Highlighting is a complete turn off for me. Penciled notes don't bother me, and like Gnat, they can enhance the enjoyment of a piece. Pen and highlighting though? Dear god, heathen, who taught you how to care for things?

Reminds me of a friend of mine when I was growing up, he used to read paperbacks and when he finished a page he would tear it out, he never lost his place and he said he never intended to read the same book twice... it was appalling! And yet... totally reasonable. It was clearly my problem, not his.

Personal preference, I suppose. In a play copy, staple rust bugs me less than highlighting. In a collectors copy... rust is better than mildew/water damage/staining.

stratochamp wrote:i certainly didn't mean to denigrate your efforts btb. you're quite right, someone had to do it, you did it, and now you're getting pot shots years later. not really very fair. i do completely agree with you that there needs to be a standard that all can agree to. i wonder however if a less complex system might actually result in a greater chance of acceptance. namely 1) poor 2) fair 3) good 4) very good 5) excellent 6) near mint 7) mint with 4 being the minimum collector grade and 7 is a standard few things could reach. it might be easier to understandably slide up or down such a scale. although of course the devil is in the details (how many flaws cause something to fall to good or fair etc.)

The "official" acaeum grading scale is more streamlined.  In fact, it is almost exactly what you said (only instead of "Excellent", it is called "Very Fine".)  Also, adding in a FINE grade.    (Oh, and no worries, I am glad to see that people are still interested in condition whether they agree with the scale or not).  

So, the acaeum scale is really just POOR, FAIR, GOOD, VERY GOOD, FINE, VERY FINE, NEAR MINT and MINT.

POOR and MINT are for the most part "placeholders"  so they can essentially be tossed out.

Really, it only leaves 6 grades:  FAIR, GOOD, VERY GOOD, FINE, VERY FINE (Excellent) and NEAR MINT.  Should be adequate for a basic scale.  

Now me . . . well, these days I don't collect comics or RPGs anymore, nor do I resell.  However . . . I think all you collectors would be doing yourself a service to agree on a scale.   If you want a commonly used scale, then it would start here at the acaeum.  Choose it, stick by it and support it.  Again, the specific particulars of grades may vary slightly, but I think FAIR, GOOD, VERY GOOD, FINE, VERY FINE (Excellent) and NEAR MINT should just about cover it.  

If you haven't looked at it in awhile . . . here it is:  http://www.acaeum.com/frontdesk/grading.html

(By the way - when I mentioned that I always kept the "crossover" e.g. GOOD/VERY GOOD, FIN/VERY FINE, etc. grades,  that was for my personal use and not part of the acaeum scale.)

Defects are subjective, which is part of why grading is an art.  What bothers one collector a lot, bothers the next one less.  And thus an objective grade is hard to reach.  I would rather have heavier use and even a small stain than a single word highlighted, while the next person would feel the opposite.  Neither is wrong; it's just a preference.

Gnat the Beggar wrote:Rusty staples, stains, spine creases, folded over covers, Highlighting, ink, pencil markings/notes almost never would be on or inside what I feel is a collectable level copy of a Non-Rare item.

I'm glad you were careful with that thought (emphasis is mine).  What you feel is collectible is, of course, correct for you.  But the next person along could collect material in lower grades (presumably because of cost or impatience) and it would still be a collection, composed of material collectible to that person.  It has no less reason to be called a collection than anyone else's grouping of items does.

btb using your example hat poor and mint are outliers, my suggestion for a "slightly" streamlined grading standard leaves us with 5 grades then:
1) Fair
2) Good
3) Very Good
4) Excellent
5) Near Mint
My suggestion is that having a 1-5 scale would be easier for people to use and judge and may therefore actually be used and judged more often with actual qualitative judgement (as opposed to the "beautiful shape but for the brown stain, but i'll let you decide" kind of grade. i think having vg as the standard for a collectable piece and then sliding up or down 1 or 2 grades works better than having 6 grades to work with. that's the grading system i use when i'm grading things at the gencon auction (although i will also make use of + and - to split hairs).

Foul!

He would be the best to impart more details...

Well, it's good to take a stand in life for things you feel strongly about . . . but you never told us about your grading scale!  Please list it for us so we can compare.

It shouldn't take you long - Just copy and paste what you've written up.  I assume you've managed to find time to write up at least a few paragraphs in the last 7 years?