By guest writer and stashmycomics.com user, John G. aka Zuul at our forum.
So, you have a couple of great books you want to place in a time capsule never to be read again? Here are some helpful hints about what to expect when sending comic books to CGC. The first thing you need to ask yourself is: “why do I want to submit the book to get graded?” There are many reasons for and against getting a book graded.
WHY CERTIFIED GRADING?
As Indiana Jones once said, “Fortune and Glory kid.” We all like to dream that our comics are worth something and if you want to maximize the value of books when selling, you should get them graded. Regardless of whether you sell the book to a collector or a dealer, you have an advantage because there is no arguing over the condition of a book which was graded by an unbiased third party. The going price for a book is another topic completely but at least you will have the condition.
Another reason is to preserve the quality of your book and place it in a trophy like case which you can show off to all your friends without worry that someone is going to accidentally bend it. I love showing off the highlights of my collection to my friends! Lastly, if you want to have the book autographed by your favorite writer or artist, you must get it done in the presence of a grading authority or else you might as well sign it yourself because it won’t be certified and considered a defect. Crazy I know, but that is the sad truth of it.
COMIC BOOK JAIL
The main reason to not get a book graded is that you will never again be able to open it, read it, share it, or enjoy it as it was meant to be enjoyed. Your precious comic will forever be locked in a plastic casing away from your longing eyes. Opening it will invalidate the grade and waste whatever money you spent to get it graded in the first place.
HOW TO DECIDE WHICH BOOKS TO GRADE?
For me, it has to be a key or rare issue. If it is modern it has to be in impeccable shape. Lastly, it has to be worth at least $100 in the grade I am hoping to get on it. I list the books I have graded at the bottom of this post as an example.
CGC OR PGX?
So now you have the books you want graded. Do you send to CGC or PGX? Personally, I have heard horror stories about PGX that will prevent me from ever sending to them, but the biggest reason is that books simply command higher sale prices when graded by CGC. If you want to submit to them you have to be a CGC member, submit through your local dealer, or go to the CGC booth at a comic convention. You may not have the opportunity to send through your local dealer because they do not participate. In that case if there are no shows coming up that you will go to, you will need to get a CGC membership to submit. The cheapest membership is currently $39/year. If you choose the premium membership, it is $109/year but you get three (3) free graded books with it. I chose that plan.
The cost to grade a book vary depending on the age and projected value. Modern books are $17/each assuming their value is not over $200. Books under $300 in value are $32/each. Books under $1000 in value are $54/each, books under $3000 are$85/each, and books over that are 2.5% of fair market value. That is a little sketchy to me. How can it be an unbiased service when they receive a percentage of the final graded value? Thankfully – and sadly- I don’t have any books worth that much.
Once you go through the tedious process of filling out the paperwork to ship to CGC, you will need to pack the books securely and send them out. Always bag/board each comic, reinforce by putting cardboard on each side, and surround it tightly with bubble wrap. You can send multiple comics in one box, but make sure they do not move around at all once in the final package. Always ship them insured and declare the value. If your books are damaged in transit and they are not insured, you are screwed!
IT’S NOT ALL TEA AND ROSES
Now comes the hardest part, the wait. Depending on what service level you chose, it will take at least a month to a month and a half to get your books back. Luckily you can log in to the CGC website and check your account to see what point your books are at in the grading process. It is brutal! Just like watching a pot boil. Eventually, you will get a grade and will either be extremely happy or abysmally upset. The graders are harsh and I have been disappointed by their results but after submitting a few I understood grades a lot better and know what to expect. Still, every now and again I am saddened. Check out my stuff below and have a blast submitting!
If you have any questions about any part of the process, please reply and I will check in and try to answer them!
List of books I have personally sent in to CGC and some brief notes on each (click below image for a larger view):
Avengers #1 – 5.5 – Exactly what I had hoped
Tales to Astonish #1 – 4.5 – Sadly, I had hoped for a 5.5
Daredevil #1 – 4.5 – Was hoping for a 4.0
Incredible Hulk #181 Stan Lee Signature Series – 8.5 – No complaints!
Fantastic Four #4 Stan Lee Signature Series – 4.0 – Meh
Fantastic Four #5 Stan Lee Signature Series – 2.5 – Ugh! Thought it would be at least a 3.5!
Avengers #4 Stan Lee Signature Series – 4.0 – Double Meh
Iron Man #1 – 9.0 – Yeah!!!!!!
New Mutants 98 – 9.8 – Score!
New Mutants 87 – 9.8 – Score!
Wolverine Limited Series #1 – 9.6 – Was hoping for the 9.8
Uncanny X-Men #266 – 9.6 – Again hoping for the 9.8
Woverine 1988 Series #1 – 8.5 – ?!?! WTF?! Was hoping for the 9.8
Got something to say to? To submit an article for the blog please contact the blog editor by sending a PM to user JasonNewcomb at the Stash My Comics forums.
I think the $100 dollar makes sense. I’ll certainly send books in if I have some that go above $100 in overstreet.
Great article and info. You said you now understand grades better after having some comics graded. Can you elaborate on that. What have you learned about grades.
That’s a good question Nisav.
RE: nisav
It is a lot easier for me to look at a book and figure out what the grade is within a half grade most of the time.
The easiest grade for me to determine is immediately whether or not it is a 6.0 (Fine) or not.
