What is CVA?

[Tnerb]

Or is this something else I am going to get addicted too?

 

Is something arriving on the scene so new and revolutionary that we will be upset we didn't start with it at the beginning. Will CVA be just as big in ten years as CGC is today? Will they be the next standard? Which bequeaths me to ask, what is CVA? What does it stand for? Are they another third party grading company? And is it worth it?

 

CGC appeared in 2000 out of Parsippany NJ., a baby company sprouting from the already popular NGC which started three years prior. I became aware of CGC through the popular comic book periodicals of the time and dismissed the grading company. The more I dwelled on the articles, the more I became appalled. How anyone could encapsulate a comic book and shield it away from being read was beyond me. Flash forward to now and I'm an avid collector of comic books graded by CGC.

 

At NYCC 2012 I spent my time at two of my favorite booths. I was talking with Sean, Mike, and another Mike at the CGC booth where I met Wallace. When I wasn't walking around taking pictures or getting signatures with a witness for my signature series graded comic books, I spent the rest of my time at the World Wide Comics booth. Placed sporadically around, or maybe strategically, were postcard sized placards about CVAcomics.com.

 

CVA stands for Comic Verification Authority. This is a brand new start-up company, separate from CGC and formed by Joe Veteri; ESQ. managing partner and verifier with Tomis Erb, MBA partner and lead verifier. From what I can ascertain from the site, the duo wish to create a data base of the best of the best, much like the safety of purchasing a pedigree book in the eighties and nineties. These days, purchasing a "9.6" or a "9.8" is most likely the best book available, even among pedigrees.

 

Stephen Ritter and I discussed a bit about CVA; I picked up a card and read both sides very quickly. There wasn't much information available. I placed the "postcard" in my book-bag to remind myself to look at it later. Stephen pointed out some of the books that were displayed up against his "wall." A few of the books already had the silver pull away sticker on the upper left hand side above the CGC numeric grade. This is outside the slab. Once the CVA Exceptional sticker is peeled away it destroys the sticker and voids CVA's endorsement, much like cracking and removing a comic book from a CGC certified holder nulls the grade.

 

How many times do you pass on a "9.8" or a "9.6" because of a slight spine roll or an off-centered cover? There are many times I purchased a high grade copy of a book that I felt shouldn't have made that grade. Would a CVA sticker applied have eased my mind?

 

CVA's intentions are not to compete with or state that CGC's grading is inferior on some books, or even that another is better. Since no one knows the "Secret Sauce" CGC uses, CVA hopes to have their sticker placed on only the best of the best, giving more confidence to the collector, who is willing to spend his/her money on a superior collectible at a premium price.

 

Thanks for Reading

 

Tnerb

 

See more journals by Tnerb

[lpersky-migration]

that's ridiculous... just another attempt by a dealer in our industry to justify paying more for their 9.8/9.6 versus someone else's 9.8/9.6... and what's awful about this, is that they are tagging already graded books! it would be different if they were slabbing raw books on their own that met their own standard, then they could honestly say that CVA encapsulated books must meet specific criteria for encapsulation. but nope, let CGC do all the work and then let's tag a 9.8 with our sticker to get 25% more than the market for our books. I'm not gonna fall for this sham and neither should other collectors in our industry.

 

i think if CGC decided to change the Pedigree requirements to include more bronze/copper collections it would eliminate a lot of this "tagging" of CGC graded books. WW tags and now CVA, but you never see those tags on CGC identified Pedigree books do you?

[Tnerb]

First off Ipersky it is great to see you well. I hope your collecting endeavors are being fulfilled. Now onto the issue...

 

I had to write about CVA because it is brand new. What you read above was only from the placard I found. I will have a part two on this and part two was from me talking to one of the founders. Will you like it or will you hate it, I don't know, but I had to inform. I want you to know though before that article is posted, the 9.6 or 9.8 books are not the only books that they will look at. They will look at books in any grade.

 

As for pedigrees, and this is something I have to look into, I had a copy of the New Teen Titans #26. I won this on an auction site t a great price, it was also a Rocky Mountain pedigree, both marked on the label and the slab, after signing, this book lost it's pedigree status. Of course I have to follow up on this to see about getting that status back.

 

I hope you stay well and look forward to more interaction.

 

Tnerb

[etanick]

plenty of discussions on CVA already....care to read what many others think beside the founders? the market will decide eventually.

 

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=6061857#Post6061857

 

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=6091275&fpart=1

[biggblaster]

Hey Guys,

Just as others have stated, ridiculous. All this does is spend more of our money. The idea that these two people(that is what the web site says) can give us a clear assessment of what books “look” better, in the same grade, than others is mind boggling. They would need a full inventory of high resolution scans of all the books before being able to make such a statement, even if I trusted their opinion. Their prices are crazy too. So even if I fell into their trap, as some will do initially, they charge 12.00 for a modern and then you have to add the return shipping. And they also use the same crazy tier chart as the other grading companies(wink, wink). Like it is any harder to grade, I mean verify, and older book from a newer one.

 

[Tnerb]

OK, First to Etanick, thank you for the links, I appreciate those.

 

As for CVA, I do have a part two to this article after Talking with Joe. I will be posting it in the journals a I do with anything I write, however I promised another source first. I enjoy all your feedback but am reminded how a lot as people are taking CVA negatively, I did so with CGC as well. I hope the article was as impartial as possible, as I hope you will find part two.

 

I would love to hear all feedback publicly or privately.

 

Tnerb

[surfer99]

Interesting Tnerb, thanks for sharing. I get the premise of wanting to distinguish between one 9.6 and another based on eye appeal. I just don't find this service worth paying for, especially when you can plainly see the differences yourself and make your own judgement call. Personally, I am absolutely pleased with my 9.6 whether it's perfectly centered or not, or even if it has off-white pages for that matter (although I do draw the line at cream pages). I may be in the minority here, but those differences would not make me pay any more or less for the book...it's not like the difference between a 9.4 and 9.6, you know?

 

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

NGC which started three thirteen years prior.

 

 

[Tnerb]

I thought I corrected the NGC Comment, thanks for the catch, in my final copy it's thirteen, for their silver anniversary. Thank you RockMyAmadeus.

 

Tnerb

[lpersky-migration]

thank you Tnerb for sharing the information and even though I may not post a whole lot anymore (i've been hitting the conventions on the West Coast hard and tryng to expand my comic business) I do enjoy reading your articles and journals often regardless of the content.

 

back to CVA... I just feel that these two see an opportunity to squeeze the market a little more, and I don't feel that its warranted in this case. Of course, people are free to start a business around anything they want and market it any way they choose, but the service that they are providing is not original in nature and therefore to me does not justify people spending extra money on it. Sure they may capture an auidence at first, but I hope collectors or other comic book investors are smart enough to realize that the extra money spent on this service will not result in a more expensive or "attractive" book than another in similar grade and page quality.