Discuss comic grading and how to evaluate books
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Spidey63 Posts: 100
12/9/2018
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I have several silver age comics that would probably be 9.4's were it not for a staple tear. Some books, the staple has popped loose from the cover. Some books, the staple looks prone to pop loose from the cover because of the staple tear.
What would your guidance be for the grade of the book with this defect?
How would you come up with a selling price to offer out for sale?
Would you go right to the highest grade that allows this defect?
Or would you take the grade of the book without the defect and apply a discount % off, like 40%/ 50% off ... or something like that?
edited by pukie2122 on 12/9/2018
edited by pukie2122 on 12/9/2018
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Oxbladder Posts: 487
12/13/2018
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If the defect in this example has caused the cover to actually be loose from the interior I would lean at grading it about an 7.0-8.0. If I were selling it though I would list the grade and mention that without the defect the book appears to be the higher grade but the the staple defect has caused the downgrade. I know that lots of people like to use the old method of saying well the first grade that allows for this is x grade so it is x grade but that is ignoring that the rest of the book may be in superb shape.
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Spidey63 Posts: 100
12/13/2018
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That sounds reasonable to me. Thank you for your help.
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Oxbladder Posts: 487
12/14/2018
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You are welcome. This is one of those defects that has always been the bane of the hobby. Even after third party grading came about it remains very difficult to properly grade a very nice book with one major defect. This is one of those defects that, to me, shows some of the hypocrisy of the grading system we have. This would be seen by most to be a handling defect and ding it really hard. To me this looks more like a manufacturing defect. Not that a handling mistake couldn't have cause this error but almost always to cause a defect like this there would be other defects created or some indication that handling or reading of the book caused the damage. This is a REALLY sharp book though and to me it look like there was a mistake in the binding process.
I once had a book from the 60's that was in great shape except for the obvious fact that the bottom staple had been punched through the front cover and first two leaves in the binding process. Remarkably, even though it was universally graded by CGC there were people who still considered that it was a handling damage even though there was no signs that the book had been handed much at all. No reading creases, no wear creasing at the staples, etc. Nothing. If you looked at the bottom staple though there was a staple sized hole through the cover and the leaves and just under that the staple was perfectly bound the the rest of the leaves. There wasn't even and cover or leaf paper from the other leaves that were punched through under the staple. Clearly, to me the bottom cover and first two leaves either were not sitting flat when the book was stapled and the staple punched a staple sized hole through the those firs three layer of the book.
In the case of your book, it appears as though the staple was driven in unevenly and cut most of the paper between the two holes of the staple. Either the rest snapped the first time it was opened or shortly thereafter because the edge of the separated paper is not very white. Not only that but there is zero indication that the paper is brittle or the book was badly mist handled to cause that tear. I would say that this is mostly a manufacturing defect. It doesn't lessen or increase the deduction for the defect, it is a serious defect, But I recognize that this is one of those defects where manufacturing quirks contributed to a major defect.
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+1
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BigKahunaFSU Posts: 1
1/25/2019
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I have a similarly related question. I have a comic that is a convention exclusive where they just staple a convention cover over the original comic and the convention cover is missing a staple. Looks like the machine just ran out of staples, so there is the indent, but no holes. I had it graded by PGX back in the day and it came back as 9.8 apparent. Would the same thing sent to CGC come back as qualified? I was thinking of doing the crossover service.
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