Buying Books Online: Could the Photos be TOO Detailed? 1 1

[Happy Noodle Boy]

I may be completely wrong about this. But...

After looking through an endless number of copies of GI Combat #168 for sale on ebay, and rejecting VF copy after VF copy because of corner damage (my least favorite kind of damage), I took a break and looked at some comic channels on Youtube. I like The Comics Den because they are a very polite married couple who have lots of videos showing them going through back issue bins in stores and at conventions, and no videos with titles like "The FOMO is REAL on (insert character here) because Marvel just announced (whatever)--is NOW the time to BUY???"

So I'm watching them going through the back issue bins pulling out books that all looked very nice and it occurred to me that the view they're getting of the books--in hand, held up about a foot away from their eyes--is the natural way of looking at a comic and assessing its condition, and they seemed to be having quite a fun time pulling all those VF-NM range books, whereas I am constantly on ebay or MCS looking at high-res scans that are the equivalent of looking at a book through a magnifying glass, rejecting book after book because of some defect, and it can be frustrating. Now of course I'm not saying that MCS, or ebay sellers, are doing anything wrong by offering high-res scans of books. But sometimes it seems to me that the insane level of detail in those scans can give a false impression of a book's condition, by magnifying the tiniest of defects, whereas, in hand, some of those defects might seem like not such a big deal at all, or might even completely escape my notice. (If you can't see a defect, does the defect actually exist?)

I'm not a 9.8 guy, but I like books that are well centered, and have nice corners. Spine ticks don't bother me much. I have books in the VF-minus range that I am very happy with. But looking at scans of books online, it's starting to seem like every comic book ever created in the Bronze Age has catastrophic corner damage. I think I need to get out to a comic shop soon.   

[Chip Cataldo]

You've highlighted what I don't like about grading companies. The fact that a high grade book is graded a 6.0 and a very high grade book can be an 8.5, 9.0, 9.2, 9.4, 9.6 or 9.8 is absolutely ridiculous.

I can hold it in front of my face and tell what it is.