2023 CGC Grading Contest Season 2 Spring Edition (#6) Round 4 11 11

[mysterymachine]

When you get 7 points for the first two books you know it's going to be a bad day.

Wow #1   3.0

Action Comics #253   2.5

Avengers #48    7.5

X-Men #107   9.2

Star Wars #68   9.6

Well on the bright side, today was World Naked Gardening Day and my yard looks fantastic!

[jcjames]

On 5/6/2023 at 10:28 PM, mysterymachine said:

 

Well on the bright side, today was World Naked Gardening Day and my yard looks fantastic!

 

[Pickie]

On 5/7/2023 at 2:01 AM, CGC Mike said:

Had it at 5.5 (is that the highest estimate?) 

 

[zzutak]

Calling Book #18 (Action #253) a 4.0 may very well be CGC's biggest single whiff of this contest.    Apparently, it was certified by the same CGC grader who awarded a 3.0 to this heavily damaged ASM #16.  Not one boardie (including the book's owner) thought this book should grade higher than 2.0.  Ridiculous. 

 

[zzutak]

I sincerely appreciate CGC sponsoring these contests.  The Boards are relatively quiet these days, and the good-natured chit-chat that accompanies each round is nice to see.    That being said, I think CGC's book selections in this particular contest leave a lot to be desired.  By my count, 10 of the 20 books were CGC 8.5 or better specimens.  Personally, I'd like to see a more even distribution across the entire spectrum of condition grades.  One man's opinion, as always. 

[sledgehammer]

On 5/7/2023 at 2:59 AM, zzutak said:

Calling Book #18 (Action #253) a 4.0 may very well be CGC's biggest single whiff of this contest.    Apparently, it was certified by the same CGC grader who awarded a 3.0 to this heavily damaged ASM #16.  Not one boardie (including the book's owner) thought this book should grade higher than 2.0.  Ridiculous. 

 

That's not fair. Most people graded it raw. The man had the book cleaned and pressed, and the result was amazing.

It looked to be at least 5.0- 5.5 to me after, and the tear through the back half of the book (with nothing missing), was a 2 grade hit.

Edited May 7, 2023 by sledgehammer

[JohnH19]

On 5/7/2023 at 2:59 AM, zzutak said:

Calling Book #18 (Action #253) a 4.0 may very well be CGC's biggest single whiff of this contest.    Apparently, it was certified by the same CGC grader who awarded a 3.0 to this heavily damaged ASM #16.  Not one boardie (including the book's owner) thought this book should grade higher than 2.0.  Ridiculous. 

 

I had a 🎯 on the Action.
I did strongly consider giving it a 3.5, though.

[sledgehammer]

On 5/7/2023 at 7:09 AM, JohnH19 said:

I had a 🎯 on the Action.
I did strongly consider giving it a 3.5, though.

 

[JohnH19]

On 5/7/2023 at 7:53 AM, sledgehammer said:

 

That damn Avengers book. I also had it as a 7.0 after a last second downgrade from 7.5. I wonder how many participants even had it as high as 8.0.

[sledgehammer]

On 5/7/2023 at 8:04 AM, JohnH19 said:

That damn Avengers book. I also had it as a 7.0 after a last second downgrade from 7.5. I wonder how many participants even had it as high as 8.0.

If somebody told me they were sending me a VF+, blind, and that showed up, I wouldn't be happy.

Just one of the grading "quirks" I guess.

Edited May 7, 2023 by sledgehammer

[JohnH19]

On 5/7/2023 at 8:19 AM, sledgehammer said:

If somebody told me they were sending me a VF+, blind, and that showed up, I wouldn't be happy.

Just one of the grading "quirks" I guess.

It was the prominent dust shadow that did it for me.

[trmoore54]

On 5/7/2023 at 6:04 AM, JohnH19 said:

That damn Avengers book. I also had it as a 7.0 after a last second downgrade from 7.5. I wonder how many participants even had it as high as 8.0.

