Recently CGC books have become all the rage and I found myself wondering if the hype was all it's cracked up to be. Basically the premise behind the CGC is that they are an impartial third party who's specialty is the accurate grading of comic books. You send them your book, they grade and certify it, and then send it back in a protective plastic sleeve. CGC executives describe their service as follows...

This concept of impartial, third party grading is certainly a desirable service. It protects both the buyer and seller because the CGC tamper proof container guarantees (for the most part) that the book is in the same condition as the day it was graded. I say for the most part because there is still a chance the book could be dinged if the container was dropped, or faded if left in the sun for extended periods of time.

My biggest problem is that it reduces a comic book, something that is meant to be read and enjoyed, to a cold plastic inaccessable thing. And no offense to the CGC but as such you can't even double check their work and last time I checked humans, even those who work in the grading business, can make mistakes.

So, to satisfy my curiosity, I tested them. I sent a book in, disagreed with the grading, sent it back in (without breaking the CGC seal) and received a different/higher grading (a VF+ to a NM-). I then sent several books in, received the gradings, cracked the cases and removed the books, sent them back in and received different gradings, twice to a higher grade (a F to a VF and a VG+ to a F), and once to a lower grade (a F- to a VG). In fact, only once in four tries did they return the book with the same grading, that being a F+ in both cases.

Also on my list of things that I don't like is the way the CGC treats restored books. As near as I can tell they don't like them and grade them with a greater degree of scrutiny than those non-restored ones. I've seen first hand the incredible work that true professionals like Susan Cicconi of The Restoration Lab can do and it bothers me tremendously to have such work discounted in what seems to be a snubbing, offhand way. I'm one of those folks that believes there's nothing wrong with restored books, especially if the work is done well, and I don't understand those who view restored books as "ugly step children" when the reality can be quite the opposite.

So I guess the bottom line is that in my humble opinion, despite the fact the CGC performs a desirable and badly needed service, they're not the all-knowing, all-seeing, infallible entity many perceive them to be. The bottom line is that graders, even in the CGC, look at things in their own subjective way and aren't 100% consistant.

That's my .02. I welcome your feedback. JC

Hello Again:

It's now eight years later and I just went back and reread my earlier comments. If I were to write that today the tone would be slightly mellower. But only slightly! In defense of the CGC their grading does seem to have gotten consistently more... well, consistent. I won't say its gotten better or worse (from a valuation standpoint) only that it has gotten more consistent. However, I do consider "more consistent" to be one of the definitions of "better" so I do feel better about the CGC now than I did back when I originally wrote all that. But regardless, at the end of the day they're still just guys doing their job.

As to the book I sent back in uncracked what my earlier comments don't say is that I also included a very detailed visual description of why I disagreed and where the book had recently come from. As I said, it was more of a test out of curiosity, I didn't really expect the change in grade and would be surprised if it were to happen again for an uncracked book. As I said, they have definitely gotten more consistent in the last 10 years. It's the 5.5-7.0 range (for raw unrestored books) that in my opinion needs the most attention but remember, I am not a professional grader.

And finally, it has gotten very hard to ignore the prices those things are getting these days. Comic collecting for me has always been about the fun of reading the books, enjoying the stories and artwork, but I admit that I have a few that have turned out to be surprisingly good investments, partly because they have been CGC graded.

Hope that helps.

JC