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BburgDaddy-o Posts: 22
9/2/2016
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Well, after 3 months, I've finally received grades on some comics I sent to CGC. This specifically refers to first printing Batman: The Killing Joke. I bought four of these new, bagged and boarded them. the only time I handled them was when refreshing bags and boards periodically. Three of them were never even opened. The fourth is my reader copy.
So, I got them back and all three received 9.8's from CGC.
I had no illusions of gem mint on them, but I thought I had a pretty good chance of one or more being graded at 9.9. I'm not sure what it takes for that to happen on any book anymore. I've heard that a grade can depend on the mood of the grader at the time, etc. And I'm sure they are seeing more than their share of TKJ's coming through their doors lately.
i look at grading criteria in my Overstreet Guide to Grading Comics, and with that as a basis, I think these merit 9.9 consideration. Again, it may be due to the number of these coming through that make CGC take a harder look at them. I don't know.
Anyone want to chime in with their opinion?
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tabetha_m Posts: 7
9/3/2016
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Well, I'm sure you're aware of all this but I'm just replying my thoughts 
You can buy a brand new comic and it not merit a 10 or 9.9, it is not just use they look at or even corners, but they look at page coloring, staple placement and general binding
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Oxbladder Posts: 487
9/3/2016
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It is very,very hard to get above a 9.8. As Tabetha says when you get to GEM level you are talking incredibly strict standards. C entering, corners, staple placement, etc can all knock a book from thos GEM levels. Unfortunately I think you have to pay for your gradin notes but they are helpful in understanding why your books got the grades they did. Oh it could have been a defect inside too. Remember the insides count too.
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+1
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expander Posts: 241
10/11/2016
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+1 tabby
+1 Ox
After working at a newspaper in Steubenville and seeing just how incredibly fast the pages fly through the machines it's amazing we get legible print on them in the first place.
Imagine printing a run of 45,000 books probably takes a few 8 hour shifts to do the run. is every book printed during those hours gonna be 100%? I very Highly doubt it KEEP IN MIND the machines used at the time and the quality of the paper stock also affects ink bleed and color saturation. if on of the plates is off by a mere thousandth you will see the difference in quality.
And additionally up until recently most 9.9's/10's were hand picked right from the presses for just those reasons.
It stands to reason that since TKJ was printed the technology has advanced but most major companies tend to cut corners in areas that garner little attention (until it's to late) such as maintenance and supplies (cheaper paper =lower overhead)
Very often the (news)paper would miss their delivery deadline due to simple machine breakdown.
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+1
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fandangoman Posts: 6
3/23/2017
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Do you guys recomend having our books graded? I'm sceptical about the time and cost of having this done. Some say it takes up to 7 months and you really have no garentiee of what the grade will come back as. Do you guys have a base value that you use as a guide before considering having it graded?
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raztaman420 Posts: 26
3/23/2017
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fandangoman wrote:
Do you guys recomend having our books graded? I'm sceptical about the time and cost of having this done. Some say it takes up to 7 months and you really have no guarantee of what the grade will come back as. Do you guys have a base value that you use as a guide before considering having it graded?
I spent good money and time for getting books graded about 15 years ago, when CGC was still pretty new. It did take a lot of time, and I even drove to their office once (in Sarasota, FL) to drop off and pick up books. In the waiting room was sitting a guy with a stack of freshly slabbed comics from the 50's and 60's....stuff like EC comics westerns (before they turned to horror), Tales From the Crypt, Amazing Fantasy 15, Fantastic Four #1, all in 9.0 or higher grades. White pages. I was stunned. He told me the story of how he acquired them, etc. but I digress...
I sent books to CGC and they came back one or two grades below what I expected. I had bought books solely for investment, flipping them on Ebay as that was just starting to happen at the time, and it didn't work out. I just didn't do it on a bigger scale like comic shops and vendors. Some old silver and golden age books came back restored when the original seller didn't know or disclose it....
I wouldn't get books slabbed unless they would grade above a 9.0 for bronze and modern age, or above a 7.5 for silver, or 5.0 for golden age. Just my opinion. I would rather just buy pre-slabbed books than try to buy them raw, send them to CGC and hope for the best.
As for 10s or 9.9s and 9.8s MT/NM grades, even a brand new book on the shelf may be a 9.6 after the comic shop drops them in the rack. Then you get people thumbing through them with their grubby paws. Then you have to pick up the book and take it to the counter. Then the clerk picks it up to read the cover price. Get the point? I'm pretty such CGC puts the books under blacklight to look for restoration and fingerprints show up. A book that's a 10 probably has the perfect staples, binding, edges cut, and not a fingerprint. A 9.8 is perfect save for a micro imperfection or fingerprint not seen by the naked eye. I would guess most books off the rack are a 9.6. Maybe these days they get packed better than back in the day when they were squeezed into a cardboard box and tossed down at the back door of the comic shop. ~raz
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+2
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Oxbladder Posts: 487
3/24/2017
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It all depends on the end goal. Are you selling? Are you keeping them? Are you looking for easy liquidation by your heirs once you are dead and gone?
The simple answer is yes grading can be beneficial but not in every case. I would say that you should have at least one or two books that have a high value, preferably in any grade, that you can turn around and sell if you are wanting some graded books to keep in your collection. That is what I do. It is a very costly enterprise otherwise.
Now if you are selling it is going to depend on what books, what grade you think you can get and how much they sell for graded at that grade. You can get more for almost any graded book but sometimes it would not be much, if at all, above the cost of the grading.
If you have older books, silver and gold, in decent shape (6.0 and above) then grading can be more worthwhile.
Before you do anything you should study the market and learn how CGC and CBCS grade the various grades and eras so that you can better estimate the grade of the books you would like to get graded. Be very critical and don't forget about the interior. While much of the grade depends on the exterior that doesn't mean the guts get ignored. Game breaking defects are often hidden away inside.
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fandangoman Posts: 6
3/25/2017
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well looks like my most valuable book is Marvel Super-Heros issue 12. looks like its valued at around $400 raw. and then i have a handful worth $150-$200. i plan on keeping them all long term, having never sent anything away to be graded I'm very nervous about the process, the time and the cost involved as quite frankly it doesn't seem that straight forward. there is a comic book store near by that is CGC affiliated, but i have heard they have issues with how they encapsulate a comic.
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Oxbladder Posts: 487
3/25/2017
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It really isn't a hard process. You submit a book under a tier and which tier depends on the age and raw value of the book now. You also cover shipping both ways. Your books are insured while at CGC or CBCS and on the way back. While waiting to be graded they are stored in a vault. I don't know of anyone losing a book while it was on the grounds of either company.
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+1
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