comicdiablo

As you can see from reading my eBay community post from over 5 years ago (see link below), my opinion of PGX vs. CGC has changed over time, consistent with my original post. The only thing I misremembered is that at one time, I had a number of Bronze Age comics from my collection graded with PGX that were graded in the range of 6.0 to 8.5 (e.g., BA Batman, Man-Thing), about which I disagreed on the grade to a considerable degree in at least one instance. In my original post above, I stated that all of the comics I had gotten graded by PGX were "estimated at 9.0 or higher." Please excuse me for not having perfect memory about that one detail from when I sold most of my comic collection at the time in 2005-2008 when I was in a doctoral program. https://community.ebay.com/t5/Comics/Does-PGX-Rating-Bring-Down-The-Value-Of-A-Comic/m-p/22693609/highlight/true#M18519 Also as stated in my original post, I had been periodically using PGX to get comics graded for around 13 years (2004-2017). One detail I left out though (which I mentioned above) was that when I was in a doctoral program in 2005-2008, I sold nearly my entire comic collection at the time to help finance graduate school, which is consistent with my previous CGC forum post introducing myself in April of this year (see link below). It was at that time that I got the most comics graded with PGX within a short period in large orders; back then, auction-style listings on eBay were more common and sold for higher on average than they do now compared to guide value, including in regard to PGX-graded comics. Over the past decade though, comic selling on eBay has been transformed into largely consisting of revolving 30-day Buy-It-Now items. Again, I apologize for not being able to provide before and after photos of my crossover comic grades this time, but if I do so again in the future, I will make sure to take before and after photos before making such a post here. https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/307260-welcome-to-the-boards-new-members-please-introduce-yourselves-here/page/82/?tab=comments#comment-10636000

I appreciate your comment, and you are right in the essence of your point: My experience is based only on one set of more modern comics being graded by CGC thus far. I am not a shop owner or big-time collector who very often gets comics graded; however, I can share more of my CGC grading experiences in the future as they occur. I will not be able to speak specifically to Silver Age books though because all of the SA comics I own are CGC-graded, but I do have many Bronze Age comics I could get graded in the future. As stated in my original post, I have read that PGX often has missed restoration on older comics, including restoration that CGC has detected when the comics were resubmitted to CGC. At the same time though, I have read of an instance where the same Journey into Mystery #83 was graded 6.0 unrestored, 7.0 restored, and then 6.0 unrestored again when it was submitted to CGC on three separate occasions (https://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/04/04/when-a-cgcd-comic-goes-from-unrestores-to-restored-and-back-again/), and others have shared similar experiences in this CGC thread from 2014 (https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/318506-cgc-issue-resolved/page/37/?tab=comments#comment-7372492). Thus, while I can accept that CGC is generally superior to PGX in detecting restoration, on some occasions CGC also has missed restoration.

I have not posted much on the CGC forums, but I often have read CGC forum posts over the years. One thing I disagreed about in the past is that when it comes to more modern comics, there was much of a difference in grading between PGX and CGC. Of course, I was aware of some more personal accusations against PGX, but frequent criticisms of PGX concerning their grading outcomes about which I was aware included: (1) PGX often would miss restoration on older comics that CGC would detect; (2) PGX was fairly accurate in grading comics 8.0 or higher but became less reliable in the mid-range of grading; and (3) PGX had a tendency to grade too much at the upper end of the high range (9.9 and 10). Given that these issues did not adversely affect the grading of the comics I was getting graded, and with not wanting to go through a CGC-affiliated shop/member to get comics graded, from around 2004-2019 I occasionally got some of my collection graded with PGX, for a total of a dozen orders over the years. The large majority of these comics were quite recent, having been printed within a decade or less before getting them graded, with none older than Bronze Age, and all of them estimated at 9.0 or higher. Also, I prided myself in being a conservative grader, with the Overstreet guidelines being what I followed most closely. In the context of all I said above, of the dozen orders I sent to PGX, the first 11 orders (from 2004-2017) were satisfactory in terms of grading, with comics often receiving the grade I had estimated and rarely being more than .2 from my personal estimate. Thus, for years I was overall satisfied with PGX grading and their shipping times/practices, although I disliked finding particles stuck in the cases a bit too often and disliked not having a good resale value for graded comics relative to CGC. Now cut to January of this year (2019), when I got my most recent (and last) order of comics graded with PGX: First, they were several weeks late on their shipping time than the estimate they provided (supposedly due to waiting on new cases to arrive), and when they finally got to grading my comics, they seemed rushed in grading. Second, there were particles stuck in the cases in about half of the order (approximately half of the 26 submitted), and to make matters worse, several of them contributed to obscuring the view of the encased comic. But third, and worst of all, their grading was often off in relation to my grading estimates; sure, their grading matched mine with some comics as it had in the past, but there were just far too many comics that were undergraded in relation to my comic grading. And that was the straw that broke the camel's back. It was bad enough that PGX-graded comics generally did not get nearly as much as CGC-graded comics at the same grade in terms of resale value, but now you (PGX) are going to send me a bunch of undergraded comics? After this happened, I was so irritated that I looked more into CBCS and CGC and realized that CGC actually was quite reasonable now in terms of its lowest level of membership open to individuals, and together with the crossover grading deal they were providing, I decided to become a CGC associate member and strictly use CGC for comic grading. I know some people don't like long posts, but I've tried to keep it short as possible; and hopefully you've made it this far. Having shared my retrospective on PGX and conversion to CGC, I now want to share three things below: the grades that I personally estimated for 6 comics, the grades that the same 6 comics received from PGX, and the grades that the same 6 comics were given by CGC this year. 1) Lady Mechanika: La Belle Dame Sans Merci #2 Metal Edition--personal estimate: 9.8; PGX grade: 9.8; CGC grade: 9.8 2) Alita: Battle Angel #1 (First American Alita appearance)--personal estimate: 9.6; PGX grade: 9.4; CGC grade: 9.6 3) Michael Turner's Soulfire v5 #2 Aspenstore.com Edition ("Boxing Day" variant)--personal estimate: 9.8; PGX grade 9.6; CGC grade: 9.8 4) The Tenth: Evil's Child #1 "Semi-Nude" Edition--personal estimate: 9.8; PGX grade: 9.6; CGC grade: 9.8 5) The Tenth: Evil's Child #1 "Nude" Edition--personal estimate: 9.6; PGX grade: 9.6; CGC grade: 9.4 (stated in grader notes "light indent full center of back cover") 6) The Tenth: Evil's Child #1 "Nude" Edition Wizard Authentic A.U. variant--personal estimate: 9.4; PGX grade: 9.2; CGC grade: 9.8 In the 1st case, my personal grading estimate, the grade received from PGX, and the grade received from CGC were all the same; however, I resubmitted this comic to CGC not because I disagreed with PGX's grade but because it annoyingly had particles stuck in the case that obscured the view of the comic. In the next three cases (#2-4), PGX undergraded the comic relative to my grading estimate, whereas CGC graded the comic the same as I had graded the comic. In the 5th case, PGX graded the comic the same as my estimate (but again annoyingly had particles stuck in the case obscuring the view of the comic), whereas CGC graded the comic slightly lower than my estimate, although CGC provided grader notes indicating why the comic received the grade it did ("light indent full center of back cover"), which I can understand given that I think different reasonable graders would penalize the comic somewhat differently for that particular flaw. In the 6th case, PGX undergraded the comic relative to my grading estimate (as with #2-4), whereas CGC graded the comic quite higher than my grading estimate, which I will admit shocked me (but hey, I didn't assign the grade). What I cannot argue with, however, is the following: I was dissatisfied with my most recent PGX order because it seemed rushed and resulted in too many particles stuck in the cases and (most importantly) because I felt they too often undergraded my comics, so I decided to stop using PGX and start using only CGC for comic grading; and in 4 of 6 cases thus far, the comic received the same grade from CGC as I had estimated (which in three cases was an improved, higher grade), with one comic grading higher than my grading estimate and one grading slightly lower. Not only was there was barely a blemish on any of the CGC cases, but in terms of potential resale value, this has been a definite win for me. Don't get me wrong; I do keep some of the comics I get graded for my personal collection. But whether I sell my comics sooner or later, my recent conversion to CGC has been positive.

