Giant Size X-Men #1 Just Graded 9.9. It Begins..... 6 6

[1950's war comics]

speaking of grade inflation the same thing happened with golf clubs 20 years ago , it used to be that every companies 7 iron was the same loft and degree and then some companies started to decrease their clubs loft and then declare their clubs went farther !

long story short - todays 7 Iron is often times the equivalent to a 5 iron from 20/30 years ago

[Iconic1s]

On 7/4/2024 at 4:00 PM, Brandon Shepherd said:

 

So disappointing 

[godzilla43]

On 7/5/2024 at 12:45 AM, 1950's war comics said:

speaking of grade inflation the same thing happened with golf clubs 20 years ago , it used to be that every companies 7 iron was the same loft and degree and then some companies started to decrease their clubs loft and then declare their clubs went farther !

long story short - todays 7 Iron is often times the equivalent to a 5 iron from 20/30 years ago

Kinda different thing. There has been cavity backs and game improvement irons for longer than 20 years. You can buy blades even now but hardly any pro players except maybe Woods, Scheffler plays them. Just buy irons that you like to look at and hit. Then buy some special wedges for those under 100 yards shots. 

[DC#]

There are some YT videos from Automatic Comics where he is tracking the weekly additions to the census for 10/9.9/and 9.8 books that are older than the early 1990s (forgot his exact cutoff).    If you are interested in this topic they are nice videos since he is doing all the work for you.    Linked one video below for ease.

The basic question is - has CGC adjusted their grading scale?   And not just allotting more time to discern a 9.9 from a 9.8 - but are they willing to give 9.8s now for books that might have gotten a 9.6 not too long ago.     I don't know that I have an opinion but three Silver/Bronze books went up for sale recently that made me go check the census and they all were graded in the last month.     Pics below.    The two silver age books do seem to have a bit more edge wear than one might expect in a 9.8 but I do not claim to be an expert in the granularity of these upper grades.    Didn't add more photos of the Hulk as didn't notice any wierdness.   And hey - the ASM 48 actually has grader notes as a 9.8!

Photos for your viewing pleasure.  

I am not trying to fan the flames here - more curious to hear the thoughts of others.   Especially with the context of the info in the Automatic Comics videos.    

 

 

 

 

[LordRahl]

On 8/11/2024 at 3:29 PM, DC# said:

There are some YT videos from Automatic Comics where he is tracking the weekly additions to the census for 10/9.9/and 9.8 books that are older than the early 1990s (forgot his exact cutoff).    If you are interested in this topic they are nice videos since he is doing all the work for you.    Linked one video below for ease.

The basic question is - has CGC adjusted their grading scale?   And not just allotting more time to discern a 9.9 from a 9.8 - but are they willing to give 9.8s now for books that might have gotten a 9.6 not too long ago.     I don't know that I have an opinion but three Silver/Bronze books went up for sale recently that made me go check the census and they all were graded in the last month.     Pics below.    The two silver age books do seem to have a bit more edge wear than one might expect in a 9.8 but I do not claim to be an expert in the granularity of these upper grades.    Didn't add more photos of the Hulk as didn't notice any wierdness.   And hey - the ASM 48 actually has grader notes as a 9.8!

Photos for your viewing pleasure.  

I am not trying to fan the flames here - more curious to hear the thoughts of others.   Especially with the context of the info in the Automatic Comics videos.    

 

 

 

 

My thought is that the wear on both the ASM and the FF that you are highlighting is production and if you look at enough silver 9.8s graded prior to 2023, you'll find examples that have those same issues that were graded 9.8. I think those 9.8s have nothing to do with any kind of change of grading standards.

[bc]

Been mining some CGC Census data for a project from CGCDATA.COM (thank you @valiantman !!!)

Here's the number of 10's added to the CGC Census per month from December 2019 to August 2024

The Blue line is the actual number added to the census that month.

The Orange line is the 6 month moving average.

-bc

[Stefan_W]

On 9/7/2024 at 4:52 PM, bc said:

Been mining some CGC Census data for a project from CGCDATA.COM (thank you @valiantman !!!)

Here's the number of 10's added to the CGC Census per month from December 2019 to August 2024

The Blue line is the actual number added to the census that month.

The Orange line is the 6 month moving average.

-bc

Just did a quick 2 minute table showing my progression of 9.9s and 10.s.

 

[bc]

On 9/7/2024 at 5:05 PM, Stefan_W said:

Just did a quick 2 minute table showing my progression of 9.9s and 10.s.

 

That's hilarious man!

-bc

[LordRahl]

On 9/7/2024 at 1:52 PM, bc said:

Been mining some CGC Census data for a project from CGCDATA.COM (thank you @valiantman !!!)

Here's the number of 10's added to the CGC Census per month from December 2019 to August 2024

The Blue line is the actual number added to the census that month.

The Orange line is the 6 month moving average.

-bc

How many were published pre 1990?

[bc]

On 9/7/2024 at 6:45 PM, LordRahl said:

How many were published pre 1990?

I'd have to look into how to pull that data, but my beer filled gut says not many.

