CGC moden era - grading questions - how high?

[Balham's Finest]

Good luck with whatever you do decide to sub, but like someone said above - it's likely to be a big eye-opener.

 

There was actually a thread not too long ago discussing whether it's possible to pick 9.9s off the shelf (i.e. idenitfy books that are 9.9, as opposed to being able to identify a pile of 9.8s and then it being luck whether or not a few of them come back higher). Some strong views on both sides of that argument - mainly from Branget and Dre. Perhaps someone with better search skills than me might be able to link it?

 

Also, WTTB - nice to see a new poster not fixated on trolling or pumping their post count as quickly as possible...

[W16227]

Good luck with whatever you do decide to sub, but like someone said above - it's likely to be a big eye-opener.

 

There was actually a thread not too long ago discussing whether it's possible to pick 9.9s off the shelf (i.e. identify books that are 9.9, as opposed to being able to identify a pile of 9.8s and then it being luck whether or not a few of them come back higher). Some strong views on both sides of that argument - mainly from Branget and Dre. Perhaps someone with better search skills than me might be able to link it?

 

Also, WTTB - nice to see a new poster not fixated on trolling or pumping their post count as quickly as possible...

 

Many posters have stated the "eye opener" potential - fully understand!!!!

 

Still sorting all of the old stuff for that first sub so I can cherry pick the best possible books- that make sense. I will post when they go - so the members can then see how good (or bad) my experience is.

 

 

 

 

 

[Topnotchman]

With experience one can identify a 9.9 that is better than a 9.8. I can do it, I also submitted all of the Simpsons 1's which came back 9.9 and 10.0's. However I could not do it when I made my first submission.

[newshane]

I did a little experiment a few years ago. This should give you some sort of an idea about how difficult it can be to find a mint or gem book.

 

9.9 quest

[W16227]

So - the first modern submission (most books pulled from my collection) - is now

"scheduled for grading" .

 

 

 

All books were sent to Joey for pressing. Also sent him a batch of silvers too (though they are realistically no 9.8 candidates in that batch).

 

 

All were pulled to be the "best of what I had" - with an eye on value and/or neat books I wanted to preserve.

 

I pulled them many months ago - my eye is even better now - but I think that there should be many 9.8 candidates in there. I submitted some duplicates as well.

 

Here is a partial list of what is in the batch, I will release the full list and numbers once I get them back. so all can see my results (and potentially make fun of my shame). Overall 21 books .

 

Iron man 300 (foil)

Magneto 0

Spawn-Batman

Bartman 1-2

Simpsons 1-4

ASM 375

Wolverine 75

 

All were very clean books - the wolverine 75 with the hologram is going to be a question mark - as I do not know what wear looks like on the holo - they looked clean to me (no scratches or anything) - but we will see. The spawn-batman book is probably the highest grade candidate - good thick cover and never opened.

 

The ones below were more recent LCS or ebay purchases - unless Joey works real magic, not 9.8 candidates.

 

 

Hulk 333

Spawn 1

ASM 300

hulk 181 (GERMAN)

 

 

 

 

[W16227]

Good luck with whatever you do decide to sub, but like someone said above - it's likely to be a big eye-opener.

 

Also, WTTB - nice to see a new poster not fixated on trolling or pumping their post count as quickly as possible...

 

Hey - not picking on Bal with respect to the first part of his quote - this was actually one of the reasons I started the thread. When I first found the boards - I was very new to the concept of slabbing. I knew of grading as I had past collections (and still a lot of those books around) - but never looked at it to the fine detail of what is a 9.2 9.4 9.whatever ----.

 

Reading a lot -one of the ongoing responses was of course that the first submission could be brutal.

 

Thanks in no small part to the board (I did read a TON of the posts before I even made a single one) - I believe my first submission was a great success.

 

I cherry picked the majority from my old collection looking for top condition - as well as using GPA to get an idea of what books would be a waste of time to submit. For me - breaking even with the value (potential resale vs cost to press/slab) was acceptable. Really wanted to see if I was able to spot those that were at least 9.6 and hopefully higher. Some I knew would not be 9.8 or better (hulk 181 and ASM 300) -but there was potential value in the books anyway.

