Cost-Benefit of CGC Grading?

[Jack Anderson]

Last night I went to comicspriceguide.com to check out a few of the comics in my collection, and there are the two columns for 9.4 price. '9.4 Value' and '9.4 CGC Graded'. It looks like, on average, the price of a comic with an official CGC grade (blue label I figure) is worth 5 times that of its non-CGC brethren.

 

Is this legit? Does a CGC grade really add that much value to a comic?

 

Also, after looking at this page ( http://www.cgccomics.com/services/ ), I'm bit confused as to the prices. Would I be correct in assuming that one can only use the 'Economy' service for a book whose value is no greater than $250? And it would cost $29.00 to grade one book? Does $250 refer to the value before or after CGC grading, if comicspriceguide.com is to be believed?

 

thanks again for any help you deem me worthy of

[divad]

Last night I went to comicspriceguide.com to check out a few of the comics in my collection, and there are the two columns for 9.4 price. '9.4 Value' and '9.4 CGC Graded'. It looks like, on average, the price of a comic with an official CGC grade (blue label I figure) is worth 5 times that of its non-CGC brethren.

 

Is this legit? Does a CGC grade really add that much value to a comic?

 

No. Ask about GPA for more accurate prices for graded books. With all due respect, nothing you've shown us yet warrants the expense of grading.

 

Also, after looking at this page ( http://www.cgccomics.com/services/ ), I'm bit confused as to the prices. Would I be correct in assuming that one can only use the 'Economy' service for a book whose value is no greater than $250? And it would cost $29.00 to grade one book? Does $250 refer to the value before or after CGC grading, if comicspriceguide.com is to be believed?

 

If it says $250, it means the recognized value of the book ungraded in Overstreet. CPG.com prices are irrelevant. I thought it was $400? Again, unless you haven't shown us your heavy hitters, you don't have anything worth $100, nevermind $250. But, keep tryin'

[Nefaria]

This question has been asked and answered a lot on this forum. Yup it was my big question when I joined too. First off you're correct, it costs $29 to get a comic graded only if it's value is $250 or below in the economy class. Economy is for older comics though, generally the Bronze (1974) and earlier. If your comic is 1975 or newer then you can submit it in the Modern tier for $15 which is for comics valued $200 or less. Typically your submitted value is the OSPG value in raw or un-graded format. The value is primarily for insurance purposes during shipping of your comics. That doesn’t mean you can submit a FF #1 in the Economy class though, you’d need to submit in the Walk Through class and their fee’s then are 2.5% of the fair market value. So ya the value serves two purposes, one so CGC can obtains their share of the comic for their grading fee’s and two for insurance purposes..

Oh ya your other question, are CGC graded comics worth five times raw value. Heck no, only in very rare instances, governed by availability and demand

One more thing if you are going to submit some comics to CGC there are some Vendor's out there that offer a 20% discount on submission fees. Here's One Click Here

Good Luck

Clare

[Jack Anderson]

 

No. Ask about GPA for more accurate prices for graded books. With all due respect, nothing you've shown us yet warrants the expense of grading.

 

 

If it says $250, it means the recognized value of the book ungraded in Overstreet. CPG.com prices are irrelevant. I thought it was $400? Again, unless you haven't shown us your heavy hitters, you don't have anything worth $100, nevermind $250. But, keep tryin'

 

As I mentioned to nefaria in my other thread, I'm not actually going to send anything in, I'm just trying to figure out the system. Take a look inside, see how it all works and such.

[Hobgoblin]

Comicpriceguide.com's CGC graded values are ridiculously high. There is NO WAY that my Amazing Spidey #50, graded 2.5, is worth over $2000. Ridiculous.

[gozer]

Thought I'd add my $0.02 ...

 

>> the price of a comic with an official CGC grade is worth 5 times

>> that of its non-CGC brethren.

 

I think it's hard to generalize about this, because it depends on the book. You've got to take it on a case-by-case basis.

 

We've all seen screwy slabbed books where your first thought is "why on earth did they bother to slab that?" Such as:

 

eBay item 6542501842 -- Marvel Feature #4 in CGC 3.5

eBay item 6545526946 -- Nick Fury #2 in CGC 6.0

 

Neither of those books will make back their grading fee (IMO).

 

In modern comics, a book gets no added value due to being slabbed, until you reach REALLY high grade stuff -- 9.8 minimum and even 9.8 may not be high enough. But occasionally it pays off in spades -- just a few days ago an Ultimate Fantastic Four #1 in CGC 10 went for over $1500.

 

And in modern books, while a 9.4 is ordinary, in golden age books, a 9.4 is a rare treasure that may very well go for 5 times Overstreet. But (of course) there are exceptions. Funny animal and western books, even in golden age, are not in high demand and slabbing only helps a little.

 

And again, the rules are different for key books. Current eBay item 6545235993 is a Batman #1 CGC graded at 1.0. Was it worth it slabbing a trashed 1.0 copy? With a Batman #1, I think the answer is yes. If nothing else for the restoration check.

 

With silver age -- I just throw up my hands and admit that I don't know sh** from shinola. Slabbed silver age seems to be all over the map. But generally, for books in nicer condition, slabbing improves the selling price.

 

Confused yet?

 

gozer

-------------------------------

It's just that it's been four years since my last date with a, whatchacallit, uh, woman.

[Jack Anderson]

Thanks for the insight gozer. I've been checking the census pages at CGC, and it does indeed seem that the farther back you go, the lower the grade threshold is for sending it in to get slabbed, which makes sense, since a low grade modern book isn't going to be worth enough to bother with the process in the first place, but a low grade golden age comic could still be worth the cost.

 

it makes about as much sense as I can expect it to make for myself...

