Timmay Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 But hey, what do I know? Is this a rhetorical question, or should I answer it? You should answer it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
october Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 But hey, what do I know. I'm one of those guys who specializes in Silver/Bronze High grade. Is it also true that you only sell Marvels? I am pretty sure I heard that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blazingbob Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Yup, Amazing Spider-man and Fantastic Four's only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tri-Color Brian Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 I see you have a Herby Skogland copy of Action 39...nice...a new pedigree? I like your asking price....It makes me feel good about mine... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tri-Color Brian Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 Have you bought books from Joe Naaca or Richie Muchin, and how do they fit into these totals if so? I would figure Joe would be somewhere below Harley... Joe Nacca...I just bought a bunch of books from him and I'm not sure if 10% matched up with the reported grade. I used to buy books from him in the 90s, when he had a lot of scarce and under-priced stuff. I learned to expect 0.5 to 1.0 less in grade than he advertised. When I called him on it he said everyone else was under-grading...I don't buy from Joe no more... but back in the day he was a good source, as long as you knew how he graded. I think these days, at least in his eBay listings, he has been shying away from listing an exact grade and has a lot of hedging language in his descriptions. Maybe he's been burned by too many returns. What's his ebay name? I'll avoid it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batman_fan Posted January 30, 2014 Share Posted January 30, 2014 I've bought a couple 100 original owner GA books to market lately so I'm not sure exactly why people assume I don't have Golden Age. If you are talking about the classic tough issues I am out there looking for them just as hard as anybody else out there. But typical of some of these thread comments GA collectors tend to assume that I just focus on Silver/Bronze. And it is also possible that when I get them I sell them . Museum pieces are nice but I prefer they sell every once in awhile. If you look at Bob's site, he actually has a lot of nice GA Batman's (thumbs u Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tth2 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 But hey, what do I know. I'm one of those guys who specializes in Silver/Bronze High grade. Is it also true that you only sell Marvels? I am pretty sure I heard that. I wish Bob had had more DCs... I would`ve bought `em! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerome34 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 My feeling is that grading is inherently inaccurate. I am very comfortable with differences of + or - 1 grade increment and, for the most part, + or -2. (When you get to grades below 2.5, a -2 grade increment is serious and not acceptable.) So from my point of view an average difference of less than .75 shows that the dealer is usually in the ballpark. If the price is reasonable, I will get the book and accept any minor grade differences. However, this analysis is for high grade books and books which are often slabbed. I avoid those unless the price is well below guide. I would love to see a similar analysis done for books in the 3.0 - 5.0 grade. That will not happen since most such books are left ungraded. Incidentally, I really like the concept of "grade increment." I had been using + or - 1.0 while recognizing that that made no sense on real high grade or real low grade books. "Grade increment" works well over the entire range. Thanks for the study and also thanks for the "grade increment" measurement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vision75 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 One comment and one question for Cheetah. Comment: Piggybacking off of the other boardies' insights, one issue is the criterion. Specifically, it would be nearly impossible for any grader to submit exactly the same grades as CGC because there is variability within their own ratings. Let me make it clear, I'm NOT knocking CGC; it's just the reality of this line of work. One question might be, given two different rater teams at CGC rating the exact same books, what percentage would be an exact match? If it were 75% that would be amazing. The truth is that there are many books that are right on the border of grades. If God's rater were to evaluate them they would receive 1.9s, 7.75s, 9.1s, etc. The problem is that people just can't be trained to make such distinctions consistently. In earthly operations, the "1.9" will be 1.8 half of the time, and 2.0 half of the time. That type of error is inescapable. You can't stop rating error, you can only hope to contain it Question for Cheetah. Could you post scans of the most severely over-rated books (8GIs!!)? Assuming that there wasn't foul play, those books must have posed some unusual rating challenges. I would love to hear your hypotheses about why these books threw off raters so badly. Again, AWESOME job Jeff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blazingbob Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 So would I, it might be hard for some to believe that Highgradecomics.com actually has 3.0-5.0 books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheetah Posted January 31, 2014 Author Share Posted January 31, 2014 Question for Cheetah. Could you post scans of the most severely over-rated books (8GIs!!)? Assuming that there wasn't foul play, those books must have posed some unusual rating challenges. I would love to hear your hypotheses about why these books threw off raters so badly. Again, AWESOME job Jeff! No one but CGC considers Page Quality in their grading. Jim Payette and Metro both had their lowest grades on LT/OW books or slightly brittle books. My worst results from Dale Roberts have always been due to page quality. My own worst errors were due to PQ. Stains are also a big issue. Harley's grades were a litany of things from stains, to PQ, to split spines, to not looking at the back cover. I assume he was rushed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vision75 Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Thanks for the quick response! