Raw Grading 1 1

[the blob]

On 2/26/2017 at 8:08 AM, 1Cool said:

Wondering how it makes economic sense to the company doing it if it was $5 a grade?  Let's assume it takes 10 minutes to carefully grade the book, fill in the info and print out the sticker and carefully seal the book in Mylar and ship the package back to the person.  6 - 10 books an hour is only $50 at max per hour. I guess at $10 it's not too bad.

They aren't spending 10 minutes on it, or the grader isn't.  The grader is spending less than a minute on it.  Maybe less than 30 seconds. 

[the blob]

This is the sort of thing I thought would make sense for that world of sub $100 books out there, particularly GA/SA/early BA books that are expensive to slab.  It's basically some of the premium people pay buying from someone with a great reputation as a grader.  Make you feel more comfortable that this issue of Thor 118 is really a VF+ and not a Fine.  One would hope they won't assign a grade to an obviously restored book.

[1Cool]

9 minutes ago, the blob said:

They aren't spending 10 minutes on it, or the grader isn't.  The grader is spending less than a minute on it.  Maybe less than 30 seconds. 

I'm sure you could have a grunt do the page count but I'm hoping they spend more then 1 minute grading a book that someone is paying them to grade.  So the book would have to be less then $250, no restoration detection and a sub-1 minute grading for $15.  Sign me up!

[Dick Pontoon]

At $10 I could see myself doing it IF it was available on-site and IF there wasn’t a value limit, sort of like a $10 post to the Hey Buddy, Can You Spare a Grade? Forum for fun, but at a higher rate and with value restrictions I don’t see it as being useful for me.

Edited February 27, 2017 by Dick Pontoon

[the blob]

57 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

I'm sure you could have a grunt do the page count but I'm hoping they spend more then 1 minute grading a book that someone is paying them to grade.  So the book would have to be less then $250, no restoration detection and a sub-1 minute grading for $15.  Sign me up!

how much time do you think mycs spends on each book?

[1Cool]

30 minutes ago, the blob said:

how much time do you think mycs spends on each book?

Few minutes?  Complete guess on my part.

[Tony S]

1 hour ago, Pontoon said:

At $10 I could see myself doing it IF it was available on-site and IF there wasn’t a value limit, sort of like a $10 post to the Hey Buddy, Can You Spare a Grade? Forum for fun, but at a higher rate and with value restrictions I don’t see it as being useful for me.

The value limit is needed for two reasons that immediately come to mind. Maybe there are more....

I've been told by a trustworthy source that the grading companies make very little profit on the regular modern tier.  The $250 value limit prevents this new "raw graded" service from cannibalizing sales of much more profitable service tiers. 

The $250 limit is also needed to discourage fraud. If expensive books could be sent in, passing off professional restoration by using the raw grade might well go from rare to common. At $250 value limit - considering what professional restoration costs - this shouldn't be a big problem

I've mentioned before that books with obvious amateur restoration - stuff the graders will easily see - is I am told going to be rejected.  It's a professional restoration check that is missing. 

Edited February 27, 2017 by Tony S

[the blob]

3 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

Few minutes?  Complete guess on my part.

I'm not talking about checking pages

 

4 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

Few minutes?  Complete guess on my part.

I think it has got to be less for less expensive stuff.

[Aweandlorder]

people keep referring to the "other guys" as reference to what this service should or should not be.

Dont

Simple.. Keep the grading system the same. Minus the slab.  I can see where restoration inspection could be more tedious.. maybe offer 2 tiers then?

Theres many ways to go about it

[Aweandlorder]

Think about it.. The slab is what makes this process more time consuming.. Bulkier.. And, I hate to say it but as we noticed in the past, even more dangerous. 

Get rid of the slab for this tier and everyone's happy

[the blob]

8 minutes ago, Aweandlorder said:

Think about it.. The slab is what makes this process more time consuming.. Bulkier.. And, I hate to say it but as we noticed in the past, even more dangerous. 

Get rid of the slab for this tier and everyone's happy

No, I think CGC having three or whatever graders plus the resto check spends a decent amount of time on each book.  That stuff requires more training, I would think, than putting a book in a slab they bought in bulk for 25 cents each?

[Aweandlorder]

8 minutes ago, the blob said:

No, I think CGC having three or whatever graders plus the resto check spends a decent amount of time on each book.  That stuff requires more training, I would think, than putting a book in a slab they bought in bulk for 25 cents each?

Yes sure. Its very simple to place a book in a slab. No problemo I can guarantee you no harm will come from it if placed poorly. None at all 

[the blob]

1 hour ago, Aweandlorder said:

Yes sure. Its very simple to place a book in a slab. No problemo I can guarantee you no harm will come from it if placed poorly. None at all 

It is a mechanical task one ought to be able to learn quickly. Somehow 8 year olds in China manage to put together $700 iPhones, I think a comic slab is a little less complicated.  Whether one is uncoordinated, lazy, or just doesn't care, is a whole other story.

