More Census Info - High-Grade Books By Decade

[valiantman]

Here's a new one...

 

 

I took only books graded Universal CGC 8.0 or higher...

(...all other submissions had no shot at the high grades.)

 

As expected, 9.8's increase for more recent books,

and 8.0's are a larger portion of older books.

 

What seemed interesting from this chart is that the 9.6 or better

percentages really jump for the 1970s (28% vs. 12% for the 1960s).

5% of all 1970s submissions have been graded 9.8 or higher.

[valiantman]

Here's the same thing in a "cumulative" form... I think it looks a little easier to read.

[Darthdiesel]

Methinks someone is just getting creative with his Spirograph

[valiantman]

Methinks someone is just getting creative with his Spirograph

Yeah, you're probably right.

I just stare at text & stats so long that I need some colors! Crayola to the rescue!

[linmoth]

Hi Valiantman: Thank you for the time and effort that you have put forth in assimilating all the wonderful information for our benefit. Unlike most posters on these boards you have been a positive!

I gave you 5 stars!

 

Best, Tom

[NoImSpartacus]

Yes, absolutely, a great asset with all those stats..

 

5 Stars as always.

 

Kudos

[Mister_Comics]

The thing I find interesting about your graphs is that the trends for 30's, 40's 50's & 60's is about the same. 70's a bit different. Unusual. And the 80's, 90's, & 2000's have the same trend again. I wonder whats with the 70's books? Could it be that not as many are being slabbed, giving a somewhat false appearance in the graphs??? Or the other why around??? I think the graphs are cool. Can you take um back a little further, say starting at 5.0's. Would like to see a clear picture of were the 70's books compaired with the others are actually going. Right now it looks like the 70's starts to follow the 30's, 40's, etc. and then jumps up to a 80's 90's trend.

 

Great graphs!

[valiantman]

Can you take um back a little further, say starting at 5.0's. Would like to see a clear picture of were the 70's books compaired with the others are actually going. Right now it looks like the 70's starts to follow the 30's, 40's, etc. and then jumps up to a 80's 90's trend.

Great graphs!

There's a problem looking below 8.0 for any books that aren't Golden Age...

 

Submissions of mid-and-low-grade books just don't occur proportionately for Silver-to-Modern,

because there's little to be gained by grading those lower condition books.

 

High-grade books, by definition, were already recognized as "high grade"

before they were submitted... so graphing the 5.0 to 7.5 books won't accurately

demonstrate counts & trends because the majority of those books aren't worth

sending to CGC yet for any age other than Golden, or for more recent decades,

only the highest dollar books have been submitted below the high grades.

 

Note that the 1970s have few CGC 9.8s, so far...

which is probably a combination of storage methods, production quality, and age.

However, it is obvious that "something happened" starting in the 1970s to protect

those books 'en masse', since the CGC 9.6s appear much more plentiful than Silver,

and the 9.4s are definitely more available for all major 1970s books.

[Fan4Fan]

Could it be (as the owner of one of my LCS's likes to discourse on) that 70's books are simply too undervalued?

 

No one is submitting the high grade books cuz they don't want to sell them at today's prices (so why bother?).

 

Thanks,

Fan4Fan

[drbanner]

Hmm...I take it then that you feel that CGC 9.4 and up bronze age books are underpriced? Other than key books, prices have fallen across the board for just about all post-70 commons...

[Fan4Fan]

Hmm...I take it then that you feel that CGC 9.4 and up bronze age books are underpriced? Other than key books, prices have fallen across the board for just about all post-70 commons...

 

I don't.

 

Personally, I think there are a lot of overpriced books out there (mainly the ones I want to buy ).

 

I do think there are a lot of books locked up in closet/attic/storage collections that aren't seeing the light of day because it just isn't worth the owner's trouble (once they take a gander at Overstreet).

 

Now, the real question is to whether these hypothetical collections contain any 9.4's or above...

 

Thanks,

Fan4Fan

[valiantman]

I think I might start using this rule of thumb for what defines "high grade"...

Minimum of 9.8 for Modern

Minimum of 9.6 for Bronze

Minimum of 9.4 for Silver

Minimum of 9.2 for Golden

(depending on individual issues, of course, but overall these look solid.)

 

In other words, I don't think anyone will remain "extremely excited" in the long run

by Modern 9.6s, Bronze 9.4s, or Silver 9.2s...especially two or three years from now.

The counts look just right for "good NM deals", but not "sustainable skyrocketing values".

 

The phrase "Solid VF condition" may soon be replaced by "Solid 9.4"...

[garthgantu]

Fascinating stuff, Valiant... I tend to agree with your assessment of "high grade as defined by comic book Age," though I think we may see the Golden Age come down further... let's face it, for many Golden Age books the nicest slabbed copy is often in the VF+ to VF/NM range... and in those cases where there IS a nicer copy, it's from the Church collection and can (should?) be viewed as an anomaly...

[valiantman]

Fascinating stuff, Valiant... I tend to agree with your assessment of "high grade as defined by comic book Age," though I think we may see the Golden Age come down further... let's face it, for many Golden Age books the nicest slabbed copy is often in the VF+ to VF/NM range...

You're right there... for ANY age, it really depends on the book...

but it looks like even books from the 1930s & 1940s have had high grade copies

receive at least CGC 9.2 in 30% of the submissions.

The NUMBER of submissions, though, is much, much lower...

 

I wonder what the "average grade" for the Top 10 submissions per book would look like.

(Now, who could we get to run those numbers?)