 

 

Note - that all books were pressed at CFP -

 

 

Results

 

9.8

Iron Man 300 (collector)

Magneto 0

Bartman 1,2

Simpsons 1-4 ( with 2 x #2)

Hulk 333

ASM 375

2 x Wolverine 75

Spawn-Batman

 

9.6

Simpsons 1

Bartman 1

Punisher meets Archie (yea - I know - but a 9.8 wold have been cool.......)

 

 

The ones that were LCS or ebay pickups (for good prices) -

Spawn 1: 9.8

Wolverine 181 German editions: 9.2 and 9.6

 

ASM 300 - 9.2

 

 

So again - big props to the board as I would probably NOT have had this good of a submission without the knowledge I gained here.

 

Should have my set of silvers back soon - not expecting 9's - but some nice books in there that might be in the 6+ range including a Daredevil run of 4-9........

 

 

 

 

[wardevil0]

Pretty nice returns, and definitely nothing wrong with Copper Age 9.4s-9.6s as far as I'm concerned. My first Modern submission was scattered fairly evenly with 9.4s, 9.6s, and 9.8s. It was a huge help to me to see these results and learn how CGC evaluated various tiny defects. My last modern submission came back within half a grade of what I had assessed them, on average. There will always be surprises and outliers, but your eye will become more in tune with theirs over time.

 

Was this your entire submission, looks like 21 books by my count. If your lowest was a 9.2, that's great. Hope your Silvers come back even better than expected!

[newshane]

Don't expect 9.9s. They are truly rare, except for publishers (IDW) that use heavy stock.

[W16227]

Pretty nice returns, and definitely nothing wrong with Copper Age 9.4s-9.6s as far as I'm concerned. My first Modern submission was scattered fairly evenly with 9.4s, 9.6s, and 9.8s. It was a huge help to me to see these results and learn how CGC evaluated various tiny defects. My last modern submission came back within half a grade of what I had assessed them, on average. There will always be surprises and outliers, but your eye will become more in tune with theirs over time.

 

Was this your entire submission, looks like 21 books by my count. If your lowest was a 9.2, that's great. Hope your Silvers come back even better than expected!

 

not disappointed in any of them - even the gag one I was going for (archie-punisher) was good.

 

The silvers - I know that there are some decent- but some might go as low as four - but same thing as this set - all would be cool to me in any reasonable grades. Have a Batman 251 as part of the lot - as well as a couple of other mini keys.

[divad]

Seems to me that you spent more on pressing and slabbing than the books are worth.

 

 

[W16227]

Seems to me that you spent more on pressing and slabbing than the books are worth.

 

 

There is always a risk there - and depends on what you think and acceptable level for ROI is -

 

Example of the lower level - Simpsons 1 that came back 9.6 - per GPA simpsons can get 40 (9.6) .

 

 

Cost in for joey press and slab is around 25 (13.50 for slab 7 for press but rounding to 25 for shipping adders and insurance).

 

For these books straight from my collection - I am not paying for the book. I look at these as a "what can you get" slabbed vs unslabbed.

 

So - for the SImpsons 1 - lots selling on ebay for 20 or less that are being listed at 9.2 or better. I am a newer seller - so I might get 10-15 for mine.

 

If I get the high end for the 9.6 slab (and high end for the raw) - almost a break even different at around $15 "profit" (not really profit - fees eat some of that).

 

The reward you get is with the 9.8 - Simpsons 1 is running a 12 month average at 95.

 

For some of the books (wolverine especially) - any improvement is thin - but for this submission I was looking at potential value gain - as well as how well I can train my eye to spot books that will grade high.

 

better examples - spawn 1 was a $5 pickup earlier this year. Came back a 9,8 so for something I put $30 in, now worth more than double ($68 yearly average).

 

hulk 181s , ASM 300 - all are now worth double what I have in to them (FMV buys this year plus the press/slab).

 

 

for the other simpsons (2,3,4) - risk was that they had to be 9.8 to make sense - but they were and now I can sell a 9.8 run of 1-4 if I want.