CGC grades vs you know who posted by Brian Hartman

[bagofleas]

Heck, I've seen plenty of times where a comic with the old label sells for less than a copy with the new label based purely on the cosmetics.

 

This means if you find a 9.8 WP with the old label, and it's an issue you KNOW you would want to crack for sigs and regrading, you can usually get it cheaper and save money on the overall cost by paying less for the old labeled copy, plus you will be making that comic feel so much better by wearing the newest fashion in CGC clothing!

 

[Garlanda]

Yeah, there's nothing like a good old down home PGX bashing!!

 

 

I think it's funny how many other grading services have come and gone, yet so many posters on these boards lament that CGC is "the only game in town" and has no competition, etc. Maybe there's a reason?

 

I have a few books (bought already encapsulated on feeBay) that are 3PG (3rd Party Grading) that look like two flat panels of acrylic held together with caps like you'd find on a poster frame. I can't even find anything about them on Google or Wikipedia... but they did have the courtesy of printing grader's notes on the back of the label! Looks like these guys didn't last long, a reference on another chat forum suggests they might have folded in 2005.

 

here's an example from mycomicshop.com

 

I also have a few CGG slabs (precursor to PGX) that are totally inconsistent. I have one that is actually kind of floppy, and I'm beginning to wonder if it isn't just the inner well that's been partially cracked out... I'll check that possibility tonight. I'm also perplexed that CGG/PGX books have serial numbers but no census or verification to check it.

 

PGX/CGG and Terrance Leder

 

Just based on this posting, and the visual evidence presented, I recommend selling or resubmitting your PGX/CGG books, especially if they have any value whatsoever. I have a Jimmy Olsen 134 and Detective 363 both in CGG/PGX 8.5 that make me nervous. My only consolation is that I find it unlikely they would grade less than 9.0 if they were trimmed/color touched.

[Garlanda]

I always liked that the old labels had the traditional grading codes... NM, VF-, GD+, etc. I think it helped people remember that an 8.0 is still a pretty good book. 8.0 translates into firm Very Fine, which is probably how most of us would've described most of our comics 15 years ago, when Near Mint was as good as you could expect to find anywhere and before we got categories for 10, 9.9, 9.8, 9.6, 9.4, 9.2, 9.0, and 8.5 that are all better than "Very Fine." I call this grade inflation. Once you know there is such a thing, you want it.

[slym2none]

Does anyone have any of the ACE encapsulated books?

 

I kinda hope not, for your sakes, but I kinda do too...

 

The one thing about ACE was it was known that a dealer was grading and encapsulating his own books. Nothing like being up front about a possible conflict of interest, eh?

 

::

 

 

 

-slym

[Garlanda]

Red Label Appreciation Society thread...

Show off your Red Labels

 

Which also reminded me that CGC used to consider the Modern Age 1975 and up.

 

[Garlanda]

Does anyone have any of the ACE encapsulated books?

 

I kinda hope not, for your sakes, but I kinda do too...

 

The one thing about ACE was it was known that a dealer was grading and encapsulating his own books. Nothing like being up front about a possible conflict of interest, eh?

 

::

 

 

 

-slym

 

Remarkable, I had never heard of ACE until now.

Accurate Comic Evaluators

 

I also forgot to mention the Comic Book Grading Company, whose wares I have only ever seen on the mycomicshop auctions and may never see again...

Comic Book Grading Company

[Garlanda]

I also just found HALO Certification, for those Down Under...

HALO

[bagofleas]

Garlanda, just in case you didn't know, you can verify CGC books. Just go to the Submit Now tab at the top of your CGC registry page and one of the options is "Verify CGC certification".

 

And if you go to www.Cgccomics.com and log in, you go to the Census tab there and type in titles in the fields on the left to check for census population on any given comic.

 

About the only thing CGC can't tell you is who signed a particular issue or how many sigs are on issues.

 

For example, you may see that there are 15 signed 9.8s of an issue out there, but how many were signed only once or twice or more, and by who is not given. There's no way they can keep up with all of that since they never started by doing it in the first place.

