Grading 101: Spider-Man 14 0

[Rayzor13]

Hi All, again trying to educate myself.  This book is flawless, except for a worn / cracked spine.  What does this do to a grade?  It seems most of my quality issues are a result of not using a large enough backer board when I stored my books away so many years ago 🙄

[Rayzor13]

Thanks for everyone’s input.  I guess I misunderstood the grading process and thought certain types of problems carried certain deduction points which cumulatively result in the final grade.  Obviously there’s a number of different things that go into grading.  Lesson learned.  I will take everyone’s advice and post full pictures of single books and try to learn from the replies and previous thread suggestions. 

[marvelmaniac]

Hello and Welcome!!!

Grading is subjective since people seem to see the same thing differently, especially if it is yours, however, there are grading standards, here is some info that will help you.

First, if you are interested in learning to grade you should invest in this book, it details all grades from PR 0.5 to MT 10.0 with illustrations to point out the defects allowed in each grade and showing them. (You can purchase on Amazon)

https://www.gemstonepub.com/en/the-overstreet-guide-to-grading-comics-2016-edition

Here are two links to the Grading Standards and Comic Book Terminology.

https://comics.ha.com/tutorial/comics-grading.s?show=comicdefinitions

http://www.teako170.com/grade.html

ENJOY!!!

[Point Five]

4 hours ago, Rayzor13 said:

Thanks for everyone’s input.  I guess I misunderstood the grading process and thought certain types of problems carried certain deduction points which cumulatively result in the final grade.  Obviously there’s a number of different things that go into grading.  Lesson learned.  I will take everyone’s advice and post full pictures of single books and try to learn from the replies and previous thread suggestions. 

Cool. Sure, you're right, certain flaws can drop the grade (roughly) a certain amount. But even so we can't come up with a grade without looking at the whole book. Your closeup photos may be exaggerating some flaws, and omitting others entirely. We might notice stuff that you don't, like that extra tear on the Punisher #10. Clear scans (ideally) or large photos of both sides of the whole book are the closest we can come to seeing what you are seeing with the book in hand.

Sometimes I'm surprised when I post a book that I think is a 4.0 and the consensus here is 5.0, or vice versa. Folks here might focus on things that I don't, like the book's overall freshness and state of preservation, or catch a subtle stain on the back that I didn't even notice. It's good information even if yours is the ultimate judgment.

If you just wanted to know "is this book with flaw X a midgrade book or a high grade book" we could probably give a good guess. But we're trying to help finetune the grades more than that, to the best of our abilities.

 

[Rayzor13]

Ok, I’ve taken several pictures and posted them below.  Thanks again for your input. 

[Point Five]

9.6

[Point Five]

I think the white flaking along the spine is probably a normal production defect for this era, i.e. not a defect that would count in the grade? Not really sure though.

 

[joeypost]

This book has an abnormal sheen and texture to it. 

[Point Five]

1 hour ago, joeypost said:

This book has an abnormal sheen and texture to it. 

Huh, that's odd. You think something was done to it?

 

[Rayzor13]

I’ve owned this book since new and can tell you that nothing has been done to it.  The lighting in the bedroom is not the best, maybe that’s what you’re seeing?

[joeypost]

I have a few copies of this particular issue laying around that I need to check. Maybe it is the way it was produced, but it looks like light pebbling to me. 

Edited March 11, 2019 by joeypost

[Point Five]

FWIW, looks good to me...