A 6.0 book is one that does not have any major cover flaw. For example, it cannot have a fold that breaks color. It cannot have a torn corner. The cover must be somewhat glossy.
It is hard to see in the Avengers 1 image, but there is a crease near the left side of the spine that automatically prevents it from being a 6.0 or better. The book is really nice otherwise and probably would have gotten a 6.5 to 7.0 but that crease ruins it.
They are unforgiving and the most beautiful book with a cover flaw will never get higher than a 5.5.
As for the high grade books, it is tougher to tell between 9.0 and 9.8 but if you start at 9.8, you can go down from there. There can be ONLY one nearly imperceptible flaw with the book inside and out. No tears, spine stress, creases, etc. If you look the book over 5 times and are positive it looks perfect, hold it at different angles under the light. You may see something you missed before. CGC will do it.
If you ever read the book, chances are very high it will not be a 9.8. 9.9 and 10.0 are basically unattainable.
The link “grade I am hoping to get” contains images with examples of each grade and the overstreet description.
Check it out! Let me know if you have more questions.
Grading is pretty tough. Because the truth is that a grade is a subjective thing.
Overstreet did publish an in-depth grading guide. I have one and it has saved me money. Knowing what the grades mean is important when buying any single issue priced above $1 in my opinion.
Coupled with the overstreet price guide it’s a powerful tool for the collector.
I’m sure those two books together have saved me enough money that they’ve paid for themselves.
Before reading those guides I would just basically pay whatever the asking price was but now I’m much more discerning and patient to wait for deals.
Agreed, Jason, grading is subjective, and it is a business as you mentioned, Zuul (“That is a little sketchy to me. How can it be an unbiased service when they receive a percentage of the final graded value?”) I have heard numerous stories of submissions done by the occasional submitter that get low ball grades, while the big time submitters get a pass on a lot of defects. After all, you have to keep your good customers happy.
I get the whole concept, and overall it has probably saved a lot of buyers from being ripped off, but IMO, if it’s not a high end comic, the higher cost of CGC is not justified.
Question Zuul-
Is the fee based on the value of the grade they give it if it were unslabbed, say from Overstreet Price Guide, or what they guess the value will be after it is slabbed?
I was wondering the same thing BigD. How do they determine “value”?
I don’t know the answer to that as I have never submitted a comic that was “worth” more than $3000.
If I had to guess, I would say they probably use the GPA Analysis database (http://comics.gpanalysis.com/) to get the value. It is a subscriber database that keeps track of CGC comic sales and trends.
That is a guess though. I am not sure.
Another thing I was thinking Bigd is while I definitely don’t like that that there is a “valued at” charge for big books, I tend to disagree that CGC caters to big customers.
If you think about it, the thing that separates them most from PGX is their brand and reputation. They are respected among high dollar collectors for providing an accurate and impartial grade to every book they receive.
If they were to tarnish their image by giving purposeful false grades, that would potentially destroy their entire business.
I think their process keeps them pretty honest and any bad grades are mainly mistakes.
Just my opinion though from limited experience. I have submitted both on my own and through a store that sends tons of stuff and after seeing notes I usually agree with their final assignment.
Thanks for the great info on the grading.
I have to say, the whole thing with the pricing being based on value bugs me. I don’t understand how or why the value of your comic has any role in the price of the service. I would think that no matter what you submit or in what condition, they would have to perform their service the same exact way. So then why does it cost more as the value of the book goes up. That almost seems like, i’m just speculating, that they would want to grade things higher to be able to charge a higher service fee.
That’s a good point Nisav.
Zuul, Does CGC provide a rationale for this unusual pricing scheme?
Was thinking about that some more, and the only thing i could come up with is as the value of the book rises so is the shipping cost back to the customer. They probably insure the item, so the more its worth the higher the insurance cost.
From the CGC site:
FMV (Fair Market Value). Minimum Charge per book $120.00, Maximum charge per book $1,500.00.
I suppose that they are just trying to maximize profits for their service.
Modern books are far easier to grade and assign a value than older books because it is much less subjective. With modern books, they are pretty much brand new. People usually submit to get a 9.8. So, it is an easy determination. That is why it is cheap.
Older books are tougher because of the number of years that have passed many things could have happened to them. For example, the entire books looks great except that the top corner was exposed to the sun because it was buried in a stack for 35 years so it is faded. It takes longer which equates to hourly wages, so it costs more.
For the super high books, they spend the same amount of time grading but know that the book is going to be sold so they call it a premier service so they can take part in the book’s sale.
This is my guess and not insider knowledge. It happens in many industries if you as a service provider can increase sales in some way, your fee is based on that increase in sales.
CGC knows that people pay more money for CGC graded books so they want to cash in on their brand.
That brand can’t be tarnished or they lose the ability to demand more money for expensive books.
I wish I had a book valued at more than $3k to have to worry about it, but I don’t. It really is a very small portion of the overall comic book supply that is valued at that amount.
Even my autographed Hulk 181 graded 8.5 would currently not get more than like $1200 at auction. The Avengers #1 5.5 would get maybe $1600.
We are talking about Fantastic Four #1, Amazing Fantasy #15, Detective #27, etc.
If you have a Detective Comics #27 that graded 4.0 and because it was CGC graded you could get $10k more for it, wouldn’t you gladly pay the $1500 they would charge? I would! 🙂