Slabdata.com has a cool graphic from Aug 2023 that shows a zillion data points over time:

https://www.slabdata.com/blog/2023/08/

Here's a snapshot for 1990 books:

By 2000 it looked like this

Fast forward to 2020

the most recent year of the show was 2023:

-bc

[Silver Surfer]

Thanks for the graphs. Note to self, don’t ever buy a 9.9 unless it’s cheaper than a 9.8. What a racket. 

[Stefan_W]

Quick question for those who have managed to get 9.9s and 10s along the way - is it more likely to get one of those grades in a pre-screen or just a regular modern submission?

I am asking because I have never had a 9.9 or 10.0, and when I watched the grading video that showed 9.9s and 10s the selection was a comparison between multiple copies of the same book. I don't ever have 25 copies of the same book, but I picked up a high grade Spawn collection where at least they are similar in terms of page quality, manufacturing, etc. 

From about a long box worth of high grade Spawn comics (there were multiple copies of some books) I selected the 25 best copies in there with a minimum value over $100 at 9.8, and my entire goal for doing this was to try to get my first 9.9. 

The problem is I am not sure whether sending it in a pre-screen or a regular modern submission impacts on my chances at one of those higher grade. Any help or advice on this topic is appreciated. 

Edited September 18 by Stefan_W

[LordRahl]

On 9/18/2024 at 12:34 PM, Stefan_W said:

Quick question for those who have managed to get 9.9s and 10s along the way - is it more likely to get one of those grades in a pre-screen or just a regular modern submission?

I am asking because I have never had a 9.9 or 10.0, and when I watched the grading video that showed 9.9s and 10s the selection was a comparison between multiple copies of the same book. I don't ever have 25 copies of the same book, but I picked up a high grade Spawn collection where at least they are similar in terms of page quality, manufacturing, etc. 

From about a long box worth of high grade Spawn comics (there were multiple copies of some books) I selected the 25 best copies in there with a minimum value over $100 at 9.8, and my entire goal for doing this was to try to get my first 9.9. 

The problem is I am not sure whether sending it in a pre-screen or a regular modern submission impacts on my chances at one of those higher grade. Any help or advice on this topic is appreciated. 

I've submitted I don't know how many thousands of books at this point but I'm sure it's over 10k. The vast majority are copper and older. I've only gotten 1 9.9 and no 10s in all those subs. The 1 9.9 I did get is a slightly weird story. It was in a 9.8 prescreen and it graded 9.8 but they missed the double cover so I called them and they said send it back and we'll fix it. But when it came back it was a 9.9, interior cover got the 9.9 and exterior was still 9.8. So in my experience 9.9s and 10s are incredibly difficult to get unless you're subbing current books. And I've subbed 10-15 copies of the same book at a time... still didn't get higher than a 9.8 even though all of the copies got 9.8 

[Stefan_W]

On 9/19/2024 at 8:08 PM, LordRahl said:

I've submitted I don't know how many thousands of books at this point but I'm sure it's over 10k. The vast majority are copper and older. I've only gotten 1 9.9 and no 10s in all those subs. The 1 9.9 I did get is a slightly weird story. It was in a 9.8 prescreen and it graded 9.8 but they missed the double cover so I called them and they said send it back and we'll fix it. But when it came back it was a 9.9, interior cover got the 9.9 and exterior was still 9.8. So in my experience 9.9s and 10s are incredibly difficult to get unless you're subbing current books. And I've subbed 10-15 copies of the same book at a time... still didn't get higher than a 9.8 even though all of the copies got 9.8 

Definitely super hard to get. I have had over a thousand 9.8s between books I directly submitted and those I submitted through other pressers prior to setting up my own and I am zero for all of that. 

I ended up going for the regular modern submission. My thought process was maybe the newest graders get the 9.8 pre-screens because those would be the easiest, and maybe that group would be the most reluctant to give out a 9.8, but who knows for sure. 

This is the very first time I submitted books just to try to get that elusive 9.9. I had a couple here and there is submissions that I figured would have a shot and none panned out, so I group these in a way that best facilitates comparison to differentiate books that may fall above 9.8 - except that I don't ever have 25 copies of the same book. That would be the best approach if I could ever pull that off. 

[bc]

So far, there have been 2 Census updates from 9/3 to 9/17...

There have been 152 10's certified this month thru 9/17.

 

Updated graph thru 9/17/24

-bc

EDIT: Forgot to add: Blue line is still actual, Orange line is 6 Month Moving Average

Edited September 20 by bc

[Microchip]

On 9/20/2024 at 10:35 AM, bc said:

So far, there have been 2 Census updates from 9/3 to 9/17...

There have been 152 10's certified this month thru 9/17.

 

Updated graph thru 9/17/24

-bc

EDIT: Forgot to add: Blue line is still actual, Orange line is 6 Month Moving Average

What books are we talking about here, mods or other books?

[valiantman]

CGC continues to grade those sheets of foil that are currency in some island country with reprints of famous covers on them.  CGC 9.9 and CGC 10 are automatic on those things.

http://www.cgcdata.com/cgc/search/comicid/358153/6mo

For comic books, the Rippaverse publisher has dozens of CGC 9.9 and CGC 10 on new issues as they come out.

Edited September 20 by valiantman