Comic Guaranty LLC
Encyclopedia
Comics Guaranty LLC, also known as CGC, is a Sarasota, Florida
comic book
grading service. CGC is an independent member of the Certified Collectibles Group of companies. It is the first independent and impartial third party grading
service for comic books. The company was launched in early 2000 and has since gone on to become a notable yet controversial part of the comic book collecting community. CGC's current President, Mark Haspel (as of July 2008), is also the company's primary grader.
In addition to the numeric grade, CGC also uses color-coded labels to categorize comics:
After grading, the comics are placed in an inner well - a sealed sleeve of Barex, a highly gas-impermeable plastic polymer. Then, the comics are sonically sealed in a hard plastic, tamper-evident holder. This process is often referred to in comics jargon "slabbing". A label is affixed at the top indicating the title, date, grade, page quality, and any notes, such as notable creators. Books which would be damaged by encapsulation are returned without this process. Examples of this include books with cover overhang (i.e., the cover protrudes beyond the interior book), some European variants, and Museum Editions of modern comics. In such cases, the grading fees are refunded and the book is returned ungraded. Although ashcans
are graded, CGC will not grade certain black-and-white
books (e.g., Eerie
#1) as these books may easily be counterfeit
ed.
Prior to advent of CGC grading and authentication services, collectors, buyers, and sellers were at the mercy of the marketplace. There was a clear possibility of a conflict of interest as a seller would benefit from exaggeration of the condition to inflate the value and thus increase profits. Likewise a buyer could dispute the condition of a book with the intention of purchasing at a lower price.
Restored books are another matter of debate as it can be considered misleading and an attempt to ruse a potential buyer of a comic not to disclose any restoration efforts. Authenticity of a signed book is another issue that can arise in comics collecting. A signed book has the potential to valued more than the exact same book in equal condition. CGC's primary service is to provide a reliable, consistent, and non-partial comic books grading and authentication. Which can greatly mitigate all these challenges and pitfalls that inherent with comic book collecting.
. In 2010, 2 copies sold on the comic book auction website comicconnect.com for record prices. One copy was CGC graded 8.0 and sold for $1 million USD . The second book at a later auction, a copy CGC graded at 8.5 sold for a record setting $1.5 million dollars, the most ever paid for a comic book. So with CGC's ability to provide a grading service as a neutral third party from a transaction, this created a degree of impartiality that did not exist before.
Counterfeit
comics pose a problem as someone could be paying a high price for something that is essentially worthless. There are known counterfeit copies of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles # 1, Cry For Dawn # 1, Eerie # 1, and Detective Comics # 497 (foil variant). A part of CGC's service is to identify the authenticity of a comic. One of the first steps CGC takes upon receipt of a book is a pre-grader makes determinations if a book has been restored. Generally an original book will be of more value than a restored book, however this is hotly debated along with the definition of restoration. CGC labels a comic book it has identified as restored with a purple label. Another grade that CGC implemented in 2008 is a NG or no-grade label, that identifies a comic missing cover or an authentic piece/page of a comic that has been authenticated.
Authentication is part of the grading process to determine if a submitted book is genuine and not counterfeit. This is another valuable service as a good counterfeit can be hard to detect even by a trained eye.
offers their customers a refund if a comic book which they evaluated as "Near Mint" is given a lower grade by CGC. For its part, Comics Guaranty LLC has never released their grading standards and have no intention to ever release them. In 2001, when the Comics Buyer's Guide
changed its "Price Index" column to add Overstreet's grading definitions to CGC's grades, CGC requested that this change be reversed, stating that Overstreet's definitions were not necessarily the same as its own. When asked by the Comics Buyer's Guide to clarify its definitions, CGC declined. However, in July 2003, CGC announced that it had decided to fully adopt Overstreet's grading standards. In October of that year, CGC President Steve Eichenbaum stated that although the company had adopted the Overstreet standards, CGC's standards remained unchanged. Eichenbaum cited the 2002 publication of the 2nd edition of The Official Overstreet Comic Book Grading Guide – with input from CGC's graders – as the reason for the July announcement, stating that "there is now little difference between Overstreet and CGC."In reporting on the subject, Comics Buyer's Guide reporter Nathan Melby asked, "Who adopted whose standards?" According to Mile High Comics owner Chuck Rozanski
, prior to the publication of the new grading guide, Overstreet was negotiating a "middle ground" between the standards established in their 1992 guide and the stricter CGC standards. Rozanski questioned the wisdom of changing Overstreet's standards – which could greatly lower the value of several collections – in order to achieve a "political solution" with CGC.
