When did you learn that you suck/don't suck at grading?

[Fury's_Revenge]

O.K. Here it is...I played the CGC lottery and lost. I'm pissed!!(At CGC and myself.) I want to know what everyone thinks! I made my first submission of books to CGC. All Sgt. Fury "Moderns". I chose these books, not based on their value (obviously), but kind of on a "trial" submission run and to help put me one step closer to my graded Fury run. I just got the books back today and was unpleasantly suprised!!! WTF!!! I would like to know where CGC gets the grading criteria? I'm beginning to think they pull a grade out of a hat. I submitted books that I had in my collection and a few that I bought from a dealer as "near mint". Twelve books total. I culled my collection for what I thought were the best of the best and agreed with the dealer's grading on those that I sent. I will call for the graders notes, but I want to know...as un-sarcasticly as possible...what your track records are? If you sent in 12 books...how many usually come back at the grade expected, or .5 above? Below? I will post pics of the books and would like you to guess at what grade they got. I will reveal it later tomorrow. Could it be that on the dealer books that 2 people agreed on a NM grade, but CGC did not? Just for fairness not ALL of the books graded lower than expected. Keep this in mind as you look at the books. Feel free to in your post. I would really, REALLY like to know what people think!!!!

[Fury's_Revenge]

I know I'm psting to my own post but look at this nasty UGLY miswrap and the grade it got!!! Link to the crappiest 9.6 EVER!!!!

[divad]

Let me get this straight - You sent in 12 modern Sgt. Fury's for your first submission? Don't you think that was going a little overboard? Most people start with 3 books . . .

 

They all look nice, but all we see is the front covers. Graders look at every page. Anyway, it's good to be humbled Now you can appreciate how hard it is to get books back in grade (and the guys here will still carry on about how your books were graded soft! )

 

What grades did you expect? All 9.4's? Nobody's going to tell you the truth about their submissions, because they will only tell you the highlights (like gambling stories - nobody ever brags about their losses)

[Fury's_Revenge]

Honestly , I WASN'T expecting all 9.4's. I actually had my lower limit set at 9.2 on all but 3 books. Those 3 I thought were possibly lower(borderline). What is your success on getting books graded?

[divad]

Honestly , I WASN'T expecting all 9.4's. I actually had my lower limit set at 9.2 on all but 3 books. Those 3 I thought were possibly lower(borderline). What is your success on getting books graded?

 

Let's see my last sub was:

 

Marvel Team-Up 1 3/72 Marvel Comics Universal 9.2 OFF-WHITE TO WHITE Roy Thomas story Gil Kane cover Spider-Man team-ups begin. Human Torch.

 

Incredible Hulk 181 11/74 Marvel Comics Universal 6.5 OFF-WHITE Len Wein story Herb Trimpe cover First full appearance of Wolverine.

 

X-Men 58 7/69 Marvel Comics Universal 9.0 OFF-WHITE Roy Thomas story Neal Adams cover First appearance Havok in costume. Sentinels appearance.

 

I was right on the MTU #1 (although the board collectively gave it an 8.0 to 8.5)

 

The Incredible Hulk #181 surprised me by a half a point (I was at a straight 6.0 - the board chimed in at 4.5)

 

And I was conservative on the X-Men 58 at 8.5 (because once again nobody on the board gave this higher than an 8.0) but I was not surprised by the 9.0 or even a 9.2 on this one.

 

So yes, I was 3 for 3 + , but I have about 75 submissions under my belt already.

 

Now you know why I don't pay attention to most of these yahoos here (just selected yahoos!)

[Fury's_Revenge]

I see your point. I suppose the more books you submit the better your chances are to pick the RIGHT book. It's hard for me to admit it, but I guess I can't grade. It would nice to be rewarded with a higher grade (i.e. your Hulk #181 ), but that wasn't the case with me. I hope some forumites take the time to look at this post and give me honest opinions, as you did. It would be nice to know if others have been "unpleasantly" suprised as I was, or if everyone else is a "supergrader" and always gets 'em right.

[FFB]

And I was conservative on the X-Men 58 at 8.5 (because once again nobody on the board gave this higher than an 8.0) but I was not surprised by the 9.0 or even a 9.2 on this one.

 

"Nobody"?

[divad]

I was unpleasantly surprised by my first 12 submissions - in fact so much so, that I was going to give up! But you do get better at selecting the books to submit (this of course has very little to do with your all-around grading skills )

 

I hope you kick butt in the grading competition - you're playing right?

[divad]

And I was conservative on the X-Men 58 at 8.5 (because once again nobody on the board gave this higher than an 8.0) but I was not surprised by the 9.0 or even a 9.2 on this one.

 

"Nobody"?

 

EXCEPT FFB! (who saw it in person!)

[burntboy]

Diva's right in that all your books look very nice. but, a front cover scan cannot tell the whole story. front and back cover scans are better for guessing but it's still a guess. there are 32 pages including the covers to be considered. digital pictures are generally not as good as a scan.

 

having said that, i think you just experienced what most of us went through initially.

my first submission was 30 early 60's Marvels and 21 came back at 9.0 or better.

that can be viewed as a success or not depending on what you were hoping for. i called it a toss-up as i was looking for books that would grade at 9.0.

