tell the story of this book. Which is why it's a PERFECT use of the Qualified Grade.

 

"it appears to be a Near Mint book, but there are three perfect binder holes running through the entire book"

 

I agree but I think you need the before and after grades for the qualified grade to mean anything. (ie. not all Q9.4s are created equal)

 

Much in the same way dealers used to say "vg+ (otherwise NM but chunk missing from cover)"

 

This is something we've discussed before. It's one of the few areas where I think PGX does it better than CGC. They mention both grades - the "Qualified" grade and the actual grade. That's how CGC should do it.

 

did not know that - interesting... and yes I agree