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

[Get Marwood & I]

Four bulls and one point this round, for 13 points overall. Not too bad. Looks like I'll have to wait until tomorrow, UK time, to see where I end up though. Good luck everyone.

[universal soldier]

Glad to see I wasn't the only on fooled by that WOW. I gave it a 4.0 so not too far off. A last minute downgrade on the Action cost me a point otherwise I would have had three bulls this round. I was two harsh on the shadow for the Avengers but still walked away with a 5 point round.

[sledgehammer]

On 5/7/2023 at 12:33 PM, davidtere said:

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.

 

My last 5 scores have been 27, 27, 20, 25 and 31.

The 20 actually tied me for fourth place.

Not coincidentally, I haven't had an eye exam in 2 years, and I'm scheduled to go, so you guys will be in trouble next time.

[JohnH19]

On 5/7/2023 at 2:36 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Four bulls and one point this round, for 13 points overall. Not too bad. Looks like I'll have to wait until tomorrow, UK time, to see where I end up though. Good luck everyone.

Almost certainly in the money or at least in a playoff.

[Tom789]

On 5/7/2023 at 10:03 AM, scburdet said:

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. 

I don't buy the 4.0 floor either.  I have a Tomb of Dracula #10 that has an extreme amount of creasing on the front cover, and it got a CGC 2.0 (which I was happy with).  I don't think the other flaws would have brought it below 4.0.

[TC33]

Look at that lower staple from the back cover, if its not completely popped, its hanging on by a thread!   Because of this and multiple spine ticks I had it at 8.0 and was being super generous with that sizable tear at the lower staple that is very nearly popped.  This was the biggest whiff by CGC that I had seen in my opinion. You have to factor in a small bump on golden age books, so I was really close on the WOW at 4.5 and hit the other ones spot on.

[CGC Mike]

Here are the results!

 

[CGC Mike]

Here's a link to the tiebreaker round.

 

[CGC Mike]

Perhaps, I have made an error in my thinking regarding the tiebreaker round.  Lets discuss it in the results thread.  In the meantime, the tiebreaker thread has been hidden.

[CGC Mike]

On 5/7/2023 at 8:46 PM, CGC Mike said:

Perhaps, I have made an error in my thinking regarding the tiebreaker round.  Lets discuss it in the results thread.  In the meantime, the tiebreaker thread has been hidden.

Sorry about that, guys.  I have edited the tiebreaker round to reflect that the boardies who scored 13 points will be the one's participating.  The link above will take you to the tiebreaker round.  It has been a long week sigh...

[F For Fake]

Sorry @CGC Mike very bummed I missed this round. We headed out of town Thursday night, and I didn't know the latest round had started. We don't get internet at our place at the river, and ever since the board change up a few weeks ago, I can no longer access the boards on Safari on my phone. I tried logging in Saturday to see if I was missing anything, but as has been the case for the last several weeks, I just get stuck in an endless "sign in" loop and can't actually access the boards. Oh well. Sad that I'll miss the rest of the contest, good luck everybody!

[Black_Adam]

Some of the grades these contest books get...wow. Maybe this is CGC's way of letting us know this is a great time to get your comics graded. I wonder if I can put a note on my submission, requesting the same set of graders who judged the books in this contest! 

[CGC Mike]

On 5/8/2023 at 8:49 AM, F For Fake said:

Sorry @CGC Mike very bummed I missed this round. We headed out of town Thursday night, and I didn't know the latest round had started. We don't get internet at our place at the river, and ever since the board change up a few weeks ago, I can no longer access the boards on Safari on my phone. I tried logging in Saturday to see if I was missing anything, but as has been the case for the last several weeks, I just get stuck in an endless "sign in" loop and can't actually access the boards. Oh well. Sad that I'll miss the rest of the contest, good luck everybody!

No worries.  As far as the "endless sign in loop" when it takes you to the home page, sign out there, then click on chat forum and you will be able to sign in.  I hope the web team finds the problem with the "remember me" feature soon.  

[F For Fake]

On 5/8/2023 at 8:55 AM, CGC Mike said:

No worries.  As far as the "endless sign in loop" when it takes you to the home page, sign out there, then click on chat forum and you will be able to sign in.  I hope the web team finds the problem with the "remember me" feature soon.  

Well I'll be doggone, it worked! Thanks Mike! You can all breathe a sigh of relief that I'm out of this race, but I'll be back for the next one! 

[CGC Mike]

On 5/8/2023 at 8:59 AM, F For Fake said:

Well I'll be doggone, it worked! Thanks Mike! You can all breathe a sigh of relief that I'm out of this race, but I'll be back for the next one! 

Awesome. The signup for the Summer Edition will start around July 1st.  Hopefully, there will be a large turnout.  

[JollyComics]

I don't understand why CGC graders didn't notice one significiant defect on the back cover of Avengers #48.   I checked many Avengers #48 copies that don't have the same stain on Norman Rockwell's face.

I lowered it than 8.5 but the stain was not counted.  Take a good look here.

[JollyComics]

I believe Action Comics #253 was overgraded because there are color loss on the front cover.  I believe it has a water damage. Also, there is a stain on BC.  I compared this copy to many 3.0 and 3.5 copies with no stain or color loss.  I thought it's safe to grade it at 3.0 but the color loss is excluded in the grader note.

[Cman429]

On 5/8/2023 at 10:48 AM, JollyComics said:

I don't understand why CGC graders didn't notice one significiant defect on the back cover of Avengers #48.   I checked many Avengers #48 copies that don't have the same stain on Norman Rockwell's face.

I lowered it than 8.5 but the stain was not counted.  

It was noted. Check the graders notes Mike posted on page 6.

Ended up with 35 points which I guess puts me in the bottom 25 so I guess missing the cut just saved Mike some unnecessary work. Only 9 points the first two rounds then I hit the proverbial iceberg.

This last round I took a whopping 6 on that infamous Wow. I definitely thought the cover was detached, at least partially. If there’s one thing that’d make these contests easier it’d be including a spine view shot.

The Avengers also crushed me bc I always thought ink smudges were hit hard and that “shadow” they note I mistook for water/foxing. That still seems like an extraordinarily generous grade when I look at some of the 6.0-7.0 slabs I have decorating my fortress of solitude. 

[universal soldier]

On 5/8/2023 at 11:03 AM, JollyComics said:

I believe Action Comics #253 was overgraded because there are color loss on the front cover.  I believe it has a water damage. Also, there is a stain on BC.  I compared this copy to many 3.0 and 3.5 copies with no stain or color loss.  I thought it's safe to grade it at 3.0 but the color loss is excluded in the grader note.

I dropped it to 3.5 last minute mainly due to this defect.

[universal soldier]

I feel pretty good about my performance this time. I strive for a top 10 finish and technically tied for 10th if my math is right. I did accumilate more points this contest vs last however... (22 vs 19)