[skybolt]

CPG recently changed they're multiple for a 9.4 CGC graded book from 2X to 5X. I only use their website to look at comic covers and so forth.

 

As far as the $250 value is concerned, it really depends on how much you want to insure your book for. For instance, I've sent in $300-$400 books to be CGC graded and only insured them for $250. CGC will grade them as economies, no questions asked. However, if the book is damaged during shipping, then your out $150. CGC will call you from time to time if for instance you submit an Incredible Hulk #181 copy as economy and it comes back a whopping 9.4. That's actually a good thing, since I'd be willing to pay the additional $20 or $30 to insure the book against damage.

[ComicSupply]

CGC will call you from time to time if for instance you submit an Incredible Hulk #181 copy as economy and it comes back a whopping 9.4. That's actually a good thing, since I'd be willing to pay the additional $20 or $30 to insure the book against damage.

 

Yeah, they did that to me like a month ago. I thought perhaps that meant my books were shipping soon, but that was just a dream.

 

Then I thought what about the other 39 books I sent All chopped liver....

[jimm94]

If you can make more profit (after grading fess and shipping) by selling a book slabbed instead of raw, then it's worth grading. However, you must also factor in the opportunity cost of turnaround times. Another slightly less tangible but important consideration is the potential for increased liquidity by having a book certified.

[divad]

If you can make more profit (after grading fess and shipping) by selling a book slabbed instead of raw, then it's worth grading. However, you must also factor in the opportunity cost of turnaround times. Another slightly less tangible but important consideration is the potential for increased liquidity by having a book certified.

 

Ah . . . the cost of money over time - we should all be so lucky

 

Hey, I got your book right here! Looks great!

[divad]

CPG recently changed they're multiple for a 9.4 CGC graded book from 2X to 5X. I only use their website to look at comic covers and so forth.

 

As far as the $250 value is concerned, it really depends on how much you want to insure your book for. For instance, I've sent in $300-$400 books to be CGC graded and only insured them for $250. CGC will grade them as economies, no questions asked. However, if the book is damaged during shipping, then your out $150. CGC will call you from time to time if for instance you submit an Incredible Hulk #181 copy as economy and it comes back a whopping 9.4. That's actually a good thing, since I'd be willing to pay the additional $20 or $30 to insure the book against damage.

 

Those are the calls that you WANT to get!

[arexcrooke]

Comicpriceguide.com's CGC graded values are ridiculously high. There is NO WAY that my Amazing Spidey #50, graded 2.5, is worth over $2000. Ridiculous.

I agree, i have an Avengers 1 4.5 that CGC says is worth around $11,000. If anyone wants to give me a tenth of that, they can have it.

[AlphaOmega]

As far as the $250 value is concerned, it really depends on how much you want to insure your book for. For instance, I've sent in $300-$400 books to be CGC graded and only insured them for $250. CGC will grade them as economies, no questions asked. However, if the book is damaged during shipping, then your out $150. CGC will call you from time to time if for instance you submit an Incredible Hulk #181 copy as economy and it comes back a whopping 9.4. That's actually a good thing, since I'd be willing to pay the additional $20 or $30 to insure the book against damage.

 

I'm assuming that you also pay the difference in the submission fees for the 'correct' tier? In the case of an Incredible Hulk #181 in 9.4 that would be from $29 to $79 (economy to express).

 

A few years ago, I submitted a couple of early Lois Lanes at the economy level. Guide value in NM was $140. I figured that if they were truely NM 9.4, even at double guide, I'd still be close to the $250 limit. They were graded as NM 9.4 and Harshen called to tell me that they would go for multiples of guide (~$400 if I recall) so I would have to pay the Standard tier rate. I was very happy with the grades and had no complaints with paying the extra money. I had only wished that I was positive on the grades beforehand as I had to wait 4 months to get the books back because they were submitted at the economy level.

[joe_collector]

I love hearing stories like that, as it essentially pokes a HUGE hole through CGC's "you pay more for faster service" argument, when it's really about them taking their cut of the eventual sale price.

 

Nothing wrong with that, but don't beat around the bush.

[skybolt]

I love hearing stories like that, as it essentially pokes a HUGE hole through CGC's "you pay more for faster service" argument, when it's really about them taking their cut of the eventual sale price.

 

Nothing wrong with that, but don't beat around the bush.

 

Yeah, I know what you mean.

 

I wish that when I sent my GSX-Men #1 via standard grading ($49) thinking it was an 8.0, they could have given me a call saying that the book is only a 6.0 (<$200 FMV), and that I was only being charged $15 for modern grading.

[casey1870]

Exactly...While I know nothing about CGC, but I find it disturbing that they can set the price by their standards.Why not set the price by Overstreet? I can see how they access FMV price now,but how did it work in the beginning. Also I think this would'nt be much a problem if their turnaround times were on par. as long as I've been on these forums I've heard complaints about this.It should be pretty obvious to them by now that they're understaffed,really. I guess brainpower is goin for $$$ High Dollar $$$ these days..

[Hobgoblin]

Comicspriceguide.com, I just noticed, has my ASM #50, CGC 2.5, valued at 50X the raw value.

[ComicSupply]

That site is a bit off wouldn't you say?

[Hobgoblin]

Comicspriceguide.com, I just noticed, has my ASM #50, CGC 2.5, valued at 50X the raw value.

 

COMICSPRICEGUIDE.COM LISTENS TO CGC FORUMITES?

 

I just checked my collection on comicspriceguide.com, and my CGC graded values have been decreased. The Amazing Spider-Man #50, graded 2.5, was valued by CPG at $2,500. Now, it gives me a value of $125. I'd say that's a little closer. Probably still high, but a lot closer than they were.