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Post by Trevor on Jan 23, 2016 22:46:44 GMT -5
I think the hobby would be much better without the entire concept of grading.
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Post by Icctrombone on Jan 23, 2016 22:50:17 GMT -5
Interesting question. Maybe in the 70's. Now we have companies that grade and slab them to insure the condition.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2016 22:50:28 GMT -5
I think the hobby would be much better without the entire concept of grading. My guess would be it started with the Overstreet Price Guide.... |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,406
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Post by shaxper on Jan 23, 2016 22:54:54 GMT -5
Well, of course, the op is an oversimplification. Everyone has a level at which a comic is no longer desirable to them. I'm sure you wouldn't enjoy my coming to your home and folding a nice big vertical crease down the middle of each of your comics.
Otherwise, I'm quite content with the old Poor, Fair, Good, Very Good, Fine Very Fine, Near Mint, Mint system. When it comes to books published in the past fifty years, I generally seek out Fine or Very Fine, and, with the older stuff, Good or Very Good will suffice.
I've never needed Mint or Near Mint, but I get why some people care.
On the other hand, I do not understand why anyone needs a 10.0 versus a 9.8 unless we're talking which copy of Action Comics #1 to drop a million dollars on.
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Post by pinkfloydsound17 on Jan 23, 2016 23:05:08 GMT -5
I don't think I know the difference between an 8.5 and a 9.2 or 9.4. Those higher grades all look nice and if one had a small spine mark or oh so blunted corners, I don't fret.
For me grading is more a general thing. Very fine and up, fine for the mid grade, very good for the rough but still okay and good for the rough but all there and conpkye(most of the time). I don't mind grading but I laugh at those who ovsess over it.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2016 23:32:16 GMT -5
I think the hobby would be much better without the entire concept of grading. Are you saying if a dealer has two copies of a book you're looking for, one nice looking, one that looks like hell but still readable, you have no problem being charged the same price for the ratty copy and you'd gladly take it? |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2016 0:37:58 GMT -5
To a comic book investor it's means a great deal to him/her and I know many friends wanted to know how well their books are in terms of grading and therefore can get the most of their dollars when it's time for them to sell it when the time is right. I know many people that cares about their comics and I'm one of them too ... and that's why I buy one of each - one for reading and one for collecting. I don't do this as often I want to but I do it because I wanted to protect my own investment and that's why I'm in favor of the grading system that in place of today.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2016 1:26:12 GMT -5
Near as I can tell, the earliest price guide of any sort is the Argosy Price guide, specific to a store located in the Hollywood area that sold nationwide through mail order, which appeared in 1965 (predating Overstreet by 5 years).  I've never seen a copy in person, but form what I can tell from excerpts & scans of the item for auctions (it can sell for close to $2 grand now itself) it already mad ea distinction for prices of mint condition vs. lesser condition, so it seems to have been a part of the hobby of comic collecting (as opposed to reading comics) from the very earliest period. I thin k a lot of aspects of collecting hobbies, comics included here, took their cues from stamp collecting and coin collecting where condition and grading have always been of primary importance. So I would say there has never been a time where comic collecting has been free of grading and condition concerns. Not that every collector was focused on it, but it was one of the pillars on which the logistics of the hobby itself was built. -M |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2016 1:27:26 GMT -5
Just for reference a mint Action #1 is listed in Argosy for $100 while Amazing Fantasy #15 in mint was a $5 book. Oh for those days eh folks  -M |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jan 24, 2016 2:40:41 GMT -5
$5 was quite expensive back in 1965 for what was essentially a catalog. Concurrant to that was dealer Howard Rogafsky who sold comics thru mail order and one of the first to buy ad space in Marvel Comics as well as fanzines like RBCC in the mid 60s. He charged very high prices for that time period but had quite a treasure trove of Golden Age books for sale. Rogafsky hung around at least thru the mid 70s and probably was the most well known (though a bit reviled about his pricing) comics dealer
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jan 24, 2016 2:41:49 GMT -5
I sort of agree that in an ideal world where humans aren't obsessed with collecting, categorizing and the concept of perfection, it probably would be better. Problem is we're not really wired that way, at least not enthusiasts of comics, sports cards, action figures, etc. I can say that I moved away from what little of that I had. The few figures that I have reside on one row of my bookshelf and I gleefully opened each package as soon as I got them. I did in days of yore store my comics in mylar bags, and occasionally boards, but toward the end of my collecting days I got rid of all those and had my unprotected comics in boxes so I could pull them out and read them easily.
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Post by Spike-X on Jan 24, 2016 3:06:58 GMT -5
Nothing wrong with grading.
Slabbing, on the other hand...
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Post by coke & comics on Jan 24, 2016 4:07:28 GMT -5
Well, of course, the op is an oversimplification. But a largely correct one. I can maybe understand why it exists in the age of the internet and buying remotely. But if you can see the comic in front of you, a courtesy "pages missing" should have sufficed if applicable. As some are suggesting, is the origin really tied to mail-order? That at least makes sense, even if it's denigraded the hobby. |
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Post by coke & comics on Jan 24, 2016 4:09:02 GMT -5
Nothing wrong with grading. Slabbing, on the other hand... One is the logical conclusion of the other. |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2016 7:08:56 GMT -5
I was excited when I first heard about CGC and how comics would be professionally graded, slabbed & protected. Well, after the craze started and comics were selling for double their value or more JUST because the actual grade was a guarantee the excitement for me ended. I truly hate slabbed comics and have never purchased one. I have seen books on ebay that are worth $15-20 selling for $200 or more just because they are slabbed in that f***ing hard plastic shell!!!
I still like the general concept of grading comics though.
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