First time grading

Latest goof by CGC is the 9.8 grade of a coverless book. However even with all the past issues, CGC still brings back the most money when you sell the book. CBCS only issue is turn around times and they are very strict graders for modern books.

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But isn’t that they point with ALL graders. To be strict and professional on grading books?

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I posted this mashed, new CBCS slab here on CHU, in the CGC post, 10 days ago. I believe you replied to the post, DRog. The new CBCS slab allowed the book to move in the slab during shipping, thus creating a nasty crunch in the corner of the book.

This is one, of many, recent examples of problems with CBCS slabs that I have seen. I don’t keep a log of such things as I come across them, but I’ll be sure to share anything else, here, that I may come across in the future. :+1:

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That’s what I would want if getting my books graded. Consistent and accurate grades. If you just want them to look the other way or give any leeway on books to make the grade higher than it should be… What’s the point then? Keep it raw and lie to yourself with the grade you want it to be. :wink:

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I remember that…and showed my cgc slab that did the same. Mine was do to an impact, a combination of packing the slab in a tight box without padding at the end (those damn flat rate boxes are the same length as the slab offering no room at the ends) and being dropped likely on a cement floor. So I’m not convinced that was a flaw wih the slab of CBCS, no more than my CGC slab with similar damage.

Any impact has potential to cause that, in other words.

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I use CBCS for whittling down my hundreds of autographs I have pre-slab days. The verified signature program is awesome. These stay with me in PC for now.
I use CGC for non-autographed books. They still fetch a bit more money because folks want what they want regardless of all key factors.

Being a user of both and with a substantial population of sample size, I can and will say that my CGC books are all over the place with accuracy. CBCS are pretty darn accurate with my initial assessment.

The beauty with CGC is that I just don’t care anymore of their accuracy. If everyone believes they’re doing a good job and is willing to buy my overgraded, missed defect Modern books, then I’m willing to believe they’re not overgraded. They are exactly what the number says it is.
It is about what everyone else thinks; not what I think. :wink:

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I can’t remember where I found this but I have been doing it every since. I did a quick search and didn’t see this mentioned on this forum so forgive if it already has been.

Those medium flat rate boxes are tough to ship slabs in because of the problem @D-Rog mentioned. However you can order 2 other size priority boxes directly from USPS for free. Sizes 1092 and 1095 can be ordered in lots of $25 (again for free with free shipping) and they fit perfectly inside each other.

Bubble warp your slab put it in the 1092 and then that one inside the 1095. The 1092 is shorter than the 1095 so you will need to add a little packing material to the top. You can keep it under 2lbs so it also ends up being cheaper than the medium flat rate box for most locations. A lot of mine ship for $8.95 vs the $15 most other seller list to use the flat rate boxes.

It does take forever for the USPS to ship you these boxes so I would order at least 25 at a time.

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I wasn’t trying to convince you. :man_shrugging: Just stating facts, bud. :+1:
If I was trying to convince you about anything, I shouldn’t have to say more than what has already been said…

:space_invader::space_invader::space_invader:

Which tells us one thing, people are buying slabs, not comic books a lot of the time. I’m a big advocate of buying the book, not the slab or label within the slab. I went and bought a Werewolf by Night #37 (early MoonKnight appearance), I chose a 7.5 over a 8.5 once because I thought the book inside the slab looked better from the pics. It also shaved off around a $100 from what I recall as well. I think I bought the better book out of the two. :wink:

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After 20 years of grading companies, I remain of the opinion that we, the informed community, are better equipped and competent to assess grades than the experts at grading companies. Informed community is not just any hobbyist, but it is those hobbyists that have passion and take the time & effort to learn all the nuances of the hobby as many in this forum (and others) do. A big portion of those learnings is grading.
The terms “Buy the book not the grade” and “It’s all subjective” are terms that have come to popularity in recent time, in my opinion, as an outcome of that professional team of “experts” having a subjective opinion that differs from other grading competent hobbyists.
It’d be wonderful if they matched on most every situation. Alas, that thought is quite utopian in a subjective world

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:100:. I live by that comic adage.

1000% :white_check_mark:

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For my personal collection I don’t care as much about grade. I do like graded comics because they display well. Most my stuff is already CGC so I like that the cases all match vs getting CBCS. For the PC I also rarely buy 9.8. Im perfectly happy with the 9.0 range and love the savings you get from the the 9.8 prices.

When Im selling comics I love to sell graded versions. I can confidently determine whether a comic is a 9.8 or not because it’s easy to spot ‘no flaws’ or maybe one tiny flaw, but below that it gets confusing. I’m much more comfortable selling a graded 8.5 from CGC or CBCS because what I’m really selling is their opinion of the comic and the vast majority of the time that’s what the buyer wants. While someone could complain about a graded copy you sold them it’s much less likely.

When I list raw comics I usually just grade as High, Mid, or Low and post good pictures.

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I haven’t graded any books yet. I’ve got a few I may submit at some point. Anything I buy to flip I sell raw. It’s easiest and least time commitment.
As far as grading-I have picked 6.5 over 7.5 or 7 over 8.0 silver age graded books. Chose the book vs slab. I’ve seen enough horrible grading examples by CGC to not rely on what they say.
I don’t care about CBCS vs CGC; if the price and book is right. I see less CBCS grades I disagree with.

I don’t care about 9.8s much at all. I will buy a nice NM raw or 9.6s; I’d rather have more books than some nearly flawless book. At the same time, I am not one of those people that will buy CGC 0.5 of some top key with cover torn in half, lol.

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I asked for a CBCS quality issue and you provided what looks to be damaged that occurred in shipment as a potential design flaw in the CBCS slab.

I asked for more facts on how it was packaged and whether the shipment box showed signs of damage to support it as a slab design flaw. No additional facts or information was provided.

And in that thread I showed a similar damage that occurred with a CGC slab of mine that occurred in transit to counter thats it a CBCS design flaw.

Basically, the inner well of the slab cannot protect the book against blunt force from the end. And no conclusive evidence has been
Provided that what you show above was caused by CBCS negligence.

I’m not saying it’s not possible they failed. Evidence just seemed suspect at best without more facts.

Your facts are not all the facts disclosed was really my point. Others can decide what they want to do with them.

I chose a 4.0 Fantastic Four 49 over a 5.0 with what looked like substantially more defects in the 5.0…at least such that the 5.0 was much less appealing to me than the 4.0.

Saved me a few Ben franklins too!

And just so you know I’m not totally down on CGC…just delivered today!

image

Sorry, but, you may want to try the ol’ google machine if you want the answers you seek.
As I said, Im not here to convince you of anything. I wasn’t even speaking to you in my initial post.
If your opinion is that damage can happen to any slab, so be it. That’s your opinion. I’m not dropping my slabs in an experiment to find out. Feel free to conduct those yourself, if you so desire.
I get it, DRog. You really like CBCS. That’s nice. They are not perfect though.
I’m not quite sure what you’re trying to accomplish with this dialogue. Youre asking questions that the answers can be easily found on the internet. :man_shrugging: