Lord Nikon

Holy moly - Today I learned that the slab number is the submission number plus the number of the book in its submission grouping - thanks!

Hi, just sent you a dm. I'm in Toronto and can help you out.

I missed the most obvious starting point - making sure the book is complete (and that staples and pages are attached and intact)!

Hi, I'm sorry for your and your family's loss. As @revat noted, eBay sold listings are one option for getting an idea of what people are paying. Since you have raw (ungraded) books, this might be the best place to start. Some good free online sources include gocollect.com (shows estimated fair market value for CGC and CBCS graded books), keycollectorcomics.com (provides value estimates for books of low, mid, and high-grade quality) and comicspriceguide.com (limited free access that gives prices for raw and graded books). You mentioned your knowledge is limited, so the info to follow is meant to increase your general understanding of factors determining a book's value (i.e. skip the next paragraph and bulleted list if you already know this). While the condition of each book will factor heavily into what each copy is worth, the price someone is willing to pay is another story. Over the past few years, it seems that the short term value of comics is heavily influenced by Marvel and DC film and tv shows (for example, demand increases for issues featuring an on-screen character's first appearance or other significant event). That said, the fundamental factors for a comic's objective collectibility (not just price value) are important so in addition to prices, I recommend looking up additional details for each book such as: Main/supporting character/team early apperances (1st and 2nd, sometimes 3rd and 4th) and origins. Artists who penciled/inked/wrote/edited the book. Is the book a direct or newsstand copy (direct editions from the late 1970s/early 1980s, and newsstand editions from the late 1980s onwards are generally sought after)? Is it a price variant (this indicates if a book was produced for a non-US market such as Canada, UK, Australia)? There are other factors influencing demand but these are the most common. Looking at your collection, you have a few books that sell in the hundreds of dollars and higher for high-grade certified (CGC/CBCS) copies. Some of those X-Men books will sell easily and the Marvel Special Edition #15 (Master of Kung Fu) and Iron Fist #14 could get you over $1000 each on the retail market if they were graded 9.8 by CGC or CBCS. Even mid-high grade copies of these books sell easily in the hundreds. My overall advice is that if you're looking to sell, do not rush to turn this lot into cash if you can afford to go through the process of researching each book. You have some solid key issues so get the most value out of them (i.e. don't sell to a comic shop or someone who will give you a couple of hundred for the lot - they're going to mark up each one and make a killing). Once you have an idea of what the books are worth in their current condition, work out if it's worth investing a bit of cash into getting the important books cleaned, pressed, and graded (CGC and CBCS are the market standards and are in most demand) - and signed if there's an opportunity through CGC's in-house signings - all to increase their value and fetch you a higher sale price. The last comment I'll make is more personal and meant with the highest respect. As a gift from your grandmother, this collection may be worth holding on to for maintaining a physical connection with her if this is important to you. Assuming she was a comic fan, it's also a wonderful opportunity for you to explore something she liked and to learn more about her and the kinds of things that captured her attention. The issues you have here are really great reads - some incredible stories particularly in the X-Men books. All the best in your journey, happy to answer any follow-up questions you have!

Am honestly surprised and disappointed that CGC doesn't have a "verified signature" option similar to CBCS.

The simple answer to your question is, it depends - if the third party decides to charge a service fee for submitting your books. Even if they don't add a service fee, the 3rd parties I've looked into for this purpose all pass the shipping fee to the customer. I don't have a huge collection, so I only submit my books for signature events or just the really special books, so I don't have a large and consistent volumet to send in and so I'm fairly sensitive to shipping fees. A 3rd party (e.g. my local comic shop), will usually wait to get a larger number of submissions together before sending to CGC. They will also send/receive the shipment on their courier account which usually ends up being a lower shipping cost per book. I'm in Canada so CGC only gives me the option of using their preferred international courier (FedEx) at a cost of USD$80 - obviously very costly if I'm submitting only one or two books at a time, so unless I decide to set up an account with a courier and use this to send/receive submissions, advantage goes to the 3rd party. Even with the shipping cost being potentially lower with the 3rd party, it adds to the amount of time to wait to get your book back if they wait to reach a minimum number of books for their shipment. So if you want quicker turnaround, go direct. That said, CGC's current turnaround times for regular grading submissions is pretty long (and estimated vs actual completion times is a topic for another thread - and let's not get started on the estimated vs actual time when you add CCS pressing services) so a couple of weeks more with the 3rd party may not matter to you. Another consideration for submitting via 3rd party is that the submission will not show up in your submission tracker under your CGC account. Your submission will be tied to the 3rd party's CGC account and so you'll need to go through them to get any updates on your book(s). Connected to this and as has been noted in another reply to your post, is that any issues you have with your submission (e.g. cracked case), you'll have to take up with the 3rd party. All to say that anything you need to handle with your submission could end up being a hassle if the 3rd party customer service is unsupportive of your situation. Personally, I prefer going direct to CGC as it keeps things simple - it allows me to track submissions, see the grading notes (when CGC decides to include them), and I have the ability to deal with CGC directly if anything goes pear shaped. Hope this helps!

But what about the floor? No big surprise re: no slab damage since the top slabs on the stack of 20ish would only have fallen a few inches and pulled the rest of the pile down on an angle (i.e. no direct downward impact), with most of the impact being on the edges of the slabs and then sliding to a rest on the floor. But oh what an opportunity to experiment! Recreate the fallen slabs scenario and then have the bookcase fall on them and report back.

While grade vs page quality is a personal preference (and upvoting @jokiing's comment on page quality with new vs old books), I think the intended purpose for getting the book is important. If I was going to get it for my personal collection, I'd go for the one that looks better, with my rationale being that because the slab is sealed, the page quality can't be observed. Related to this, if the flaws are ones that could be easily pressed out, I'd go for the cheaper one and hope to take advantage of any in-house signing events where I could send it in and also get it pressed - with hopes of getting a grade bump in addition to the signature. If I was buying to resell, I'd work out which one would be in higher demand and consider the cost of the book - figure out how much profit I could make with either the 8.0 or 8.5 and then buy the one with the better sale potential.