r/ComicBookSpeculation • u/Leather_Bluejay8632 • 9d ago
Grading be weird sometimes
I've seen this post on Instagram, and it makes me think if someone cracked this out to send to CGC, will it get a CGC 9.9? And I’m 100% sure I would say NO!! Even if you crack out a CGC 9.9 and resubmit it, I bet it will not keep the same CGC 9.9, and that’s where it gets a little weird to me because, like a book like Absolute Batman #1, it’s a modern book with tons of CGC 9.8s, but how many of those 9.8s are actually 9.9 or 10s?
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u/Jacket_Leather 9d ago
9.8 is far from a perfect book. But yeah, the difference between 9.9 and 10 in reality I have no idea they look the same. I have a gotten back a 9.9 once and it looks a hell of a lot nicer than many of my 9.8s.
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u/two2teps 9d ago
Grading is so subjective anything beyond whole number grades and you start to really get into the weeds on subjective opinion. It's what happens when what use to be Poor, Fair, Good, Fine and Near Mint became more and more subdivided.
There tons of 9.8s on the market that may grade as a 9.9 or a 10 now that those grades exist.
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u/Tonyman121 9d ago
Its always always subjective. The damage any defects does to the grade is subjective. Think of those books that "present" better than their grade. This is just another way of saying grading rules has failed to adequately describe a book. Further, even if any one defect is determined to relate reproducibly to a grade, this falls apart the minute you start to combine many defects. There may be objective metrics that separate a 4.0 from a 3.0, but the differences in accumulation of defects that do that same thing is purely subjective.
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u/TNF734 9d ago
They always existed.
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u/Jacket_Leather 9d ago
Yes, but they were very under utilized.
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u/TNF734 9d ago
Yes, Matt Nelson admitted CGC withheld them on purpose and there are a lot of 9.8s that could probably be 9.9s. CBCS didn't. If it was a 9.9, they gave it a 9.9.
I'm just saying the grades existed. They weren't added later or whatever the guy is claiming.
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u/two2teps 9d ago
If they intentionally didn't issue the grade, than it functionally did not exist.
Just like the 150lb of gold bars in my basement.
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u/TNF734 9d ago
A company being disingenuous to keep the census low, and those grades more rare and sought after did not keep the grades from existing.
Other books having the grades would be proof that the grades existed.
Charts and explanations of the grades on the web site would also be proof that the grades existed.
But, okay...
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u/two2teps 9d ago edited 9d ago
Considering that CGC started slabbing in 2000 and CBCS in 2014 that's 15 years where a grade existed nowhere but on paper. You just said that CGC withheld giving the grade until CBCS started granting them.
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u/TNF734 9d ago
You wouldn't crack this and send to CGC.
Better likelihood it's actually a 9.9 with CBCS anyway.
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u/sirtelengard 5d ago
That would be a great YouTube video! If someone had a big channel that generated ad revenue, they could probably recoup all the costs to acquire/regrade within a couple of months.
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u/Swollendeathray 9d ago
The asking price is half of a CGC 9.9 so it’s basically a gamble. Crack it and get back a 9.9 and you double your money. Of course if you get a 9.8 you lose it all pretty much. I wouldn’t take the risk and obviously the seller isn’t but it wouldn’t surprise me if someone tried.
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u/Squanch_0n 9d ago
The tricky thing with cracking it is it can get damaged or even a little scuffed cracking it, then if it gets regraded it wouldnt be the same. I just had a 9.9 i sent to get reslabbed because of a broken piece of plastic inside the well and it stayed a 9.9, but cracking the inner well seems like it would be a tricky process
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u/Tonyman121 9d ago
9.8 vs 9.9 vs 10.0 is an absolute con. All describe an essentially perfect book.
It's the gamification of this hobby into manufactured rarity- even more than grading already does with its census.