So the local vintage collectibles store in my area posted this AF 15 CGC 1.8 on their FB page. It’s available for purchase (I don’t know the price yet). But a 1.8? I thought grades were in 0.5 increments. What the heck is going on here? Is this from a looooooong time ago when they graded differently? The serial number was blanked out in the photo by the seller so no one can take the image and try and make a fake sale.
Perfectly normal grade for CGC, there are 4 grades between with 1 and 2, 1.0, 1.5, 1.8 and 2.0
Thanks. I guess I’m used to seeing all the modern graded stuff that I did not know the 1.8 grade exists. Personally, I would not want that. I’d rather have the 1.5 or 2.0 grade. The 1.8 just kind of sticks out. Maybe I should buy it, crack the slab, and try for a regrade, lol.
And we wonder why their grading sucks?! That’s a very general list of grades. I guess if they went by Overstreets grading definitions they’d make a lot less money because they get more if it’s a higher grade. Clear conflict of interests but people still pay and trust these fools.
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I despise CGC, but it is a necessary evil. My hope is someday (soon please) some new company comes along and knocks them on their ass.
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Thanks for posting that chart. The 1.8 is even more absurd looking at that. So we split hairs at the very bottom and very top, but not really in the middle? With the below 2 level, I don’t really see the point. Is there really a difference between 1.5 and 1.8? On any given day, a comic could be either depending on the grader.
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CGC is just proof that people are buying slabs, not actually the comics.
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CGC has some real incompetent graders and I hate to say this publicly. You know how many books in the past I have sent in that get a low grade and then when I do resubmit the same damn book it gets a higher grade.
I just had this happen with an ASM 299. They got the book originally a few weeks ago and this book had no real issues, except for 2 very faint spine tics. I clean and press my own books. This book I had also placed in a humidity chamber + used my tac for the spine, before the press. The clown grader gives the book a 8.5 with the generic “spine stress, etc” notes. I get the book back and crack it. I tac the spine yet again and do another press, I send it in, and then this morning finally got my new grade…a 9.6. Something is really off over there.
Last year I had acquired a different ASM 299 and it was when I had no clue what I was doing with pressing and cleaning. This book had a miswrap and quite a few of color breaking spine tics from top to bottom of the spine. They gave that book a 9.0, yet this other book that I sent in a few weeks ago that is borderline 9.6/9.8 gets a 8.5.
I notice I tend to have issues with graded books when I send them in to get a custom label. I don’t know if they go to someone that grades them and also has to do something with the custom labels but they are really dumbasses. The custom labels tend to take even longer to go through the process.
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Collectors and consumers should really ask themselves when it comes to getting books graded, “Why should I get this book graded?”
Grading moderns to me is a waste most of the time unless you plan to do it for your personal collection as a means of protecting the book for long term storage, etc. There are cheaper ways to accomplish this.
Get books graded to boost the value to get a better ROI if you can since you’ll likely be selling to a slab collector rather than a comic book collector. But honestly, if you collect for yourself, save yourself the time and hassle by keeping your books free. I’d say only get older books slabbed to preserve them and maybe for verification they’re not restored, genuine, etc. Any other reason is pointless, grades are subjective now in todays grading world. You’re just paying for an opinion (and probably wrong anyways) and super cheap label slipped into a plastic case most days when it comes to CGC grades.
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I like slabbing older books for preservation. Holds together all the bits. Even then you will see flakes of paper in slabs of old books. But the bits are still together.
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I’ve made it pretty clear via a number of posts how much I despise what CGC has done to this hobby - both directly and indirectly.
It’s a pyramid scheme at best with common phrases such as “necessary evil” to somehow justify their worthiness. At worst, it’s a giant scam that many know deep down subconsciously, but just keep touting the line because CGC is so embedded in the hobby; and the money that’s been tossed around would be catastrophic at this point if CGC came crashing down for the sham they are.
All that said, I use them constantly.
They make me money from the hobbyists that put their love towards this Mickey Mouse company.
The old adage if you can’t beat them (which I tried for years), then join them.
I shouldn’t be knocking them and instead towing their line too, because I have a ton invested in books. Where else can I make multiple X times the real value of a comic just because some “trained” individual knows more than we do… <cough, choke> supposedly. i won’t even get into the consistency aspect that we all know about.
I give them all the credit in the world for their marketing though. I really and truly do. They’ve managed to dupe the industry and after a couple of decades, they still are. And they know how to maintain the excitement level. Bravo CGC. Bravo.
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