 

but, i've had some seroius instances of shocks where i just didn't look hard enough at the back cover or interiors and was stunned by much lower grades.

 

in my current 100 HG SA DC submissions, i don't expect any major surprises. after a full year on this board, 2 grading contests and much time spent in the grading forum, i'm a helluva lot better than when i started.

 

welcome to the Boards and good luck on all future subs...........

[nik]

Well on my last 10 books that came back, all pre 75

 

 

My Grades - CGC grades

 

9.0 - 9.0

9.0 - 9.0

9.0 - 9.0

9.2 - 9.4

9.2 - 9.0

9.4 - 9.4

9.4 - 9.2

9.0 - 9.0

9.2 - 9.2

9.2 - 8.5

 

 

Cant reveal the books yet, some might be used in the contest.

[Zanarkand]

Having your grades differ from CGC's doesn't necessarily mean you suck at grading. However, if you were expecting really high grades for all those books, you were being optimistic. The best grading strategy to employ, especially before spending any comic capital on grading fees, is to be as critical as possible.

Give your books a harsh "minimum possible" grade, then decide if you want to pay for that grade. Think a book might be as low as a 9.0? Do you want to pay $15 for a 9.0? Then don't send it in.

For the record, here's what I think are the highest possible grades for your books, given what I can see:

 

132 - 9.4

133 - 9.0 (miscut?)

136 - 9.2

140 - 9.2

141 - 9.4

142 - 9.0

143 - 9.0

145 - 9.2

153 - 9.4

156 - 9.4

161 - 9.2

166 - 9.4

 

Anything I can't see, of course, would drop them further. See how I do.

[Fan4Fan]

Of course, you could have just submitted one (thinking it a 9.4) and gotten it back (as a 9.6) and called it a career.

[Fury's_Revenge]

To spare another long post of back covers, here is the one that I think was the worst(156).

One of the nicest(141)!

[Fury's_Revenge]

I think I'll post the grades at about 3 pm Mountain time (2 1/2 hours), so get it while you can!!!

[uclapeterg]

And I was conservative on the X-Men 58 at 8.5 (because once again nobody on the board gave this higher than an 8.0) but I was not surprised by the 9.0 or even a 9.2 on this one.

 

"Nobody"?

 

EXCEPT FFB! (who saw it in person!)

 

Cheater!!

[stynxno]

Without larger scans and more back scans, no one is going to be able to give you an accurate grade.

 

However, from the ones that you did post, I do see several soft corners on most of the books and several of the books have what could be several spine creases. The 141 and 143 look the best to me (but yellow covers (imho) seem to hide spine creases much better than other colors) so I can't be sure.

 

My guess would be that you did worse than you thought and I could see you getting a 7.0 to 8.0 on a few of the books. You might have received a few 9.4/9.6's though. The 153 looks like it was the worse.

[Fury's_Revenge]

O.K. Here it is...I played the CGC lottery and lost. I'm pissed!!(At CGC and myself.) I want to know what everyone thinks! I made my first submission of books to CGC. All Sgt. Fury "Moderns". I chose these books, not based on their value (obviously), but kind of on a "trial" submission run and to help put me one step closer to my graded Fury run. I just got the books back today and was unpleasantly suprised!!! WTF!!! I would like to know where CGC gets the grading criteria? I'm beginning to think they pull a grade out of a hat. I submitted books that I had in my collection and a few that I bought from a dealer as "near mint". Twelve books total. I culled my collection for what I thought were the best of the best and agreed with the dealer's grading on those that I sent. I will call for the graders notes, but I want to know...as un-sarcasticly as possible...what your track records are? If you sent in 12 books...how many usually come back at the grade expected, or .5 above? Below? I will post pics of the books and would like you to guess at what grade they got. I will reveal it later tomorrow. Could it be that on the dealer books that 2 people agreed on a NM grade, but CGC did not? Just for fairness not ALL of the books graded lower than expected. Keep this in mind as you look at the books. Feel free to in your post. I would really, REALLY like to know what people think!!!!

 

 

Here are the grades in order.

WTF?

 

I called on the graders notes, and like I said three books had issues that would deserve a lower grade. I think I was undergraded. The modern graders sit there all day and look at 2005 books, right out of the distributers hands...no shelf time even. I think it shows on these books. An example is #161. The only note is "spine stress bottom back cover" THATS THE ONLY NOTE!!! Does 1 small defect(on the back even) warrant an 8.5? I think not!!!! That book doesn't even have a hint of spine stress on the front and obviously the graders agree...they didn't note it!!! O.K. I HAVE TO CALL BULL$&@$ on this one CGC!!!! It's either tecnical all the way or nothing!!!! Man, MY 9.2 AND 9.4 have more notes that that one!!! Get some consistancy for craps sake!!!

[DKB]

Call for graders notes on those that were far off from yours. It'll go a long way towards help you understand why certain things graded the way they did.

[Fury's_Revenge]

Call for graders notes on those that were far off from yours. It'll go a long way towards help you understand why certain things graded the way they did.

 

I did. Some I agree with, but look at my above post. #161 is the real deal!!! Undergrading at it's, uh, worst.