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So I sit down with a fresh box of ungraded comics, a stack of bags and boards, grading guide and my trusty Bic pen. After a period of time my eyes begin to glaze over, fingers cramp and that twinge in the lower back becomes a needle point. Then, while holding book in hand, I think "VG+" and find myself writing down "VF+". Then I think, "Did I just do that? Uh-oh, gotta go back and double check to make sure I didn't accidentally do that before."

So what do you do to avoid those burnouts? My previous career was spent cooking in restaurants so there was never a problem regarding sitting too much!

I want to be precise in grading but at the same time I don't want to spend 5-10 minutes on one book. I think it's actually easier grading either awesome comics or crappy ones. The middle grades give me the most trouble. Sometimes I will agonize over whether a particular issue is FN+ or FN/VF and usually the value difference is only a quarter or two.

Any advice?

I just started really grading, but have gone through about a thousand books so far. I find my grading varies based on how tired I am, how hungry I am, and what kind of mood I'm in.

That said, it does get tedious, and unless it's a key book or something more than a few bucks, I don't fret over being slightly off. I tend to be more critical of the NM candidates than anything.

Best thing I could recommend is to take short breaks. Get up, stretch your legs, get some coffee/tea/soda/whatever you drink, look outside for a few to give your eyes a break and then get back to it. Or sleep on it and wait until the next day ;)

How long have you been grading comics (I mean, how mahy years have you been doing this?)?

Only three years really. I've been collecting for almost 20 years but never really graded anything myself until recently. I've been finding that books I graded 2-3 years ago need to be looked at again as I've gained some experience and have become more judicious.

I also had some bad advice at the beginning. Since then I have talked with someone who is much more accomplished than I and he has helped out some.

Try this...Grade a small stack of books and write the grade down on a piece of paper as you go, then bag & board the books, then label them with the grade, and finally price them on the paper. This helps to break up the monotony and it also works as a double check on your grading as you re-check the book when adding the label. When it comes time to list on CCL you can do so off the paper instead of going through a stack of books. That's the way I do it. I usually do 2 or 3 boxes before listing on CCL, but that's just me.

As a buyer I will say this......your efforts are worth it.

I have dropped more than one seller because they didnt care to be precise with grading on common books.

I am sure I am not alone. The more right on your grading is on ALL your stock, the more business you will get in the long run.

I just grade books until I start falling asleep.

Really, everyone's different. You'll eventually find your own saturation point.

Makes me wonder how the graders at CGC operate. And talk about bad grading advice--I think they gave bad advice when they slabbed their million dollar Action #1 with an 8.5, even though the label said it had rusty staples. I know, I know....off topic. But it was an opening I had to take.

Thanks! I try to at least be consistent. If you get five VF+ books, they should all look the same.

Thanks to Pat at comicscastle. I like that suggestion, when I'm done with my current stack I might try that way next.

I usually save those for last so if I have 300 comics to go though I go through all quickly and sort out the readers (g-vg) and then the VF/NM ones. Then after I have 3 piles go through them all again. It seems to go quicker since the readers are usually s easy to grade and NM books are easy to see if they drop to VF or VF/NM. Then I go through all the middle books, but usually downgrade all since price isnt usually that much difference and customers always downgrade, lol. So if book is close I always F+ it as opposed to trying to figure out if it might be a F/VF, not worth the time.

If you can do 30 books a day it adds up to almost 1000 a month & 11,000 a year, that's a lot of books. If you're trying to do them all at once, more power to you.

The more you do it the faster it goes. Identify the worst flaw, see where that puts it on the grading scale, adjust up or down slightly based on the rest of the book.

Thanks for the perspective. That makes a lot of sense.

Great advice. No sense in determining the ramifications of spine stress marks when the book has a giant tear on the back cover.

That's similar to my approach. Although I haven't done 11,000 in a year!

We use a 'grading team'. 5 of us grade books each time we work. I like to do it while instore during the downtimes. It breaks up the massive onslaught of listing as well.

We check each others' work. I find this to be best, because you are going to be challenged on your ability to grade. It keeps one mentally in the game.