Another Overstreet question 1 1

[William-James88]

3 minutes ago, The Lions Den said:

A valid question...I hope I can provide a valid answer.

I'm a student of Overstreet as well---I had an OWL card and I owned a copy of the Overstreet grading guide. So that was my first real exposure to the actual grading of books on a numerical scale. 

No wonder we get along so well.

[The Lions Den]

12 minutes ago, William-James88 said:

No wonder we get along so well.

That is my ultimate goal...  

[Lightning55]

Thanks for the insight @The Lions Den!  I would HOPE there was some type of grading test as part of applying.  You can't just turn ANYONE loose on our treasured comics!

I think the 9.0-9.2-9.4 area of grading is treacherous.  That's because it is the intersection of ascending and descending grades. 

For example, you start with a comic that is just about perfect at first glance, and start to examine it more closely.  You see something that immediately takes it out of 9.8.  Then something here AND there that pushes it out of 9.6.  So you want to call it 9.4.  The more you look at it, you might see things you missed - a slight waviness to it, some hint of wear at a staple, a slightly rounded corner.  Is it still 9.4?  How long do you look for problems with the comic.  Just LOOKING IT OVER is adding potential problems - counting pages, checking for coupons cut out, examining the center fold and staples, checking for color touch, etc.  So you decide to go to 9.2 to be "conservative".

Coming from the other direction, maybe a Silver or Bronze Age book, you have decided that it is at least VF, no exclusionary wear for that grade.  Now you are wondering if it isn't a bit better than just plain vanilla VF.  You're checking and checking, and things you figured would be there for wear are not, so you are looking pretty good.  You realize that this is a very high VF, or is it a low NM?  Maybe it's 9.0, maybe it's 9.2  You will probably change your mind several times before you commit to a grade.  It's a very gray area because you have evaluate a mix of a lot of factors that likely wouldn't even be present above 9.4, and weigh their significance.  So as I said, you can find yourself in this nebulous range from either direction.

And imagine that 2 people are grading the comic.  One thinks it is a low NM, the other a high VF.  They're not far apart, but you have to have a consensus.  So 9.2 it is.

If it's raw comics we are talking about, this fine tuning applies to comics worth at least $20 in the 9.0-9.4 range.  Even then, we are talking small changes in value among these grades, maybe $2 per increment in this range, nothing monumental, some would call it almost insignificant.  If you have a comic that is $5000 in 9.6, those small steps downward do cost $$$.  But again, in reasonable steps, not dropping 50% with each creep.

For lower priced comics, especially those worth cover price or less, the increments can be a dime or quarter apart in this range.  A comic that would be $4 in 9.4 won't be much less in 9.2 OR 9.0.  It might go WAY down to $3.50.  It's STILL a NM comic.  But many are worth $1 in 9.4, and still $1 in 9.2, still $1 in 9.0.  P00p is p00p.

Back to how long and how closely do your look, that is even open to discussion.  Do you use a magnifying glass?  When grading diamonds, there is no such thing as a perfect diamond.  With magnification, you can always look closer and closer to find the flaws.  They are there, just very tiny.  So in that industry, they call it "perfect" if you can't find any flaws while examining it at 10 power magnification.  You have to draw a line somewhere, and that's how they do it with gems.  I'm not sure if comics HAS a way to draw a line on this yet, so we just do the best we can.

Edited February 2, 2021 by Lightning55

[William-James88]

27 minutes ago, 15Years said:

I won this in a guessing contest from Arnold on the Ebay Comic Chat board.

Interesting how the very cover shows the connection between Overstreet Grading standards and CGC.

[Lightning55]

49 minutes ago, 15Years said:

I won this in a guessing contest from Arnold on the Ebay Comic Chat board.

Nice pickup!  I'm not sure when these started coming out, but I have 2 from around 1999.  One is open, the other still sealed with the OWL card inside.

[The Lions Den]

13 hours ago, Lightning55 said:

Thanks for the insight @The Lions Den!  I would HOPE there was some type of grading test as part of applying.  You can't just turn ANYONE loose on our treasured comics!

You're welcome. 

And you're right---you also have to be able to handle the books. I've heard tales of people being sacked because they had sweaty hands...  

Edited February 2, 2021 by The Lions Den

[thehumantorch]

13 hours ago, William-James88 said:

I wouldn't go all crazy on this. Remember its for insurance purposes. When it comes to premiums on high grade books, you'd have to prove those premiums with a cgc slab.

I wasn't serious