 

 

[Garlanda]

Garlanda, just in case you didn't know, you can verify CGC books. Just go to the Submit Now tab at the top of your CGC registry page and one of the options is "Verify CGC certification".

 

And if you go to www.Cgccomics.com and log in, you go to the Census tab there and type in titles in the fields on the left to check for census population on any given comic.

 

About the only thing CGC can't tell you is who signed a particular issue or how many sigs are on issues.

 

For example, you may see that there are 15 signed 9.8s of an issue out there, but how many were signed only once or twice or more, and by who is not given. There's no way they can keep up with all of that since they never started by doing it in the first place.

 

 

To clarify, I meant CGG/PGX books. The CGC-CGG acronyms can get muddled. CGC has an excellent verification tool, census, and registry while PGX has none of those.

 

PGX has a "census" tab that has said "coming soon" or "under construction" for years. I wonder why they even put serial numbers on them.

[Garlanda]

This may be new, but if you look up a Sig Series book by serial number it shows the label notes, which say who signed it! I wonder why this info isn't linked to the registry...

 

Text of one of my Fables Sig Series verifications...

 

Certification #:

 

1060965001

 

 

Title:

 

Fables

 

 

Issue:

 

6

 

 

 

Issue Date:

 

12/02

 

 

 

Issue Year:

 

2002

 

 

 

Publisher:

 

D.C./Vertigo Comics

 

 

 

Grade:

 

9.6

 

 

 

Page Quality:

 

WHITE

 

 

 

Label Text:

 

SIGNED BY STEVE LEIALOHA, MARK BUCKINGHAM & BILL WILLINGHAM ON 7/22/11

 

 

 

Grade Date:

 

09/13/2011

 

 

 

Category:

 

Signature

 

 

 

Art Comments:

 

Bill Willingham story

Mark Buckingham & Steve Leialoha art

James Jean cover

 

[Bomber-Bob]

There are other reasons to crack as well, such as old labels being upgraded to new ones but you get the point.

 

 

Tell me more about upgrading old labels to new ones. Is there any benefit to this, other than visual consistency? I have several of the old labels, including the old red modern labels.

 

Keep them in the old labels. Lots of us prefer the old labels = tighter grading, less likely to have been pressed = more valuable. You hardly ever see a red label anymore. I would not crack just to get a new label. Silly.

[meshuggah]

This may be new, but if you look up a Sig Series book by serial number it shows the label notes, which say who signed it! I wonder why this info isn't linked to the registry...

 

Text of one of my Fables Sig Series verifications...

 

Certification #:

 

1060965001

 

 

Title:

 

Fables

 

 

Issue:

 

6

 

 

 

Issue Date:

 

12/02

 

 

 

Issue Year:

 

2002

 

 

 

Publisher:

 

D.C./Vertigo Comics

 

 

 

Grade:

 

9.6

 

 

 

Page Quality:

 

WHITE

 

 

 

Label Text:

 

SIGNED BY STEVE LEIALOHA, MARK BUCKINGHAM & BILL WILLINGHAM ON 7/22/11

 

 

 

Grade Date:

 

09/13/2011

 

 

 

Category:

 

Signature

 

 

 

Art Comments:

 

Bill Willingham story

Mark Buckingham & Steve Leialoha art

James Jean cover

 

The way the census is displayed now would not work so well with listing the sigs. Maybe if you click on the number for a specific grade as a hyperlink it could take you to the numerous graders notes with those listings. But that seems like it would be a pain for the programmers. But I don't have any experience so I could be wrong.

[Garlanda]

Maybe not for the census, but it should work in the registry. We already populate that by individual serial number, same as the verification. If I navigate to this same book in my registry set and click the serial number, it does not show me those label notes.

[SW3D]

Totally agree. I have some old labels and I will not touch them. As many here believe and stated, more than likely, these old labels signify a non-pressed/unrestored comic. I rather preserve the "purity" of these old label comics and the one's I have are vintage in high grade ranging from 9.4 - 9.8. Why would I even consider tampering with them? I'm happy with those grades.

 

SW3D

 

[surfer99]

See what happens when I don't check the registry for a few days? I missed this whole conversation! For what it's worth, I agree with bagofleas on all points concerning pressing and reslabbing.

