beyondthebreach wrote:- I've enjoyed reading everyone's input so far and there have been many viable suggestions and astute observations (especially when they are not laced with sarcasm)
beyondthebreach wrote:The question of "missing" components is one of the most tricky issues. To grade it as "Poor" is one possibility, however, the sale prices of such items simply do not bear this out. This means that if you had a VERY FINE box set worth $100, but it was missing reference sheets the value would plummet to $10.00 (on the scale that traveller is using). If I offered you the missing sheets to complete your set it would increase the value by $90.00. Thus, in a way, a set of reference sheets could then be worth $90.00? (in this situation)
Deadlord36 wrote:Where did you come up with that, Harami?
Deadlord36 wrote:I think any way you look at it, incomplete is just that, not Fine+, not Fair. Incomplete.
Traveller wrote:If the valuation board is to grade books, they need to do so without allowances for age or rarity of a specific book or set. Otherwise, the values will be biased, and useless.
Traveller wrote:If we start to apply exceptions and caveats due to age, the entire grading system will be thrown off kilter. If I were to go into an antique book store right now with my 1st print copy from 1846 of "Pictures of Travels in the South of France", do you believe the book dealer would make an allowance for me because the book is over 150 years old with the spine and bristol board both gone? On the contrary. He's going to grade it with the same standards as he grades any other book, and with the spine and bristol board gone, it's not going to grade high (reminds self to take that book to be rebound).
Traveller wrote:harami2000 wrote:That would be the hope, although the temptation to play the "for the age" game is pretty strong...An incorrect grading scale in my opinion, plus the tendency to "play the age game", plus the individual desires of the members of the valuation board all raise red flags in my mind. If grading is to happen, it needs to be impartial, and I think part of the problem that has some objecting is this: the members of the valuation board are not being impartial in their grading. Some of them are resellers themselves while others are collectors. All of them though have a vested interest to maintain the highest prices possible. For the resellers, to maximize their profit. For the collectors, to say "my book is valued at X" and to maximize their profit if they sell.If you look at any pricing guide out there, whether it is coins, books, baseball cards, whatever, you find that the publishers of those magazines do not buy or sell whatever it is they are pricing in their price guides. They certainly do offer advertisements from people that do in fact buy or sell, but they don't do it themselves. It's this issue of possible price manipulation, more than the grading scale or even how to grade, that is going to cause the valuation board the most headaches. Because no matter what the valuation board does in that regard, there is always going to be someone out there who is not going to trust the values that they generate, because some of them are themselves involved in buying and selling.I'm reminded of an incident from the Antiques Roadshow program that was reported on in the news. It seems that one of the antiques dealers on the program was secretly getting people to bring the items from his shop onto the show. He would look at them and determine the price range, hoping that someone would fork over the amount of money he quoted on the show.What that gentleman did was to manipulate the prices of his items to maximize his profit. It bothers me that the same thing may happen here.
harami2000 wrote:That would be the hope, although the temptation to play the "for the age" game is pretty strong...
traveller wrote:An incorrect grading scale in my opinion, plus the tendency to "play the age game", plus the individual desires of the members of the valuation board all raise red flags in my mind. If grading is to happen, it needs to be impartial, and I think part of the problem that has some objecting is this: the members of the valuation board are not being impartial in their grading. Some of them are resellers themselves while others are collectors. All of them though have a vested interest to maintain the highest prices possible. For the resellers, to maximize their profit. For the collectors, to say "my book is valued at X" and to maximize their profit if they sell.
traveller wrote:If you look at any pricing guide out there, whether it is coins, books, baseball cards, whatever, you find that the publishers of those magazines do not buy or sell whatever it is they are pricing in their price guides.
traveller wrote:It's this issue of possible price manipulation, more than the grading scale or even how to grade, that is going to cause the valuation board the most headaches. Because no matter what the valuation board does in that regard, there is always going to be someone out there who is not going to trust the values that they generate, because some of them are themselves involved in buying and selling.
Traveller wrote:Them's just the facts man.
Traveller wrote:To me, there's no way to maintain the 1st print Woodgrain's value of $2200 without fudging the numbers.
FoulFoot wrote:(and the formulas are certainly still "beta", a fact which I posted on last month and which most people are continuing to ignore)
Traveller wrote:To me, there's no way to maintain the 1st print Woodgrain's value of $2200 without fudging the numbers. That woodgrain isn't mint, which would be 100% of value, so what grade is it actually? What is Near Mint? In reality, it's the same thing as Fine in this scale, so in (my version of) reality, that NM Woodgrain is valued at only $1600 instead of the $2200 it used to be at.Them's just the facts man.
