Spine splits and grading

[aggr1103]

Newbie to grading, so bear with me.

 

Have an opportunity at two comics for a nice price. One the seller grades at fine with a 1/4 inch spine split at the top. The other he graded at vg/fine with a 3/4 inch spine split at the top.

 

I feel good about the books with the grades he provided considering the other defects I can recognize, but I'm not too sure about spine splits. With just spine splits, would the grades actually be lower than what he's telling me?

[fantastic_four]

I've been wondering this for a while, but for the opposite end of the spectrum--high grade books with a spine split. Marvel's squarebound issues are notorious for the front or back cover splitting off of the spine and I see it a lot.

 

Say you've got a flawless book in hand--what does it grade with a 1" spine split? 2 inches? 4 inches?

[Hero Restoration]

Weel, I looked it up in the Overstreet grading guide and it says 6.0 will allow a 1/4" and a 4.0 will allow 1". Thats assuming you have other defects that are inline with that. I dont think that means a book is going to get a 6.0 with a 1/4" tear if it would otherwise grade 9.0 or higher. I would say a 9.0 would get knocked down to a 7.5-8.0 with a 1/4 split.

[fantastic_four]

Weel, I looked it up in the Overstreet grading guide and it says 6.0 will allow a 1/4" and a 4.0 will allow 1". Thats assuming you have other defects that are inline with that. I dont think that means a book is going to get a 6.0 with a 1/4" tear if it would otherwise grade 9.0 or higher. I would say a 9.0 would get knocked down to a 7.5-8.0 with a 1/4 split.

 

CGC doesn't downgrade THAT much. Here's a 9.4 GS X-Men 1 with a 1/4" bottom-left bindery tear:

 

 

[VintageComics]

Bindery tears and spine splits are two different things.

 

CGC doesn't follow Overstreet's guidelines very strictly on spine splits.

 

I've seen VF/NM books with a 1/4" split, VF- minus books with about a 0.5" split and fine range books with close to a 1" spine split (give or take) and any larger than that will put it into VG range. I've seen G/VG books with a 3-4" split.

 

Obviously the rest of the book is going to have some effect on grade as well...if the book is perfect otherwise it might bump the book up a bit. If the book is a dog it'll pull the grade down.

 

Hope that helps.

 

[Topnotchman]

A bindery tear is production related and CGC will treat that type of defect differently than a spine split, which is related to aging paper and is handling defect.