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjpb Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 CGC is a third party grader, and what tends to get overlooked in the discussion of CGC vs. dealer grades is the second party - the buyer. Barring the discovery of resto or a missed flaw by CGC, what really matters when purchasing raw is do the seller and buyer agree on the grade, or at least a price that is compatible with the buyer's assessment of the grade. If later on CGC has a different opinion it doesn't change the accuracy of the agreed upon grade between the first two parties, it's just another opinion. If one wants to be assured a given CGC grade, then they should only buy slabbed. Understandably it is disappointing if CGC grades a book lower than the dealer or the buyer have, particularly if it effects resale value. But the resale benefit is less a reflection of accuracy than it is broader comfort with slabbed books among certain segments of the buying community, and their desires to acquire minimum CGC grades. There is a natural tendency to view the tightest grade as the most accurate, but if everyone who looks at book thinks it should grade higher than what CGC gives it, then I'd say CGC's grade is the outlier, as much as it would be if they gave it a higher grade than the consensus. I've always been a little uncomfortable with the hosannas on the boards when someone gets a grade from CGC that was far more generous than what the buyer and others thought it would be; "Congratulations on getting a grade that if it had been sold to you as raw with that grade, you would have slammed the seller." I'd like to think that the market has evolved to the point where many collectors are buying the book, not the grade, and using CGC as a resto checker and general confirmation of a grade range for books that can't be examined in person. That seems to be a frequent argument made when one slabbed copy of a book sells for much more or less than a previous copy in the same grade. There are so many other variables though, that it's difficult to know if this is really the case. In theory, CGC does have a slight advantage over the buyer in that they are not going to be swayed by a previously assigned grade. I'm sure most of us have purchased something that we may have initially thought was an increment higher or lower than advertised, but it's close enough we bend our perception to come in line with the seller's. It's the same when assessing one's own grade against CGCs, +/- a single grade increment I don't dwell on it, but when CGC is two grades under or over what I think a book should be, I find myself looking for a reason to bring my own grade more in line. Readcomix 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimjum12 Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 The one thing these graphs show me is that I don't sell you enough raw books. I wish I had more nice stuff that you needed. ..... you may very well have the nicest VG on the planet ......GOD BLESS.... -jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u ......tellin' it like it is..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheetah Posted February 13, 2014 Author Share Posted February 13, 2014 I haven't kept up with this as well as I had hoped but I've finished my pressing/grading data and thought I would share it with you. As I've said before, I don't like the old holders much. The labels are duller, the strip comes off the top leaving the slabs unidentifiable in a box, and lots of them are scratched or warped and just don't do justice to the book. Kinda like the difference between plastic ans mylar. So I've been going through the fun of pulling old labels and sending them off the CGC for reholdering. Like most folks, I've heard the urban legend that old label books are ripe for the pressing since so many of them weren't pressed prior to grading or that grading standards were tougher back then. I have always wondered if this was true as I've got plenty of new label books that look like they would benefit from pressing. I've also got plenty of old label books that look they might be a touch overgraded. So here is the data. I only used Matt Nelson for this. Total books submitted - 131 Books not warranting pressing - 48 (37%) Books pressed - 83 (63%) Pressed books loosing at least one Grade Increment - 0 (0%) Pressed books staying the same grade - 21 (16%) Total books either not pressed or not gaining a GI from pressing - 69 (53%) Pressed books gaining 1 GI - 44 (34%) Pressed books gaining 2 GI - 13 (10%) Pressed books gaining 3 GI - 1 (<1%) Pressed books gaining 4 GI - 1 (<1%) Pressed books gaining 5 GI - 2 (<2%) Pressed books gaining 6 GI - 1 (<1%) Average Grade before pressing (83 pressed books only) - 8.59 Average Grade after pressing (83 pressed books only) - 8.98 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunsicker Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Hey Jeff, Just to be clear, these were all old label books? Great results. Especially the fact that none went down in grade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheetah Posted February 13, 2014 Author Share Posted February 13, 2014 All were old label except five where the cases were cracked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artboy99 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Pressed books gaining 3 GI - 1 (<1%) Pressed books gaining 4 GI - 1 (<1%) Pressed books gaining 5 GI - 2 (<2%) Pressed books gaining 6 GI - 1 (<1%) this made me go "WOW" 6 grade increments is a HUGE change Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
50YrsCollctngCmcs Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 Pressed books gaining 3 GI - 1 (<1%) Pressed books gaining 4 GI - 1 (<1%) Pressed books gaining 5 GI - 2 (<2%) Pressed books gaining 6 GI - 1 (<1%) this made me go "WOW" 6 grade increments is a HUGE change I would love to see before and after photos of those big jumps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJD Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 Pressed books gaining 3 GI - 1 (<1%) Pressed books gaining 4 GI - 1 (<1%) Pressed books gaining 5 GI - 2 (<2%) Pressed books gaining 6 GI - 1 (<1%) this made me go "WOW" 6 grade increments is a HUGE change I would love to see before and after photos of those big jumps. I'm guessing books with long non-colour breaking bends going from 6.5/7.0 to 9.2/4 after a press. I have a couple that I think would press out that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