In September 2003, CGC changed the labels it puts on graded comics, removing most descriptive terms used by Overstreet ("near mint", "fair", etc.), instead using just CGC's own numeric grading scale. On CGC's message board, the company's then-President Steve Borock explained that this change was made so that the numeric grade would be larger and easier to see. He added that the descriptive terms which were removed are becoming obsolete, and amazingly, some people saw the "minus" sign as a "negative". Overstreet now uses both the numeric point grade and the alpha descriptive grade in their annual price guide and their official grading guide.
After the discovery of a micro-trimmed issue of Fantastic Four
#3 which CGC did not detect, other undetected restorations were found and CGC posted an official announcement, banning the restorer, Jason Ewert, from doing business with CGC. Borock said " Over a month ago, when this situation first came to light, CGC began an extensive review process of all books in-house. Furthermore, Jason Ewert has been banned from submitting. He is only the second person CGC has banned. Anyone knowingly submitting books on his behalf will also be banned. CGC also announced on their message board that they would recheck any and all Ewert books for free.
CGC offers several memberships, but you do NOT have to be a member of anything CGC to submit comic books to them. They also offer a 10% discount on their website, and you do NOT need to sign up for anything to get the discount. You can also send your own books directly to CGC, you do not need a middleman or authorized dealer to do this.
The Guaranty in the name CGC guarantees that what they encapsulate is an authentic comic book, looked at by 3 graders (who grade the comic book to the best of their abilities), the book will be checked for restoration and the book will be encapsulated - first in an inner well, then sealed in a tamper-evident holder. Note: this is the service that is advertised. Some collectors feel that the word "Guaranty" in the name CGC implies more than the service as stated. The grade is NOT guaranteed.
CGC does not reveal their grading standards. However, CGC does consult with Overstreet for their Grading Guides, and most, if not all, of the Senior Graders at CGC are Overstreet Advisors, including Steve Borock (President of CGC), Mark Haspel (Vice-President of CGC), Paul Litch (Modern Age Specialist), among others. At one point Steve Borock announced that CGC was going to fully adopt Overstreet standards [1], but then 3 weeks later backpedaled from that assertion [2].
CGC used to put some grading notes on the label, but hasn't done this since 2001, when dealers asked for the notes to be removed from the label. Grading notes are available if you call CGC's customer service line (1-877-NM-COMIC) during regular working hours (weekdays 9AM-5PM), not available on evenings or weekends.
CGC does not put the traditional alphabetical grade on the label anymore, the alphabetic descriptive grade (near mint, very good, etc.) was dropped when they revised their labels in 2004 to emphasize the numeric grade and make it clearly readable from a distance - a beneficial took for those buying and selling graded books. Some argue that this was a way for CGC to "brand" their service, while CGC argued that the numeric grade is easier to explain and understand and that four years of the company's presence in the marketplace had shifted the emphasis away from the alpha descriptive to the numeric point scale. Nevertheless, this was a controversial move to seen by some as a calculated break from Overstreet. Overstreet now lists both the numeric point grade and the alpha descriptive grade in their annual price guide and their official grading guide.
Heritage Auction's Jim Halperin owns stock in CGC. This has been confirmed by Halperin himself on the CGC message board.
CGC is not as responsive and open as they might/should be on their message boards. Example: response from CGC on the identification of books trimmed by Jason Ewert that made it through the grading process without being identified by CGC as restored. (More info here: [4]) CGC improved their checking standards re: trimming and has offered "free grading reviews of all CGC graded books submitted by Jason Ewert during the suspect time period" but it's only posted on one thread on the CGC Boards. No mention of this on their website or the comic trade publications.
