Thats how it should be 100% of the time. Buy the book, not the slab.
This actually concerns me as well. If I feel the grade assigned doesnât truly reflect the book encased I will list the slab slightly less than going rate to not only move it but hopefully the buyer doesnât feel the need to be ultra picky about grading subjectiveness.
If one chooses to purchase slabs, then one absolutely must buy the book; not the grade. Self-protection is a must these days; particularly in the last year.
The point I would; however, like to add is that the phrase âBuy the book not the gradeâ is very unfortunate that it has to be used so often and has become so popular. We pay good money to get an appropriate grade. All of us. When we see 9.8âs that should be at a grade significantly lower. Or vice versa, we are giving them a pass at terrible work.
Phrases that come about as a result of poor workmanship; poor quality; poor anything from a business - is just not acceptable. And yet we continue to submit to them because of the $$$ involved. It is becoming one big ponzi scheme and at its base core is a monopoly that just doesnât give a damn lately.
Yup, CGC and others should be held accountable for their mistakes, always!
An example I saw on Reddit about a month ago. A guy bought a CGC 9.2 X-men and was disappointed when he got the book there was this pen marking on the cover. I donât know how he didnât see it in photos, but he felt like seller should have disclosed it more.
The ole âbuy the book not the slabâ applies. You have to be careful when you see that slab thatâs slightly under market value.
When you go to assuming the numbers mean something, you better check it for defects that irk you no matter the grade.
I have a 7.0 Avengers 48 that I plan to sell closer to Eternals, there is a pen mark on the cover and I fully plan to point it out when I sell it so I donât have any problems. I think the 7.0 grade is correct and the pen mark is what caused it not to be an 8.0 or 8.5 from looking at it.
My 19 comic CGC order has been updated on the website and 4 was CGC 9.8 and the rest were between 8.0 and 9.4. However I only received grader notes on 2 of the 15 books. Is CGC eventually going to eliminate grader notes. Most of these books were TNMT adventures #1. Have others gotten grader notes on their books?
It is, of course accurate to say âbuy the book, not the gradeâ, but what does that say about the meaningfulness of the grade! I get that itâs important to spot any damage at encapsulation, or post-slabbing, but more often itâs the subjectiveness of the grade that is the issue. I thought the main idea of grading was to provide some sense of comparability and consistency of standards, so if we are calling that central concept into questionâŠ
Precisely⊠much better stated than I attempted to do.
The unfortunate thing about grading, is that there is NOT a universal grading standard. People will always point to what âtheyâ use/follow/believe, but they are not the same. Certifying a grade should be across all comics, all years, all conditions. As shared earlier in this topic, the absurdness of 6 grades above a 9.0 is ridiculous, unless that same measure is used in the grades below a 9.0. To compare a PGX to a CGC is like comparing an orange to a clementine; they are not the same, and do not follow the same grading process, and though Overstreet has been around an eternity, it is the closest thing to a standard that there is.
I wish we could follow just one standard, but I doubt that will happen in this day and age.
Yes grading is all bull shit⊠someoneâs opinion which is never going to be consistent with different graders, human error, how bad or good the graders day was, do they wear glasses, if they are on drugs or not. The important part is encasing the book which is $12 at pgx on average compared to percentage of the books value which can get pricey at CGC. I blame graded books for making many comics values go up artificially this dragging up the price of ungraded copies. All the grading companies make mistakes, the company that grades the most books is going to make the most mistakes. If you go by price and turn around time pgx is the best if you go by amount it will resell for CGC will be the fastest at getting that amount, you can still get that amount with other graders but requires patience. You can 3 day grade a book at PGX for under $25 it beats a 6-9 month wait to sell it even if it will fetch you $50 more. So all that matters is what you plan on doing with the book once itâs been graded.
As I noted on another postâŠitâs not one grader. Itâs a minimum of two, and if the two do not agree then a third or more get involved. At least at CBCS and CGC.
Could still get two drunk/stoned gradersâŠ
Heh, they must be pumping in something through the ventilation system with their current performance levels.
Yea⊠and each of the 3 graders is spending 8 seconds reviewing your book. How thoughtful
Edit: Not âthoughtfulâ. I should have stated âthoroughâ.