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Silver Age Strange Tales, need help understanding 5.0 - 8.0 grades

Started by 90sChild,

13 posts in this topic

90sChild

90sChild

Posted
Posted

Don't want to spam the board with pictures, here's a link to the album.

Hello all,

First post here, and also my first purchase of silver age comics. My collection was mostly bronze/copper age so everything was easy to grade between 8.5 - 9.6.

I'd really like to learn the differences in these mid grades, as going from a 6.5 to 7.5 for example can have a much greater difference in price.

I picked up this lot for $80, curious how I did and what your thoughts are. Sorry no scanner, used a $800 camera lens instead. Lighting was not ideal, makes the comics look darker than they are. Zoom in on the pictures if you can.

 

 

 

I now realize I've posted more than one picture per thread however if you only want to review one book that is fine. I am just trying to get a general understanding of differences between say a 6.0 and a 5.0, or a 7.5 and a 6.5 etc etc.

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Ron Rau

Ron Rau

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Posted

Hi 90sChild,

 

Pictures are needed for sure.

 

Click on this link. It will help you with all you need to know:

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=7739763&fpart=1

 

You can scroll down to:

TIPS ON POSTING & LINKS TO THIRD PARTY IMAGE PROVIDERS/HOSTING SITES

Click on the tutorials to help you decide.

 

Hope this helps!

 

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01TheDude

01TheDude

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one online tool that might help you get a grasp on the mid grade stuff-- not on a point for point basis but what to look for-- can be found at this website:

 

http://www.e-bigs.net/freetool.php

 

It will guide you through the various aspects and see examples. It is not perfect and still requires strict evaluation on the part of the user, but it might be useful for starters. Of course-- reading the Overstreet Price Guide grading system is also very helpful=-= but much less visual perhaps.

 

The other thing-- I would recommend scanning the images of the front and back, count the pages to make sure books are complete and not missing stamps or coupons or have interior damage. Most printers these days have scanning capability. Just be kind when you put them up in this forum and use the LARGE THUMBNAIL links.

 

good luck and welcome to the boards. those are some nice books-- I think you got a solid deal.

 

 

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mar-vell

mar-vell

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Yeah grading accurately from a scan is difficult and sometimes impossible even if the scan is large and clear. All i can tell from your photos is that the books look pretty sharp.

 

Your best bet is to just browse this forum for a few hours. Purchasing some CGC graded books in those grades can really help as well. I think a lot of people take for granted how much CGC has done for raw grading in this hobby. Going back to around 1999 comic book grading was all over the place but nowadays grading is much more uniform, especially here on the boards where many are familiar with CGC standards. back in the day Overstreet made an honest,detailed effort to describe how to grade comics but without physical examples readily available to hobbyists wild variations occurred from on grader to another.

 

Of course grading remains subjective but in my 33 years of collecting this last decade is the first time we are really seeing a decent degree ofuniformity on books graded across the hobby.

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90sChild

90sChild

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I've re-shot all the pictures in better lighting, the new link is

 

Thanks for the warm welcome.

 

Junkdrawer - I had actually bought just one on ebay from a seller who happened to be local - shot him a message to see if he had any others left he wanted to sell. Bought everything he had left.

 

01TheDude - Great page, learned alot already, like staple migration which I'm noticing on the #144 book. Seems to only affect it visually, but I haven't sat down and tried reading the book either.

 

Mar-vell - Agree about CGC, but sometimes they can be just as unpredictable from some of the stuff I've seen looking at various books. But we're all only human right.

Maybe the new pictures I added can help give you a better idea of what I'm working with on these books.

 

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90sChild

90sChild

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Without seeing the back covers as well it would be impossible to give an accurate grade. That said they all look to be in the 6.5 to 8.5 range from the front.

Appreciate it, just assume the back covers are in as-expected condition as I probably will not actually submit any of these to CGC.

My original thought was that the #138 and #158 are the two best, however the #138 has that brown spot next to the left of strange tales (it seems like a bump and might be removable, it is not flat like a stain would be) and on the #158 the bottom left front corner has what looks like it may have been dropped directly on the corner causing some wrinkling. The hard part is figuring out how uch these kind of things drop it down in grade. Most of the wear on these I don't think really detracts from the appeal, even if they would grade low like a 6.0-7.0. Just don't want to over-pay going forward out of ignorance.

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