One. And only because it was free from Wizard World. I hate CGC and think it's a bunch of bullshit.

Why is it BS? For people who collect over the internet, it's a fantastic way to ensure you're getting the grade you want.

See my previous post for the answer to "why it's bullshit".

Because the grade isn't set on a specific standard and it varies from grader to grader. You can submit a comic, get a rating and then send it back opened up and get an entirely different grading based on nothing more than it being a different grader.

Not sure if you would call that a specific grade. I have also heard of many horror stories of people who sent in comics and they were damaged in the process to getting to them.

The cost is way overpriced for the service and takes too much time.

Now the real question becomes why mummify the comic in a tomb? For baseball cards it's fine and dandy as you can still see the entire card. But comics? It's a fuck'n comic. Flip it open and read it for fucks sake.

Break the seal? Go right ahead. But then again, once you do that the whole point of having it graded goes out the window as that grading is how it once was graded.

Don't even get me started on the whole Wizard connection. Fuck that magazine and fuck what they did to comics.

In the case of seeker's old school comics. I think it would be a somewhat wise choice to do so. But really, you see the vast majority of books that are CGC'ed as the books from the last few years. And even then. I'd suggest to seeker to sell off those higher priced books through in person private auctions. You really don't want to be dealing with that amount of large money through ebay. That's only asking for trouble.

Shit, look at Wizards website shop. You can get yourself a copy of the fourth printing of Justice League for only $49.99!
http://wizarduniverse.stores.yahoo.n...078121c98.html

I mean, shit. That's a retirement home in itself on the florida keys, am i right? Why bother just buying the fourth printing of the book for $2.99 or hell, just wait for it to be collected in a trade in another two months so you can buy the entire story arc for $12 bucks.

If you want investments then look into stocks and bonds. Comics should be what they are. Funny books.

Yeah, to this day I regret not taking Shamus out when he was pimpin that POS magazine at some Diamond retailer's convention I went to back in '91...

Thanks for the advice - I do appreciate it as I compile all this stuff for sale. Most of my stuff is from the 1970s and 1980s, but those are still not the ones I was thinking of CGCing - as you in fact are aware. Private sale is probably best for the high ticket ones - but I have to find a buyer for them.

Care to explain? I got out of collecting comics right before Wizard came along in the early 90's.

I have seen the magazine before but never thought anything of it and have found some interesting articles from time to time though I don't subscribe.

Not to hijack this thread (it may call for opening a different one if many respond) but I really am curious what they did or are doing. I have recently gotten back into reading comics due to the DVD-Roms that have been released recently and was thinking about subscribing to Wizard just to see what is currently popular since it is one of the only current comics magazines that I know of. (I loved Comics Scene back in the late 80's).

That's the problem with all comics. I talk to one comic shop worker all the time who's goal is to one day have his own shop and he backed off from dealing with one investor because that investor wanted to set up his old comics in there.

He pretty much realizes that there isn't much of a target audience who would walk into a comic shop with a suitcase full of cash to want to buy the early issues of Fantastic Four and the such.

Private auctions are the way to go for those who you think will be over a couple hundred.


As for the Wizard/CGC connection:

Not to mention that Wizard inflates their comic values so high on regular comics that it creates this mentality to buyers that their issues of Spawn 1 or death of superman can be sold for anything more than a couple of bucks. Look at how much they list CGC comics right off the bat. New comics that haven't been released and that you'll be able to buy for retail at mint condition go for $49.99 on their website. Do you honestly think that any random issue of a new modern age comic will go up that high that isn't a dealers incentive 1 in whatever variant?

Read Wizard for the articles and what not, that's fine. but by all means skip the whole section that is the price guide.

Wizard's been out of date for years. I get all the comics news I can handle from sites like newsarama.com and comicbookresources.com. There's also a healthy comics blogosphere out there; check out the sidebar links and main content at progressiveruin.com.

Check out the magazine Back Issue. It is amazing, and seems to concentrate on 70s and 80s stuff.

So true. By the time wizard shows up on news stands it has pretty out of date articles and news. And if it's near a wizard sponsored convention forget about getting any decent content in the book. It's all going to be promotion for the event.

None. It's a huge scam propagated by Wizard to sell their price guide. In most fields this kind of thing would be viewed of as illegal.

I don't think so. For modern collectors, maybe, but the real gold of CGC is found with their slabbed Gold and Silver Age books. Say what you will about graders having different standards, but having a third party grade these old books before a sale is a good idea for the seller and the buyer.

I don't care so much about modern collectibility, but I love the old stuff, even if it is encased in a plastic shell.

Oh, and by the way, any true comic collector uses the Overstreet Price Guide, not Wizard.

Well, here's my experience and two cents:

- I owned about a two dozen CGC books. About half of those were singature series.

- I only slab books that are valuable and/or I want to potentially sell.

- When it comes to books that are worth that kind of money (1st appearance of venom, for instance) I have reading copies. I don't read my originals that are old, rare and worth money. Why squander my investment with the oils from my fingers and Cheetos? I can still read and enjoy the story via reprints or trades.

