2022 CGC Grading Contest Season 1 Spring Edition (#2) Round 4 13 13

[CJ Design]

On 5/11/2022 at 9:18 PM, apoptosis said:

Everybody seemed to have trouble with the X-Men #101, yet I feel like I am the only one who graded lower on it with an 8.0...  I caught that hard to see color breaking crease in the bottom right corner but I thought it looked 1" and thus max 8.0.

I had it a 7.5 because it looked 1.5-2 inches to me.

[apoptosis]

On 5/11/2022 at 9:26 PM, CJ Design said:

I had it a 7.5 because it looked 1.5-2 inches to me.

Okay glad I wasn't only one!

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 5/11/2022 at 9:19 PM, Kramerica said:

double turds

Happy BIRTHDAY 

[flashlites]

On 5/11/2022 at 9:24 PM, frozentundraguy said:

War action was my biggest miss also. I had it at 5.0.

I went back and forth on this one but in the end I just could not in good conscience give it a higher grade than 5.5. A 6.0 to me just shouldn't have that much of a reading crease. (A 6 is a Fine condition comic "minor to moderate creases") I gave it the best possible grade I could and even that was a stretch for me. Raw, at your local comic shop, an honest dealer would price it as a 4.5/5.0 book.

[Axelrod]

On 5/11/2022 at 10:01 PM, flashlites said:

I gave it a 9.4 knowing that the little crease broke color. My thought process was: to me its a 9.0 with the color breaking crease, but it was such an outstanding copy in every other way so I would have graded it a 9.2 and then I foolishly gave it a CGC bump...lol 

That tiny crease does not knock it down to 9.0.  Not even close.  It got a 9.0 for (apparently) some things that are not visible in the pictures!

[flashlites]

On 5/11/2022 at 9:40 PM, Axelrod said:

That tiny crease does not knock it down to 9.0.  Not even close.  It got a 9.0 for (apparently) some things that are not visible in the pictures!

love the emoji!!!

 

[flashlites]

I guess we will find out the results sometime tomorrow. Congratulations to all the winners. My best guess is that if you're over 20 points you're pretty much out of this thing. It was a lot of fun and it is greatly appreciated, helps me keep my grading skills sharp. I tend to grade harsh and I need to re-calibrate a few times a year. So many, many thanks again to Mike and everyone who helped put this thing together!

[Point Five]

On 5/11/2022 at 10:32 PM, flashlites said:

I went back and forth on this one but in the end I just could not in good conscience give it a higher grade than 5.5. A 6.0 to me just shouldn't have that much of a reading crease. (A 6 is a Fine condition comic "minor to moderate creases") I gave it the best possible grade I could and even that was a stretch for me. Raw, at your local comic shop, an honest dealer would price it as a 4.5/5.0 book.

I know what you mean, but other than the crease the War Action looks like a pretty sharp book; rich colors, crisp edges and almost no color loss at all. I bet it’s nice and glossy in hand. 5.5 was my first thought too, but I gave it a nudge for those qualities.

 

[flashlites]

On 5/11/2022 at 9:53 PM, Point Five said:

I know what you mean, but other than the crease the War Action looks like a pretty sharp book; rich colors, crisp edges and almost no color loss at all. I bet it’s nice and glossy in hand. 5.5 was my first thought too, but I gave it a nudge for those qualities.

 

And that's an important lesson for me because I tend to focus on certain defects at certain grade levels and need to remember to take the whole book into account. Are there offsetting attributes? Like a rich glossy cover. That would offset some of the ding I would normally give that reading crease. CGC takes the whole book into account. And that really is the right way to fully and accurately grade a book.

Edited May 12, 2022 by flashlites

[Just Visiting]

I got walloped on War Action. ,  I had Silver Surfer at 5.0, did the fading of part of the cover not affect the grade?

Edited May 12, 2022 by Just Visiting

[Doctor Dositheus]

If you're looking for thoughts for other prizes, maybe some forum bling or temporary custom titles that last until the next contest.

[ttfitz]

On 5/11/2022 at 10:20 PM, apoptosis said:

One more thing, the War Action #2 looks to me like full spine readers crease.  I usually thing of these as 8+ inches of creases which in my calculation is max 4.5. 

I gave it the same, for the same reason. The only reason this didn't bug me is because of how far off I was on the Strange Tales. 

[musicmeta]

Did ok this round.  Just 6 points and 1 bullseye..  First round really did me in. 

[grebal]

On 5/11/2022 at 9:24 PM, frozentundraguy said:

On 5/11/2022 at 7:16 PM, sledgehammer said:

Six points, and three of them came on the war action. I called it very good plus. Not a bad way to finish. Looking forward to the next one.

🙏

War action was my biggest miss also. I had it at 5.0.

In past Green Eggs contests, Shin @sckao prepared a SCOREBOARD that rated all competitors for "best" based on lowest avg. error, i.e. most consistent for all 20 books (use the exact same number used in this contest, 1 pt for every grading increment wrong).   The winner of lowest avg error pretty much was always off by AT MOST 2 grades.

The scoring in Green Eggs @thirdgreenham was very different (highest score wins, 5 pts for bull, 3 pts if miss by 1, and I forget the rest, maybe minus 1 if off by 3 or more grades)?

If WA 2 was your biggest miss (add 2 pts), I suspect you'd have been at (or at least near) the top of that scoring of lowest avg. error rate, pretty solid grading to consistently be that close.

