What is the best way to learn the "art" of grading?

[RaccoonRaccoon]

What is the best way for a beginner (or someone coming back into comics after a 15 year layoff like myself) to learn the art of grading a comic book?

 

I don't want to become a grading expert (would be nice), but I want to be informed about grades / values of comic books, especially when considering a purchase.

 

Suggestions?

[Stronguy]

Start by grabbing yourself a copy of the Overstreet Grading Guide and studying it from cover to cover. Then grab a stack of old comics and grade them. Then check your grades against the grading guide.

 

Practice is the key.

[marvelcollector]

Start by grabbing yourself a copy of the Overstreet Grading Guide and studying it from cover to cover. Then grab a stack of old comics and grade them. Then check your grades against the grading guide.

 

Practice is the key.

 

Good advice.

 

You might also want to check out the Grading forum.

 

Look at the books posted there and see what others grade them along with the

comments made. In the aggregate, many common defects you will run into are

discused. Keep in mind there are aspects of books that don't reveal themselves in

scans, and they have to be accounted for as well. There's no substitute for having

the book in hand. But it should give you a "feel" for grading.

[whetteon]

What I know helped me was to buy a couple of cheap CGC's books and look at what a NM copy and VF/NM SHOULD look like. Everything else can be compared and evaluated relative to the Overstreet Comic Grading Guide.

[That Ron Dude]

I am no expert but I know what I know through a close reading of the Overstreet Guide.

[Norrin_Radd]

Join the next grading contest in the Grading Forum. It's a real eye opener.

[RaccoonRaccoon]

Thanks for the advice, I will do that. The grading section is pretty cool on the boards. I want to be more aware of grades, especially when buying raw off ebay.

[Timulty]

You hit the Please grade my comics posts too. It will help expose you to various grades of scanned comics. Granted that is not all that there is to it but it will expose you to common flaws/defects.

[Sharkey]

Who needs to know how to grade? Just buy the book encased in plastic and let the New True Blue Label tell you everything you need to know....

[RaccoonRaccoon]

Ha ha ha!!!! Yes Rhino, while that is true, for the most part you have to pay a HUGE premium on the "high grades". I'm sure people get great deals buying raw and slabbing it after.

 

It's like in Matrix, take the little blue pill... oh wait, is that Viagra?

[ericc123]

Try this: put some comics up on ebay with pics and list every single one as NM no matter how beat up they are. When the emails come pooring in saying "you scamming SOB thats a VG not NM" you have a grade as a starting point. If you do this long enough you will eventually get an idea of what grades your books are. I mean geez surf ebay it's obvious people do this

 

[Zanarkand]

Simply practicing all on your lonesome is probably the best way to learn to grade badly, since you will have a tendency to reinforce your own mistakes and develop bad habits. Ultimately, you need a basis for comparison.

 

My best resource is the descriptions of allowable defects in each grade in the OGG. Not the pictures, and not the general overview section, but the bit where it says things like up to a 1/4" spine split is allowable in this grade, or small stains are allowable in that grade, etc. Makes it easy to ballpark a grade just by looking for dealbreaker defects.

 

Also you could hit a show and take notes on what various dealers are calling VF or NM or whatever. And grade lots of stuff - the Fairs and the Goods and the Fines as well as the NM stuff. I mean, NM is easy. If it's basically perfect with just a couple of small flaws, it's probably NM. 5.0 - 6.0 are harder to pin down.

[Timulty]

Exactly, one you go above 9.0 and below 6.0 there starts to get some "Gray" area on the grade. Hitting up ye olde dealer at shows helps some. Also remember, that GA(and some would say SA) grading is definitely different from Grading BA, Copper or Modern. Production quality of those comics went up significantly. So, grading hinges on that.

[jbud73]

Step 1. Go to Mile High Comics

 

Step 2 Buy some comics.

 

Step 3 Grade the exact opposite

 

You've just learned how to grade comic books

[ComicBookGuy]

What is the best way for a beginner (or someone coming back into comics after a 15 year layoff like myself) to learn the art of grading a comic book?

Suggestions?

 

Buy raw off of eBay, then subtract 2 points to get the correct grade.

 

Or...

 

Buy from Dickwizard and subtract 8 points to get the accurate grade.