Accuracy of Gerber and Overstreet Scarcity Designations

8 8

I would love to see some of your books. Post away.

Mega-dittoes!

I can't imagine what that CGC 7.5 copy would sell for... It's got to be a $2000 book, easy.

I would be interested in hearing both anecdotal and statistical evidence of whether the scarcity ratings created by Gerber and those utilized by Overstreet (not sure if they are the same) continue to remain accurate, and the degree to which that may or may not be the case.

I can compare the Gerber values to the actual CGC counts... BUT...

I would need a list of Gerber values...

Does anyone know if a list or lists already exist?

I doubt if the full listings would be "out there" somewhere on the internet, but

I'm thinking that someone might have already compiled a list of Gerber 9s and 10s.

I found a "hard to find" list of about 40 Crime books with Gerber Index scores,

but that's about all I see online without further digging through Google.

I realize it could be a never-ending quest to list the Gerber values,

but I'm hoping there are at least a few shortcuts to get to the good stuff.

Anybody have any Gerber lists already compiled?

My impression with Gerber is that it is reasonably accurate for books that were heavily collected by the time it came out. I think for a lot of less popular genres (romance, humor, etc) Gerber just gave out 3s and 4s to entire runs and titles. Most of these are justified, but some of them are not. I think those rankings reflect more a lack of interest on the cataloger's part (and to be fair to Gerber, on the part of collectors in general) rather than any actual attempt to evaluate scarcity.

The pre-code horror scarcity estimates may be way off as well, since most of the rare and sought-after books of today were underappreciated pre-Gerber.

Here are some of the Gerber 7s. The scans are not as high quality as some of the others. Sorry about that.

Tied with one other book as highest graded.

Tied with one other book as highest graded.

Without knowing what the back of the book looks like, could that miswrap be "pressed" so the white border is more even down the spine? Love that cover.

There are 3 copies graded higher than this one, but all only at 5.5.

Without knowing what the back of the book looks like, could that miswrap be "pressed" so the white border is more even down the spine? Love that cover.

Frankly, knowing what I know now, I would not be surprised if it were. I bought it slabbed so I honestly don't know. I will scan in the back tomorrow and post it.

That All American 16

It's for sale!

20K+ is way out of my price range

But I'll send you a want list

20K+ is way out of my price range

 

But I'll send you a want list

Nice books esquirecomics - gotta love the AA#16 - 1st appearance AND a great cover

Beautiful Books.

Keep posting.

Here's a G7, though I think in fact it is probably a little easier than that to acquire.

Here's a Gerber no-show that IMO should rank an 8....or dare I say 9!?!?

And here's a newly-bought post-auction book from the Heritage auction. Paid a pretty penny, but I have been jonesing for a copy of this one for a few years, and I can't think of too many books more appropriate to my world, so I went for it. Gerber 8, so speaketh the bible.

Ach! Why did those first two scan so huge!?