Thanks! Sorry about changing some of the content of my original post after you quoted it, but there were a few parts I remembered I wanted to add!

I started collecting comics at age 12 in 1991 when a cousin gave me some 1970s Amazing Adventures and Defenders comics. I later came to enjoy 1970s Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel comics, which helped seal my love for Bronze Age comics. The first modern titles I purchased were G.I. Joe and Uncanny X-Men (during Jim Lee's run). In particular, I especially remember Uncanny X-Men #274, which introduced me to Jim Lee's art, and the hotness of jungle Rogue. When I was a young teen, I wrote a letter to the president of Wal-Mart, asking him to stop the practice of placing price stickers on comics. He sent me a letter and said that this practice would be halted, and it actually was. However, it's been some time now since Wal-Mart has sold comic books, so I of course began visiting comic shops frequently and eventually buying on eBay. I was quite dedicated to Image Comics during the early years of the company, especially Jim Lee's WildC.A.T.s as well as Cyberforce, Deathblow/Cybernary, Witchblade, and The Tenth. I named the letters pages for a few now-defunct Image titles (Hazard and Allegra). Around this time I also enjoyed titles such as Shi, Tomoe, Dawn, Darkchylde, Mosaic, and Harpy. For my high school senior trip, I attended the 1997 Wizard World Chicago Comicon, which due to just being sold to Wizard had one-fifth of the usual attendance and thus allowed me to meet Jim Lee, Tony Daniel, Billy Tucci, Randy Queen, and Dan Parsons, including getting something signed by each and having conversations with most. I even got a WildC.A.T.s comic signed by Jim Lee and then got back in line to shake his hand, which made him smile, all free of charge. Between 2005 and 2008, I sold nearly my entire comic collection on eBay to help finance grad school, including 25 long boxes of bagged and boarded comics. I've only been a Power Seller on eBay twice, but I still periodically buy and sell comics on eBay. During my time in Los Angeles as a postdoctoral researcher in 2013-2016, I was able to attend several comic book conventions (WonderCon multiple times, Long Beach Comic Con once), which was the first time since 1997, during which I again had conversations with Dan Parsons (cool guy) and met Karl Alstaetter, Ale Garza, Jonboy Meyers, Matt "Batt" Banning, and Jamie Tyndall (who told me he was moving to New Orleans soon, which I connected with due to being from Louisiana). As of now (2019), I have moved to the DFW area in Texas for work, and my renewed comic collection is much smaller than it used to be; but I tend to focus on key issues (mostly from the Bronze Age on up, though some Silver too), issues having sentimental value to me, and newer issues that I just enjoy for the story or artwork. I have not attended any additional comic book conventions since moving but plan to hit the ones in Dallas and New Orleans eventually (and perhaps the budding comic book convention in Lafayette, LA at the Cajundome).

The CGC Crossover Regrade option is a big part of the reason I decided to become a paid member for the first time as of today. I would like to use this option to get several of my PGX-graded comics regraded by CGC.