CGC Census Accuracy

[batman_fan]

I believe the CGC Census is a great source of information to get a gauge on the relative number of a particular that have been graded to date, but I don't think it can be taken too literal. Take a few examples, Fantastic Four 48 versus 47. A total of 77 copies of Fantastic FOur 47 have been graded while 891 copies of 48 have been graded. So does that mean 47 is more scarce than 48? Of course not. It means you can make more by grading a 48 and selling it than you can if you grade and sell a 47. As the price of some books go up becasue they are perceived to be rare, more will be pulled out of collections and sold. I personally have a pretty large collection of high grade books, 99.99% are ungraded (I sent 4 books to be graded and buy graded books most of the time because of overgrading). I have no intention of selling my books, so they are not part of the Census report. I am positive I am not an isolated case. I have included scans of a few books out of my collection to show the condition. Decide for yourself where these would fall in the grading scale. Again, I am not an isolated case. I know of many collectors that have only a tiny fraction of their collection graded. The rest is outside the Census.

 

 

 

 

[Aman619]

nice books!! I agree about the census, as Ive posted here many times similar comments to yours. However I always add the caveat that most of our raw KILLER HG books are, in fact in todays tight-fisted CGC eyes, "really" 7.0s to 9.0s, and while still great looking books, not too often world-beater true KILLER copies.

 

so If I may ask, what would you grade each of those 4 nice-looking books??

[dam60]

great books! I am just starting to delve into the GA but find uit to be quite addicting as I spend hours looking at my Gerbers!

 

DAM

[Larryw7]

BAT #39 and #56 are tough to find in grade. Your 56 is one of the nicest, whitest copies I've ever seen. I've owned three copies of #39; one with a Fine appearance but brittle pages(which was my first Golden Age Batman, and I remember paying 15 bucks for it), a nice VF that I got from Mark Wilson, and a solid low grade Good copy from Metropolis. One of my all time favorite books.

[Mephisto]

One thing I wish I could see from the census is what high grade GA books in the census are pedigree's. Unless I have the serial number for a book it's no good for me to look up that info using the collector's society.

[tth2]

Awesome books, the Batman 39 looks unbelievable!

 

The census is not the end all and be all indicator of scarcity or comic population. As you indicate, price drives people to submit so they can sell, and therefore distorts the numbers. However, as I've stated in other posts, in most cases the census has been pretty representative of what was often thought to be the population size, particularly for high grade books.

 

Has anyone seen any real surprises from the census, where what was perceived to be a tough book to find in high grade (SA or GA) turned out to be much more common than previously thought?

[Aman619]

spidey 11 was always thouhjt to be scarcer in HG, and the early census bore this out. But I think the numbers have caught up a lot havent they?

[Warlord]

Awesome books!

 

Your point is a very good reason why I would love to have CGC's Registry allow for the entry of ungraded books. It would be fantastic information to see what books are tucked away in collections that aren't going to show up in the Registry due to that restriction. Perhaps just turn off the points calculations for issues that aren't graded to keep everyone happy. In my own case I have a few sweet books (nothing really to compare to what you posted) that I'm not ready to sell and so see no reason to subject them to shipping/handling/grading/slabbing not to mention the costs. Even if the grading were free, I'd hesitate just due to the risk of slab damage!

[tth2]

Your point is a very good reason why I would love to have CGC's Registry allow for the entry of ungraded books. It would be fantastic information to see what books are tucked away in collections that aren't going to show up in the Registry due to that restriction.

 

But without the serial number restriction, how do you prevent people from lying about what they have in their collections?

[Aman619]

why would anybody lie?

 

oh, wait, forget it - -what was I thinking?