NYCC -Ground Zero!!

No, this journal is not about a certain class action lawsuit being taken by CGC corporation against another third party grading company, which by the way, I am in complete disagreement with and very disappointed about, but won't go into details on it here for fear of deletion (do it CGC, I dare you!). But, I still love all you hard working CGC guys and gals at the convention booth and behind the scenes with grading and encapsulating, shipping, receiving, quality control....yada yada yada.

No, this journal is about something else, which had set its roots about 18 months ago, when there started to be a serious uptick in the number of people getting their books signed by creators for the purposes of grading and (usually) flipping for profit.

I understand that this has gone on for as long as CGC has been in business, but as of 18 months ago, the amount of this that was taking place began skyrocketing and hasn't stopped since. It has become more and more difficult to get things done at a show due to massive book volume from dealers looking for quick turnarounds for profit.

Baltimore this year was a good example of this. CGC onsite-graded so many books on just the first day, that by the time the show was over, they had done SDCC type numbers! They ran out of materials for crying out loud!

There have been a few creators in the past who have been averse to signing books when they know it's for CGC (Barry Windsor Smith for example), but NYCC this year is becoming ground zero now for what would appear to be the start of a new era in signing for graded books.

Image comics has released a statement about what will be permitted when getting your books signed by the creators at their normal times at their tables. They will only allow for non-grading books! If you want your book signed for grading, then you MUST go directly through the grading company! And even if you have non-grading books, they will only allow up to 5 books per person!

Some of the big names affected by this are Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld. I understand that this is at least partly due to the long lines that are generated by an enormous show like NYCC, in order to make it so everyone has a chance to get sigs, but I believe this is also to divert those who would, for example, bring 30 copies of New Mutants 98, hoping for a big payday. But this could also be the beginning of a very slippery slope.

Almost 15 years into third-party grading, there is no question that it has transformed our hobby, but I think we are seeing the start of a negative effect from it. If this continues and grows from here, I think we will eventually start seeing two things:

1) SS books will start rising in cost, due to the added expense of having to go through the grading companies.

2) Fewer books overall will be done, again due to the added expense of having to go through the grading companies.

Ironically enough, while CGC likes having people go through them to get sigs, because it helps with volume flow at a show and makes people deal directly with them, I think this is ultimately a bad thing for them. At first, it will help them, but if all or most creators eventually start doing this, it will mean even more of a swamping at the CGC booth, since everyone will have to go through them to get these sigs.

High-volume dealers and flippers have become a wedge, and Image comics has struck the first blow on the wedge between the collectors who want to collect their books a certain way and the creators, who are beginning to tire of feeling like they are being taken advantage of, for someone else's profit.

It's beginning to look like the days of walking up to a creator and quickly getting a signature for your graded book are numbered. The horizon looks blurry, like a desert with no end in sight, and the sun seemingly getting hotter and hotter. Beware of mirages that would fool you into thinking things will go back to normal.

Things may never be normal again........

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