 

 

[Brandon Shepherd]

Heck, I've seen plenty of times where a comic with the old label sells for less than a copy with the new label based purely on the cosmetics.

 

This means if you find a 9.8 WP with the old label, and it's an issue you KNOW you would want to crack for sigs and regrading, you can usually get it cheaper and save money on the overall cost by paying less for the old labeled copy, plus you will be making that comic feel so much better by wearing the newest fashion in CGC clothing!

 

 

One of my prized books, Action Comics #417 (as seen in my signature) needs a new label. There is a big crack at the bottom, I was going to ignore this but now that I have had the book in possession for awhile, I've decided I'm ready to send it for a new label. It will look better with my other books in a new label, my only concern about this is the inner well dimple that has been appearing as of late, some books have them, some don't. With my #417 being one of my trophies, I don't know if I should wait awhile or just go for it.

 

I also think about the ever shrinking population of the old style labels, with re submissions and re-holders. I don't mind the old labels in person but they do not photograph well. If the holder ain't broke, I ain't gonna' fix it, but every old label I get comes to me with many scuffs, marks and cracks.

 

The OCD side of me also wants my books to look consistent, new CGC clothing and all.

[gino2paulus2]

Heck, I've seen plenty of times where a comic with the old label sells for less than a copy with the new label based purely on the cosmetics.

 

This means if you find a 9.8 WP with the old label, and it's an issue you KNOW you would want to crack for sigs and regrading, you can usually get it cheaper and save money on the overall cost by paying less for the old labeled copy, plus you will be making that comic feel so much better by wearing the newest fashion in CGC clothing!

 

 

One of my prized books, Action Comics #417 (as seen in my signature) needs a new label. There is a big crack at the bottom, I was going to ignore this but now that I have had the book in possession for awhile, I've decided I'm ready to send it for a new label. It will look better with my other books in a new label, my only concern about this is the inner well dimple that has been appearing as of late, some books have them, some don't. With my #417 being one of my trophies, I don't know if I should wait awhile or just go for it.

 

I also think about the ever shrinking population of the old style labels, with re submissions and re-holders. I don't mind the old labels in person but they do not photograph well. If the holder ain't broke, I ain't gonna' fix it, but every old label I get comes to me with many scuffs, marks and cracks.

 

The OCD side of me also wants my books to look consistent, new CGC clothing and all.

 

I agree with you my OCD begs me to replace the old label!! I have only ever done it once and it was with the Flash Comics #7 that's in my sigline...the old label slab had a small crack in it as well that helped me justify my compulsion for uniformity but I am quite pleased as the new label also had much needed info about the books importance added to the notes as well

[Garlanda]

Totally agree. I have some old labels and I will not touch them. As many here believe and stated, more than likely, these old labels signify a non-pressed/unrestored comic. I rather preserve the "purity" of these old label comics and the one's I have are vintage in high grade ranging from 9.4 - 9.8. Why would I even consider tampering with them? I'm happy with those grades.

 

SW3D

 

I just got curious about the "grade date" that you can see on the verification screen, and ran the numbers of my old label slabs (I keep a spreadsheet of my CGCs so it's pretty easy to copy/paste in there). Bearing in mind that the first few numbers are the invoice number, typically the lower the number the older the slab. My oldest is unfortunately one of my least liked slabs, an 8.0 Watchmen #1 that I bought a long time ago. The grade date? 12/22/2000. I kind of like having a slab from CGC's first year, and I would hate for this artifact to be lost just to get a bigger number. I have several that may find their way in for a reholder, but I think I'll hang on to these oldest ones. If nothing else, they may be able to prove something about CGC's archival value. CGC was founded in January 2000, but I don't know when they actually first started slabbing submissions.

 

Almost 13 years slabbed... can anybody beat that?

[Garlanda]

Hmm, just broke my own record with Miracleman 12 in 9.6 = slabbed since 9/28/2001.

[Garlanda]

Holy Mackerel! I just discovered that I have accidentally acquired two books that are sequential. Weird.

 

0018900009 - Sandman 9

0018900010 - Watchmen 1