From the July 2008 CGC eNewsletter. Click here to subscribe.

GPA for CGC Comics (http://comics.gpanalysis.com), the world’s first online price report and analysis tool for certified comic books, announces a major upgrade to its software service via the use of Web 2.0 technology and the introduction of additional features.

"We believe GPA 2.0 builds on the unparalleled online experience that we developed through our first-generation service, " explains George Pantela, GPA’s strategic director and founder. “We’re still reporting on daily prices realized, producing market-wide reports, and giving collectors tools to analyze trends, but GPA 2.0 goes further.

GPA 2.0 has been developed through consultation with collectors and industry leaders and continued feedback from subscribers. "GPA has become a resource that is imperative for all collectors and dealers of CGC comics," notes Mark Haspel, CGC president and primary grader. “With the release of GPA 2.0, the first significant redesign, GPA has become easier to use and further assures its place amongst the most important resources available online in the comic book hobby."

In an industry first, GPA 2.0 now allows subscribers to see certification numbers for individual comics sold (where available), giving them greater market knowledge. Today’s fast moving comic book marketplace, coupled with extraordinary prices realized (especially for CGC books), means collectors are becoming highly selective in the books they collect. Adding CGC certification numbers against sales data gives detailed information about specific books and possible reasons behind the higher sales they have realized.

If you’re a GPA subscriber and a member of the Collectors Society, then you have the tools at hand to analyze pricing data like no other service. Collectors are now looking at paper quality (PQ) and quality of production (QP) details of a book, and the inclusion of certification numbers in GPA allows them to further analyze sales data, grading notes, and production qualities that can help in making sense of constantly changing market trends.

Going even further, GPA 2.0 allows searching through sales data by specifying a pedigree name, another first, and a unique feature to GPA. Select a pedigree name from a drop-down list and GPA will show you titles and issues containing sales from that pedigree. Matt Nelson of ComicPedigrees.com and co-author of the soon-to-be-released volume, The Guide to Comic Book Pedigrees, is excited about the new GPA feature: "It means we can now analyze pedigree sales through a quick and simple interface, something we’ve never been able to do online before."

All subscribers now have the ability to save often searched titles, and add often analyzed issue/grades to a personal watch list called GPA My Comics. Subscribers can also add their own comic book transactions within My Comics for instant and ongoing valuations based on GPA 90-day averages. Subscribers can even "force" a valuation on a specific comic sale they have added if they feel its uniqueness warrants a higher market price.

The new GPA service has been built around Web 2.0 practices and technologies, meaning GPA now functions more like a local application on a PC than a page running in a browser. It also means faster response times, a more intuitive and user-friendly interface, and the ability to deliver further improvements in the future without major site rewrites. “We can be even more responsive to the needs of our subscribers," adds George Pantela.

This follows GPA’s decision earlier in the year to host their servers with Rackspace, a recognized leader in the hosting market, offering the industry’s fastest and most reliable network connections.

"We’re very excited about GPA 2.0 and we know from initial feedback that it’s a winner with our subscribers," says George Pantela. "Look out for even more features and product enhancements over the next 6 to 12 months. We’re constantly building on our success and we’re always interested to hear on how we can deliver more to our subscribers. "

GPA for CGC Comics currently reports on 720,970 sales, totaling $152 million from over 20 auction/dealer venues, representing seven year's worth of historical data.

To learn more about GPA 2.0, visit http://comics.gpanalysis.com.

This is a guest article. The thoughts and opinions in this piece are those of their author and are not necessarily the thoughts of the Certified Collectibles Group.