Tommy
while an interesting question, the question is "how do you get all
dealers to use the same grading methods" and the answer is "you can't"
Jon Warren tried that 15 years ago or maybe 20 and dealers are
resistant to working with others frequently.
One auction you cited only uses a proprietary grading system that
goes to fine and no farther, while the rest of us use a system that
goes to Mint on the "C" scale
This issue was discussed on APF once.
managing a grading system is only useful if everyone or a majority of
everyone agrees, and some people will refuse to go along with any
such system regardless of any agreements with the majority populace.
It also is not uncommon for a resold poster to be regraded and go
downward as the poster has been handled since it was first sold
one good example of regrading by different dealers is cards that have
already been graded by CGC and there is a really good example cited
in an APF thread where some Beatles cards were graded 9.0 (NM-) to
9.8 (NM-M) and were sold on MoviePosterExchange.com. Later the same
cards were sold elsewhere and graded Very Good which I grade at C-5
(previously graded by CGC at 9.0) and Very Good to Fine which I grade
at C-5/6 (previously graded by CGC at 9.8). Clearly there is a disconnect here.
obviously, the proprietary system used by the one seller is
incompatible with the C grading system used by CGC and the rest of us
(MPB, MPE, Heritage all use a C system).
the discussion on APF is at this link
http://www.allposterforum.com/index.php/topic,6874.0.html
then you get to eBay sellers. Not all eBay sellers are pros. Many are
"Weekend Warriors" who sell on eBay for extra money or collectors
looking to thin their collections. How they grade has nothing to do
with how Pros grade and trying to get them into a standardized system
is a great difficulty
from my perspective, grading is a subjective practice with most
people and solid grading systems require considerable learning by
those involved
CGC exists not because people can't grade, but because it was
difficult to get people to otherwise agree with grading and when
selling a Superman #1, there is a considerable price difference
between C-6 & C-7, so in comic books they have chosen to let a 3rd
party be the arbiter of the grading. Considering the resistance to
CGC in the poster hobby, I find it unlikely that grading practices
will merge in this hobby.
the reality is that grading is just a guide, by any seller. If you
buy from anyone regularly, you should be able to decipher the
meanings of the individual sellers grading systems and no seller - no
matter how much anyone wishes to try to tell you different - grades
the same way twice except by luck. All of our gradings take in a list
of considerations to arrive at a conclusion. As buyers it is
necessary to understand our meanings, at least until the day comes
that everyone agrees on what system should be used, though clearly
the majority agree the C system is best
Rich
At 10:29 AM 3/11/2014, Tommy Barr wrote:
I am using Heritage as an example, but I hope nobody uses that as an
excuse for sniping, as I think we all suffer from a mote in the eye
here. In a recent auction HA had this poster -
<http://movieposters.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=161410&lotNo=52344>http://movieposters.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=161410&lotNo=52344.
I noticed it was the same poster as previously sold by them -
<http://movieposters.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=161253&lotNo=50302>http://movieposters.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=161253&lotNo=50302.
The only difference was that the grading had moved from 'fine' to
'fine+'. I contacted HA to enquire about that and received a reply
from Grey Smith. 'If items are reconsigned with us, we have a team
grading and evaluating each lot for condition ignorant of its
previous sale. Naturally, grading will always be subjective to a
degree.' I replied that while I accepted grading as subjective I did
not think it unreasonable to expect consistency from the same
source, and it would appear that the present team is more lenient in
its appraisal than that of the recent past, as is evidenced by yet
another poster previously rated 'fine-' which has now been promoted
to 'fine'.
<http://movieposters.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=161410&lotNo=52506>http://movieposters.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=161410&lotNo=52506
http://movieposters.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=161246&lotNo=53484
I received no reply to that.
Now I appreciate that we are dealing with quite fine distinctions
here, but grading is important. Having large images to view is all
very well, but it does not show everything. Wrinkles do not always
show well, and there are no images of the back of the poster so the
amount of tape or writing there relies on description.
The main problem I find, though, is one of comparison. Is HA's
'fine' the equivalent of EMP's 'good' (and surely 'good' meaning
'not very good' is one of the worst anachronisms)? HA does at least
assign a numerical value to the rating, and other sites such as
MoviePosterBid and MoviePosterExchange do use numbered grading, but
there still often appears to be some difference in values as, for
example, MPX seem to be very critical and often have posters as low
as 2 or 3 which I expect others might have as a 4 or 5. The majority
of eBay sellers are quite happy to describe their wares as
'excellent', and major auction houses such as Christie's simply have
an A,B,C rating system.
I like the <http://iguide.net>iguide.net numerical system, and
should something like that not now be accepted as an approved
standard? CGC and third party grading would seem to have limited
appeal, but there is no reason why a unified system cannot be
applied. It is surely long overdue, as Alan Adler's post of Jan 2006
demonstrates -
A unified grading system would be fantastic.
It will happen - just a question of when.
Look to Overstreet's comic guide and the pages on grading comics and
find a useful and well-organized list of criteria that has worked
well for the comic world.
Overstreet even has a book out devoted only to grading of comics.
It has photos of every grade - using a number scale - 1-100 I think
-but could be wrong.
Check it out at the bookstore or library.
There is no reason this can not be accomplished for movie posters -
Even though there are a number of sizes - the same rules set forward
for grading movie paper can work for all with minor notations.
Eight years later but still it hasn't happened, but the idea must be
appealing. At least we would then be able to view and compare
posters based on mutual assumptions, and also be able to compare the
rigour of the dealers in their appraisals.
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