I was one who had the book at 8.0.  I always give 2 grades on initial inspection and had 8.0/7.5.  Not sure or don't remember how CGC accounts for dust shadows of varying degrees but thought it was nice enough to get 8.0 (as some have alluded to I wouldn't want it in my set as an 8.0 let alone an 8.5.  But that just might be the thinking in hand it looks 9.0/9.2 and got knocked down to 8.5 for the dust shadow.

But very satisfactory ending for me my best round yet...WOOT!  Bulls on the Action, X-Men and Star Wars.  1/2 off on the WOW (4.5) and the Avengers (8.0) for 2 points.  I accept my participation prize... 

[JohnH19]

On 5/7/2023 at 9:11 AM, trmoore54 said:

I was one who had the book at 8.0.  I always give 2 grades on initial inspection and had 8.0/7.5.  Not sure or don't remember how CGC accounts for dust shadows of varying degrees but thought it was nice enough to get 8.0 (as some have alluded to I wouldn't want it in my set as an 8.0 let alone an 8.5.  But that just might be the thinking in hand it looks 9.0/9.2 and got knocked down to 8.5 for the dust shadow.

But very satisfactory ending for me my best round yet...WOOT!  Bulls on the Action, X-Men and Star Wars.  1/2 off on the WOW (4.5) and the Avengers (8.0) for 2 points.  I accept my participation prize... 

Good job! How many points did you wind up with?

[sledgehammer]

On 5/7/2023 at 12:28 AM, mysterymachine said:

When you get 7 points for the first two books you know it's going to be a bad day.

Action Comics #253   2.5

You must have seen the tanning on the inside of the cover.

I missed that somehow.

[trmoore54]

On 5/7/2023 at 7:13 AM, JohnH19 said:

Good job! How many points did you wind up with?

Think I had 23 so 25 points.  Went 7/7/9 in previous 3 rounds...I think half those points were on like 4 books I was way off on...

[Morganmi]

Total dumpster fire that round. I really don't see how that Wow gets a 5 but anyway it's been a fun little grading exercise again and look forward to the next one.

[mysterymachine]

On 5/7/2023 at 7:35 AM, sledgehammer said:

You must have seen the tanning on the inside of the cover.

I missed that somehow.

No, the rusty staples got me.

[scburdet]

On 5/7/2023 at 4:59 AM, zzutak said:

CGC's biggest single whiff

I'd have to agree with this as my earlier Grader Notes post will attest. I will take that ASM16 at 3.0 over the Action Comics at 4.0 all-day, every-day. I would assume a grading error if I was considering buying a 4.0 that looked like that. The ASM is one of these books I can back calculate how a CGC came to that grade regardless of whether or not it matches my standards. The ASM is quite attractive as long as you don't look at the reverse. In addition, I suspect there's some combination of evaluation of a) the tear is one major defect (i.e. each wrap is not counted as an additional defect) & b) the long tear sets the grade around 3.0 and the inner wrap tears are "allowable" in a comic graded at 3.0. Kind of like the Avengers this round. CGC's states shadow is a 8.0-9.8 defect depending on severity. I thought it was bad enough that the overall appearance merited a lower grade than 8.0, but I can see how someone got there with CGC's standards (the name of the game is guessing where CGC lands, not someone else's grading standards). That Action Comics is not attractive with all the creasing and ink loss on the bottom right. No amount of mental contortion gets me to 4.0. You have to assume that the creasing, which is really severe, lowers to 4.0 & the ink loss (and other decfects), which is not as severe, doesn't result in additional deduction. I don't quite buy the 4.0 floor stated in the CGC book for creasing. This would suggest that no matter how many creases a book has they would never go below 4.0. The Grader Notes for the Action Comics, the Batman (round 3) and JIM (round 2) are similar. I don't see how this is internally consistent. If anything, the Action Comics presents closer to the JIM, which I already felt was a charitable 3.0. 

[davidtere]

My participation in these contest reminds me of my golf game. I'll be playing along, score a couple of pars, maybe even a birdie and then comes the inevitable quadruple bogey blow up hole making me remember what a snake killing hacker I am. 

Just the same, it's a lot of fun and I try not to over think any of it. I greatly appreciate Mike doing all the work to put these on. Thank you, Mike! I look forward to them.

 

[musicmeta]

5pts. with one bullseye for the last round.  I'll take it.