- Sure, I agree that it is an expensive and questionable service. However, I also know this:

- EVERY SINGLE slabbed issue I have sold has gone for 25%-70% MORE than inflated Wizard guide prices. The extra profit has helped sustain my habit. It may be an over-priced service, but for desirable and valuable books they perform so much better in the marketplace.

- The service has added value for Signature Series. If you are like me, I try to get two of some critical issues/signatures and sell off one to help offset my cost of shows, books, travel, etc. Verifying signatures is critical for resell. I had some Jim Lee Batman Hush issues signed and slabbed at a con and they sold for about $150 each. I bought the hardcovers for myself.

Now I can say I own one in a million!

http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/pu...s=259&ai=62729

Every CGC-Graded Comic Is Now One in a Million. Literally.

CGC has just announced that they have just certified their one millionth comic book. A 9.0 copy of Gold Key’s Beneath the Planet of the Apes #nn from 1970 was submitted by collector and restaurant owner Bruce Horste from Canton, MI, has been officially recognized as the one millionth submission certified by the company in its eight-year history.

“This really is a monumental moment, not just for CGC, but for me as well! It is so important knowing that the hobby I have loved my whole life is now better, safer and much more fun, in part because of CGC,” said Steve Borock CGC President and Primary Grader. "I remember back when Mark Haspel and I looking at the CGC safe for the first time and saw about 400 to 500 comic books. We were saying to each other ‘How the heck are we going to get all these comics books out of here in time?' We both look back at that day and laugh, knowing that now all the Finalizers combined, grade about that many books in a single day.”

Since its official opening announcement in 1999, CGC has experienced an increase in comic book submissions each year, expanding its grading personnel and staff multiple times to meet the hobby’s incredible demand for expert, impartial grading.

“This is insanity. CGC has certified one million comics? It feels like we did that years ago!” joked Paul Litch, CGC Senior Grader and Modern Age Specialist. “Seriously though, this is a huge milestone for all of us here at CGC and the collecting community as a whole. Shawn Caffrey and I have had a lot of fun working with some of the greatest publishers and creators in our hobby. Let’s also not forget the collectors we see at every city we visit during convention season. Without any of these hobbyists, CGC would not be here today.”

“Steve, Paul, and I are not only proud to be part of this from the beginning, but we are so very proud of all our employees that make CGC what it is today,” says Mark Haspel, CGC Vice President and Finalizer. “We feel privileged to have worked alongside them as well as with all the collectors and sellers in our hobby for the past eight years.”

But now that CGC has reached this milestone, what do these numbers really mean? How remarkable is it really?

The process of CGC certification is not that of one or two hobbyists looking at a book, picking a grade and placing the comic book in plastic. It is a monumental task, done not just by hobbyists, but by professionals who love what they do.

The certification process starts the minute a comic book(s) arrives and is signed for at the CGC offices. It is processed by our receiving department and then labeled for grading. The only information that the grader will see is the label. This label will only have a barcode and the invoice number. When the comic book goes through the certification process, the only knowledge the graders have of any specific comic book is that which is on the label, to keep the submitters identify hidden throughout the grading and restoration detection process for reasons of impartiality.

After each book is carefully inspected by a restoration detection expert, pre-graders and finalizer, the comic is then assigned a grade and a label color classification. Any restoration detected is always noted on the label along with the grade.

The comic book then goes to encapsulation where two pieces of safety micro chamber paper are placed inside the front and back cover. Next the CGC label and comic book are placed in an archivally safe Barex inner well before being sonically sealed in CGC’s state of the art tamper evident holder.

Once an invoice has left encapsulation it enters “Q.C” (Quality Control), to ensure that each and every comic book is checked, before being safely shipped to the submitter in our specially designed shipping boxes.

With all this in mind let’s now take a look at the figures:

1,000,000 books certified in 8 years averages out to 125,000 books per year, that’s over 10,400 books per month, over 2600 per week! This averages 520 books per day, that are each looked at by a minimum of 3 graders!

The lucky submitter, Bruce Horste will receive a commemorative plaque and free Collectors Society membership, plus a $200 CGC certification coupon. The CGC crew and management, meanwhile, has been celebrating the achievement and is currently making bets on how long it will take them to reach two million certifications.

For more information visit CGC.

I have about a hundred and fifty.

I love the naysayers who claim they hate it and how it 'varies from grader to grader!' when there are actually 3 graders for each book.

The people who hate it generally are the ones trying to sell you a VG book at a VF cost.

I fully agree with the idea of everyone here, I wasted money having my books CGC by jim blasko at c0micb00ks.com because the website sold me. But isn't that what scammers do, make something look and sound good? I wished i would have found this forum alot earlier. Since now I know it really doesn't matter if a book is so called graded I wont make the same mistake again. I also discovered that this one particular website have several alleged fraud issues going on. I guest its always best to do your own work for something that is valuable instead of sending it into an internet void.

Thanks Guys

I tried looking into it once just to satisfy my curiosity, but it seems that you can't send in the books yourself? You have to go thru a certified comic shop or retail partner?