CGC Comic Book Grading

Comics Guaranty LLC (CGC) is an independent member of the Certified Collectibles Group of Companies that handles comic book grading services. The group was launched in the early 2000 and has been based in Sarasota, Florida ever since. CGC is the first independent and impartial third party grading service for comic books and has significantly contributed to the comic book collecting community by releasing accurate CGC graded comic books in the market to aid the collectors in their purchase.

 

Anyone can submit comic books and comic-related magazines and other printed collectibles to CGC for grading and encapsulating purposes. Comic book owners can either take their collections through authorized dealers or retailers or on their own to CGC’s Internet partners where they can avail a 10% discount. They can also submit their comic books by paying an annual membership fee. CGC is also present in most comic book conventions across the country.

 

Once CGC receives the comic books, five experts, including CGC’s president, Mark Haspel, will have the comic books inspected in a temperature and humidity controlled environment. The graders shall painstakingly scrutinize the comic books for damages and signs of any alterations and artificial restorations. CGC graded comic books are then given a rating on a scale of 0.5 to 10. Aside from that, they are also categorized using color-coded labels. For example, a comic book with a blue label is considered a standard comic book. Those with green labels are qualified comic books with signs of defect. The shade of the green labels will still vary. A near mint book, for example, is qualified but is showing signs of a 4-inch back cover tear. Purple is the color that any comic book seller is dreading for as it means that the graders found evidence of restorations on the comic books submitted. They even refer to it as the “purple label of death.”

 

After passing through the scrupulous grading procedures, the comic books shall be set aside for the delicate process of “slabbing” or encapsulation. Comic books that are prone to damages caused by slabbing shall be returned to their owners. Examples of such comic books are those that have cover overhangs, European and museum editions, black and white comic books that can easily be counterfeited and those that have covers protruding beyond the interior book. CGC graded comic books that are returned without encapsulation are refunded and the previous grades shall be forfeited.

 

Comic books that received high grades from CGC are considered to be high-valued comics, thus, sellers can raise their price up to a thousand dollars. At the same time, comic books marked with the purple label of death or the “restored” label easily depletes in value. Collectors would hesitate to buy low-graded comic books in a hefty price tag but not all of them are happy about CGC’s rating standards. The popular comic book store chain, Mile High Comics also has their own grading standards with the comic books they buy and sell. Their standards, however, do not usually agree with that of CGC. That is why, whenever a book they graded as “near mint” has been given a lower grade by CGC, they would offer the collector a refund just to prove that CGC graded comic books are not always accurate. One instance of inaccuracy is the discovery of a micro-trimmed issue of Fantastic Four #3 restored by Jason Ewert. CGC apologized for not detecting the restoration and offered to recheck all of Ewert’s books for free.

 

Despite such controversies, CGC still remains to be the leading comic book grading service in the US ever since its launch. Magazines and comic book guides such as Overstreet still rely on CGC’s grading system until now.