Professional grading of records?
HAZBEEN
564 Posts
Hi,This is related to a discussion over on VE about baseball cards. I'm sure this isn't news to most folks here, but there are companies that provide services for the professional grading sports cards & comics. Here's a link to the webpage of one such company: http://www.cgccomics.com/services/You mail your ish to these folks & they'll grade and encapsulate your collectibles. They have a pretty intense grading scale, ranging from .5 (poor) to 10.0 (mint) and bunch of stuff in between - I wonder what the difference between a 9.4 and a 9.8 would be? Now, what I find most intriguing about this is how these grades effect the resale price of your item. On ebay, people pay a serious premium for "professionaly" graded collectibles from companies like CGC. I've seen comics that are far from raer go for waaaaaay more than market value because they've got the CGC stamp of approval. I know dudes will re-buy stuff they already have because theirs is a 9.0 & the comic at auction is a 9.6. Now, to bring us to records - I don't think similar services exist for vinyl collectros & I'm surprised they don't. I know that grading a record is a lot different than grading a comic or sports card, but the nature of the collectro is not all that different. I can imagine some dude at a record covention bragging that his copy of Skull Snaps is a 9.2 or something. And I could picture people on ebay shelling out way more than market value for records that have been certified by professional graders/dealers/collectors & hermetically sealed. I could see Rey on the bay throwning mad $$$$ at a Fania record that he already has simply because it grades out at a 9.2. Is this an idea who's time has come? Imagine getting all kinds of raer in the mail & having to play grade 'em? I could think of worse jobs...peaceh
Comments
I think the biggest difference with records is that, assuming you listen to them, their condition is ever-decreasing. Your company might have graded my copy of "Yiddish Soul" a 9.8 a month ago, but since then I played it a dozen times. Maybe now it's a 9.7 or 9.6? Who wants their records hermetically sealed anyway? I can understand doing that for baseball cards, which don't have any function, but records are intended to be played. Then again, the business marcofunk would provide should alone be enough to make you rich.
The lucite case thing is wild to me - I think that the cases are meant to be opened easily, just not resealable. Imagine seeing a record incased in one of those things like a bug in amber. That would be hella weird. How do you think it would ruin the game?
Peace
h
This "professional grading" exists in the coin and stamp world too. Like all businesses there are reputable ones and scammers. These "graders" have made a pretty penny too. According to my buddy who is big into baseball cards it doesn't really make sense to have a card professionally graded unless it's in the $250.00 and up price range. This would eliminate most records.
it would ruin the game because
a.) once you make professional grading available no one's interested in buying big ticket items unless they've been professionally graded, which in my opinion puts too much power into the hands of too few.
b.) once you make professional grading available the idea of buying a record because it's interesting or good music will fall by the wayside even more than it already has.
LOL! Comics are meant to be read, but these dudes seal 'em up. The professional comic grading/sealing thing is really prolific in comics & not with raers. A comic that usually will go for say, 10 bucks, can fetch upwards of 50 % of guide value because of its "professional" grade. Imagine getting 40 bucks for a copy of "Push Push" on ebay because someone grades it out at 9.8. Its easily possible. A lot of the comics graded by CGC aren't raers, but more common yet popular items that collectros want to have in pristine condition.
You heard it here first: start stockpiling herbie mann
Herbie Mann & CTI records...