[grendelbo]

On 5/11/2022 at 6:58 PM, zzutak said:

Back in the mid-2000s, Ed Jaster (who had recently joined Heritage Auctions) told me the "trick" to having your books certified by CGC was to max out your invoices rather than submit only a few books.  "Sometimes you'll be higher than CGC, and sometimes you'll be lower; but if you're a decent grader, your average grade should come pretty close to CGC's."

To my fellow contestants: Before you pack it in, recalculate your contest score using signed deltas: -2 for your guess being 2 grade increments too low, -1 for your guess being 1 grade increment too low, 0 for a bullseye, +1 for your guess being 1 grade increment too high, +2 for your guess being 2 grade increments too high, and so on.  What's your final 20-book tally now?  Did the errors to the low side and high side more or less balance out?  Or is your contest score way negative or way positive (in which case you're consistently being too strict or too lenient with your condition assessments)?

Chances are your final score using signed deltas will be much smaller than your final score using absolute/unsigned deltas.  If that's the case, your errors are balancing out (which is exactly what Ed predicted would happen for a decent grader).

If the sum of your signed deltas is between -20 and +20, on average, you're less than one grade increment away from CGC.  
If the sum of your signed deltas is between -10 and +10, on average, you're less than one-half of one grade increment away from CGC.       

Until next time! 

Thanks.

My sum was -14 for the contest. That makes me feel much better after a disastrous Round 3. Not surprising as I tend to grade more conservatively than CGC.

And with 5 bulleyes out of 20 books I'll be heading back to PGM.

As always, I hope this and future contests bring more boardies over to the forum to contribute and grade some books.

[grebal]

On 5/11/2022 at 10:03 PM, flashlites said:

On 5/11/2022 at 9:53 PM, Point Five said:

I know what you mean, but other than the crease the War Action looks like a pretty sharp book; rich colors, crisp edges and almost no color loss at all. I bet it’s nice and glossy in hand. 5.5 was my first thought too, but I gave it a nudge for those qualities.

 

And that's an important lesson for me because I tend to focus on certain defects at certain grade levels and need to remember to take the whole book into account. Are there offsetting attributes? Like a rich glossy cover. That would offset some of the ding I would normally give that reading crease. CGC takes the whole book into account. And that really is the right way to fully and accurately grade a book.

Arguably, the "right" way to grade a book would be to assign the grade that most knowledgeable* collectors would assign, using reasonably strict grading standards commonly held by collectors.

"Knowledgeable" is of course open to argument.

It's not in the spirit of a contest hosted and sponsored by CGC (and done very well imo), but we could make a good argument that another way to see who "won" is to score the exact same contest and WAGs, but with the "correct" grade being the grade assigned by the most players, and not the final grade assigned by CGC (i.e. mode grade).

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

On 5/11/2022 at 10:17 PM, Doctor Dositheus said:

If you're looking for thoughts for other prizes, maybe some forum bling or temporary custom titles that last until the next contest.

I sense a 

" I may not have come in first place in the CGC grading contest , but I participated " 

Title for someone.. 

[comicginger1789]

My best round 

Bullseye on Sensation and Strange Tales. I was a 5.5 on War Action, a 6.5 on Surfer and a 9.2 on 101….oh so close

[Warlord]

On 5/11/2022 at 7:16 PM, CGC Mike said:

Thanks for the kind words that were posted both publicly and privately.  Much appreciated.  These contests are fun for me as well.  The round closes in about 45 minutes, and we will do the reveal.  

Thanks for running the contest.  It certainly must be tons of work.  These contests are a lot of fun!

If I could suggest one improvement, that would be tagging (or at least listing) anyone who hasn't gotten their grades recorded about a day before the deadline.   Pretty sure I took myself out of the contest because I tried to submit my Round 4 grades but it doesn't look like the PM exists, so something went wrong.   I hope those at the top of the scoreboard did really well so that ultimately it doesn't matter and that'll get rid of this sick feeling. I remember with high confidence that I was off on the Strange Tales because I thought it was so sharp I went 9.4, didn't think those minor spine bends amounted to much.  I don't recall my grades with certainty on the rest.  I think I was about 1 off on the Sensation (what was up on that back cover at the spine?) so I went 3 or 3.5, maybe on or off by one on the War and X-Men.  And don't remember what I said for Surfer, but think I was likely in the zone.   So I would have gotten 6-10 points, most likely not good enough to move up and instead likely would have slipped a bit. 

I'll be wondering for days where my PM went!

[kav]

On 5/11/2022 at 9:44 PM, Warlord said:

Thanks for running the contest.  It certainly must be tons of work.  These contests are a lot of fun!

If I could suggest one improvement, that would be tagging (or at least listing) anyone who hasn't gotten their grades recorded about a day before the deadline.   Pretty sure I took myself out of the contest because I tried to submit my Round 4 grades but it doesn't look like the PM exists, so something went wrong.   I hope those at the top of the scoreboard did really well so that ultimately it doesn't matter and that'll get rid of this sick feeling. I remember with high confidence that I was off on the Strange Tales because I thought it was so sharp I went 9.4, didn't think those minor spine bends amounted to much.  I don't recall my grades with certainty on the rest.  I think I was about 1 off on the Sensation (what was up on that back cover at the spine?) so I went 3 or 3.5, maybe on or off by one on the War and X-Men.  And don't remember what I said for Surfer, but think I was likely in the zone.   So I would have gotten 6-10 points, most likely not good enough to move up and instead likely would have slipped a bit. 

I'll be wondering for days where my PM went!

Mike has enough work to do with the contest without burdening him further.  Its up to us to pay attention to deadlines.
Cant wait to see the results.  I'm at 27 I think but whats my standing?