[Aweandlorder]

49 minutes ago, the blob said:

It is a mechanical task one ought to be able to learn quickly. Somehow 8 year olds in China manage to put together $700 iPhones, I think a comic slab is a little less complicated.  Whether one is uncoordinated, lazy, or just doesn't care, is a whole other story.

Im not here to argue things both you and I dont have practice in. Lets just agree with my early assessment: The slab makes this process more time consuming. Thats just a fact

 

[the blob]

1 minute ago, Aweandlorder said:

Im not here to argue things both you and I dont have practice in. Lets just agree with my early assessment: The slab makes this process more time consuming. Thats just a fact

 

I am going to assume a lot less time is spent encasing the book than goes into CGC's 11 thousands step grading and resto check system, but maybe I'm wrong.  Placing a comic in the slab and closing it so as not to damage it would seem to be the easiest part if you don't have tremors or come to work hung over.

[Tony S]

22 minutes ago, Aweandlorder said:

Im not here to argue things both you and I dont have practice in. Lets just agree with my early assessment: The slab makes this process more time consuming. Thats just a fact

 

Anyone that has watched books move through the grading process over the years KNOWS that encapsulation is a bottleneck. Clearly graders can grade faster than the people in encapsulation can slab. Because when CGC is backed up, books get through grading quickly and then sit for a long time waiting to get through the slabbing and QC stage. 

Edited February 28, 2017 by Tony S

[Martin Sinescu]

Just to kind of bring this back to the relevance of the service, I find the CGC holders prohibitively bulky past a few boxes, so I have my "key" books that are graded, but otherwise my focus is more on nice raw books. They're cheaper and take up less space. I grade them myself and I have my own standards which don't necessarily need to match CGC's if I'm just absorbing, not flipping. However, as a buyer eBay is a minefield of negligent grading, so something like this would give me more peace of mind (which is partly what 3rd-party grading is about in the first place). Plus, if it's the difference between paying $20-30 for a raw NM+ non-key versus $100 or more for a chunky slab, I'll certainly consider it. 

[FN-2199]

I like the idea of raw grading, especially for moderns. I'm a run collector and when I see a modern ASM CGC 9.8 get no bids at $20, I feel stung because I passed it up. I pass it up because I just don't have the space for all of those slabs but I have plenty of room for raws, in fact, if I bought a raw 9.8 for my PC, it would just replace the 9.4 I already have. But now my 9.8 modern slabs are sitting in boxes that I should be using for my selling inventory. Yes, I want graded $XXX+ books in a slab, but for a completionist, I don't mind keeping run filler raw. I actually have a cherry-picked batch of lower value NM+ I set aside for each CGC submission that I know I wouldn't make much money on if slabbed. Since these are 9.6-9.8, I won't feel bad if I roll the dice and some come back 9.6 because that is fine for my PC but not good for resale.

What about raw grading of signed books? What would be more of a turn off, a green label or a raw grade? If I want to put together a run of books signed by an artist, I may consider raw grading. In fact, I am putting together a run of signed books that are only signed in pen on the splash page. What if I want these insured at a specific grade AND I want to see the signature? I don't know if this is something I want/need but now I can have the option.

[Aweandlorder]

11 minutes ago, FN-2199 said:

I like the idea of raw grading, especially for moderns. I'm a run collector and when I see a modern ASM CGC 9.8 get no bids at $20, I feel stung because I passed it up. I pass it up because I just don't have the space for all of those slabs but I have plenty of room for raws, in fact, if I bought a raw 9.8 for my PC, it would just replace the 9.4 I already have. But now my 9.8 modern slabs are sitting in boxes that I should be using for my selling inventory. Yes, I want graded $XXX+ books in a slab, but for a completionist, I don't mind keeping run filler raw. I actually have a cherry-picked batch of lower value NM+ I set aside for each CGC submission that I know I wouldn't make much money on if slabbed. Since these are 9.6-9.8, I won't feel bad if I roll the dice and some come back 9.6 because that is fine for my PC but not good for resale.

What about raw grading of signed books? What would be more of a turn off, a green label or a raw grade? If I want to put together a run of books signed by an artist, I may consider raw grading. In fact, I am putting together a run of signed books that are only signed in pen on the splash page. What if I want these insured at a specific grade AND I want to see the signature? I don't know if this is something I want/need but now I can have the option.

 

Absolutely. What about all the money you will save on shipping? surprised no one mentioned that.. Thats like 50% of value with some moderns.

 

[Aweandlorder]

On 2/26/2017 at 8:08 AM, 1Cool said:

Wondering how it makes economic sense to the company doing it if it was $5 a grade?  Let's assume it takes 10 minutes to carefully grade the book, fill in the info and print out the sticker and carefully seal the book in Mylar and ship the package back to the person.  6 - 10 books an hour is only $50 at max per hour. I guess at $10 it's not too bad.

CGCs fee is $5 for STRICTLY grading a book. Thats a fact. When you send in a book to get it pre-screened it costs $5 when it doesnt meet the the threshold you set.