Mike:
"CGC grading for comic books"
What's that?
Never heard about it before...
Comics Guaranty certified grading: <a href="http://www.cgccomics.com/" target="_blank">LINK</a>
CGC has emerged as the comic industry's leading grading standard. Although Overstreet has had a detailed condition scale with picture instructions for all grades for over 20 years, there is still the matter of individual graders purposely choosing which flaws to grade in what manner in order to benefit their sales.
CGC has centralized the grading standard by offering professional grading services that adhere to the Overstreet condition scale but additionally assign a numerical scale and provide exceptions to specific flaws that would not otherwise detract from the item's condition. An example would be having a mint condition Neo TurfMasters US cart with a NGF stamp on the insert. Other than this distributor marking, the game is MINT. The CGC guide would give it a numerical ranking as such but compensate by providing an addendum specifying that the item has a foreign distributor marking on it. This would be different from having a distributor sticker, as that can possibly leave irremovable residue on the cart and actually lower the physical grade.
It would be a lot more helpful to the collectors specifically to have a numerical scale that deliniates the differences between a "mint minus" and a "near-mint plus". Each flaw would cause a deduction from the perfect 10.0 score, just as any fall or flaw in a figure scater's performance automatically detracts from their perfect 6.0 score. The only negative I could foresee would be the possible adverse sales on this site as real collectors would demand as high of a score as possible. This would overall cause a decrease in market pricing for the majority of the items but cause a dramatic increase for rare titles in extremely pristine condition.
While I would see this as a helpful standard, or even if just a picture FAQ deliniating possible flaws to educate buyers and sellers, I do not care either way as I have accepted the inevitability of having to settle for near-mint items straight from the factory with production line flaws. Thus it really matters not to me if I have a perfect 10.0 cart or a 9.8 or 9.6, but I see it as being helpful to the collectors that frequent this site and support the hobby by purchasing each and every new release, of whom there are obviously many since pure gamers would see the idiocy involved in spending $325 a pop for a new home cart release.
Sincerely,
Mikhail (my rent is two new home carts a month)
