www.3pgrading.com

[Rip]

And tell me...how successfully was it used during the decade Overstreet promoted it? Ever seen the WIDE ranges of grades that the dealers assigned to books at the Sotheby's and Christie's auctions in the early 90s?

I see your not going to deal with my points but I'll address yours

I thought the system worked quite well. Just like we have wide ranges now. People aren't going to agree no matter what grading system you use. Creating a more detailed system gives the grader more options to choose from to better make his opinion known. As more and more 9.4's 9.6s etc appear people are going to want to make more distinctions.

 

The day somebody writes up a set of grading standards, distributes those standards to 100 of the best graders on the planet and gives them a year to study them, brings those graders together in one room to grade 100 books, and the margin of error of those 100 graders on those 100 books is less than one point...THAT'S the day I'll agree with you.

 

 

I'd settle for the 100 best graders grading on the 25-notch scale with less than a 1-notch margin of error given the current Overstreet Grading Guide standards, which I'll bet you some substantial cash will never happen.

 

The written guidelines need to come before an overly-ambitious 100-point scale, not the other way around.

Please tell me how a written guideline will ever be approved upon by these 100 best graders?

 

 

[sterlingcomics]

The slabs are okay--flat panes in a frame. But I like that they're inexpensive, acid-free, and UV-protected. On the other hand, I dislike that they don't use a 10-point scale for grading.

 

I also do not like the 100 point scale for grading. What is the real different between 97 and 98 They should have gone with the 10 point scale like CGC and CGG.

 

I like the idea of using the 100 point system to be more accurate in the final grade--and then assign it to the current grading system we have now. OK, now that I've solved this problem, SuperSterling will continue fighting evil doers on eBay.

 

 

[FFB]

Point a) It's true that people misgraded comics, but that's not the issue. People still misgrade comics, like the yokels who run auctions stating "I believe that CGC will give this book a 9.4," and it's got four color-breaking spine stress marks and blunted corners. The issue is how well one defines the grading scale. As I said, the 100 point system could work better than the 10.0 point system but only if there are clear rules about how much a 1/32 inch crease deducts from the score, or how much a 1/4" bend deducts, how much to deduct for edge toning, Marvel chipping, etc. For example, you could say that a bindery tear up to 1/32" deducts 1 pt., up to 1/16 deducts 2 pts, and up to 1/8 deducts 4 points. Spine stress could be 1 point for a 1/32, 2 points for up to 1/16, etc. With those in mind and STRICT cataloguing of graders' notes, you can have a very clear picture of why a book got a certain grade and you can also compare the notes to the book and see if anything was missed. The grading cert can look like the GIA certificate on a diamond, which shows the inclusions in the stone. (Go to www.bluenile.com and check out some of the GIA certificates on diamonds if you want to see what I mean.) No standard will ever keep people from over- or under-grading comics.

 

Point b) re the 100 graders. You can't do that with CGC's or Overstreet's 10.0 system now, so why should any other system be subjected to such an unreasonable litmus test before you would approve of it?

 

Point c) I completely agree that written grading notes need to come first. That's the most important thing, because that way you can make your own determination of what grade a book is, and more importantly, whether the professional grade includes all of the wear you can observe on the book.

 

As I've stated before, I completely disagree. The method was used for years.

 

And tell me...how successfully was it used during the decade Overstreet promoted it? Ever seen the WIDE ranges of grades that the dealers assigned to books at the Sotheby's and Christie's auctions in the early 90s?

 

 

Even now when we look at a book many people say things like "high end 8.0" or "low end 8.0", or "solid 8.0" or VF/VF+. A more detailed grading system could better help zero in on the perceived grade. Just looking in the grading area, many people write things like "8.0-8.5" or "8.0 or possibly on a good day 8.5". By using split grades these tweener books could be better defined and zeroed in upon. While a disagreements will happen like 83 as opposed to 85 at least its a more detailed figure as opposed to a 20 point grading system.

 

The day somebody writes up a set of grading standards, distributes those standards to 100 of the best graders on the planet and gives them a year to study them, brings those graders together in one room to grade 100 books, and the margin of error of those 100 graders on those 100 books is less than one point...THAT'S the day I'll agree with you. I'd settle for the 100 best graders grading on the 25-notch scale with less than a 1-notch margin of error given the current Overstreet Grading Guide standards, which I'll bet you some substantial cash will never happen.

 

The written guidelines need to come before an overly-ambitious 100-point scale, not the other way around.

[fantastic_four]

Point b) re the 100 graders. You can't do that with CGC's or Overstreet's 10.0 system now, so why should any other system be subjected to such an unreasonable litmus test before you would approve of it?

 

Because the grading scale shouldn't be more resolute than the grading standard can live up to. Until the standard improves, Overstreet's scale should be only 15 points; even CGC isn't highly consistent with the 25-notch scale. I totally agree with you that a more precisely defined standard is possible and should be the hobby's goal, but we can't increase the scale until that occurs. That's the major goal for the next iteration of the standard (with the 2002 Overstreet Grading Guide being the latest version of it)--to actually allow a high degree of consistency within that 25 notches of precision. If we're not consistent there...how are we magically going to be more consistent on the 100-point scale?

 

I would love the level of precision on the standard to allow for a 10,000-point scale, but we've gotta get consistency with 25 points first.

[fantastic_four]

I see your not going to deal with my points but I'll address yours

 

I apologize...I've written, re-written, and re-re-written these opinions so many times in these forums that sometimes I sound like a broken record to myself and I forget that people haven't read older posts where I've already addressed someone's issue multiple times. It's also laziness to not want to type the same stuff again.

 

 

Even now when we look at a book many people say things like "high end 8.0" or "low end 8.0", or "solid 8.0" or VF/VF+. A more detailed grading system could better help zero in on the perceived grade. Just looking in the grading area, many people write things like "8.0-8.5" or "8.0 or possibly on a good day 8.5".

 

If a minor expansion of the grading scale is the next change which occurs to it, I agree that the Very Fine range is where it needs to be expanded. Having said that, I'm skeptical the current standard will allow any kind of real consistency with such an expansion. If people weren't consistently resubmitting 9.x books to get 9.x + (1 notch) grades from professional graders who sit around doing nothing but grading day after day, I'd have more faith that the hobby is ready for a more resolute scale.

 

 

I thought the system worked quite well. Just like we have wide ranges now. People aren't going to agree no matter what grading system you use.

Please tell me how a written guideline will ever be approved upon by these 100 best graders?

 

Make the Overstreet standards so well-defined that those 100 best graders get sick of feeling like retards when non-professionals point out to them they're not following popular standards which exist in the hobby. You're effectively arguing that people will never accept a standard...you don't think the explicit standard put forth by Overstreet, nor the implicit grading example set by slabbed CGC comics, have tightened people's grading over the years?