CGC does not put the date the book was graded on the label. However, this can be obtained from CGC directly. You can call them at 1-877-NMCOMIC to find out this information during regular working hours (weekdays 9AM-5PM), not available on evenings or weekends.
CGC will put "From the collection of" on the label if there is an arguable reason for it, or if you submit a monetary minimum (confirmed by Steve Borock, but the minimum amount of money is unknown at this time). Such as when the book comes from a collection assembled by a well known comic book creator like Stan Lee or Don Rosa or a celebrity such as Nicholas Cage. However, this is defined as a provenance, not a pedigree. Some collectors feel that this is misleading other collectors into thinking these are pedigrees as the only way you tell the difference is where this info is located on the label. Any person can receive the "From the collection of" notation if a minimum amount of books are submitted (see Dallas Stephens and the Mile High II collection).
CGC does not put both grades (the apparent grade and the actual grade) on Qualified books.
Collectors have identified "slab damage to the comic in transit in the mail" (aka "SCS" - Shaken Comic Syndrome) as a valid problem. The comic is not always snug inside the inner well, and can move when jostled - leaving bends, folds, indentations, and on some occasions - tears on the corners. CGC has stated that they have made some revisions to improve this problem.
CGC charges books by tier - tiers are determined by something called "Fair Market Value" and these prices are based upon the insurance value that the collectors themselves originally place on the comics when submitted to CGC and GPAnalysis information. The more valuable the book, the higher the grading cost and the faster the turnaround time as CGC does not want to hold onto books worth thousands of dollars for long periods of time. However, on occasion, the comic may be bumped by CGC graders to a higher tier if they feel that the book was not properly insured (placed in the correct Grading Tier) to reflect the value of the comic in the marketplace. CGC does not state how they determine the Fair Market Value of these books when they are bumped - however graders do have access to sales data and sites where comics are sold and sites where sales figures are tracked. For example, there is a single website that tracks sales of slabbed comics, GPAnalysis. The Overstreet Price Guide does not catalogue prices of slabbed books, and this is the reason the guide's top grade is now 9.2 - books that grade 9.4 and higher mostly sell for a price higher than the Guide's reported 9.2 price. Overstreet had a short-lived publication called Overstreet's Comic Price Review that tracked sales on slabbed comics, but it is no longer published.
CGC recommends you get your books re-slabbed every 7 years because the microchamber paper (a small sheet of paper that is inserted between the inside covers and the interior of the comic to protect the comic from any paper off-gassing) becomes inert. This inert paper will not hurt your book at all, so the "myth of 7" is more a business move to try to get people to resub their books than anything.
After the Ewert scandal, CGC curtailed the usability of their CGC serial number search on their website. The serial number search was used to identify other books submitted by Jason Ewert, and several other trimmed books came to light which wouldn't have if the search engine was then like it is now. People have questioned CGC's motivation for this hindering change.
Pressing, that is, using heat and pressure to smooth out wrinkles, is one the most controversial topics in comic book collecting. Some collectors feel that such changes should be called restoration. CGC's president, Steve Borock, has expressed a different view. Interviewed for the Iron Slab website column Borock said, "Who cares? Really, when you get down to it, dealers and smart hobbyists have been doing it for years and years." He added, "The biggest complainers are the guys who don't want the collectors to have a level playing field. Taking a bend or fold that does not break color out of a comic book is not a bad thing. It is not like you are adding glue and/or color touch, using something artificial, to bring paper closer back to look like its original state. You are bringing it back closer to its original state. I and many of the top collectors and dealers have never seen a problem with this." In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Borock offered the analogy, "When you're buying a used car, do you say to the guy, 'Hey, did you wash this?' " Critics say that this policy encourages sellers to press comics without disclosing it to buyers.
Also, if it meets CGC's approval, reassembly of a comic might not be counted as restoration. In one case, a book which had previously received a low grade was given a much higher rating after two loose center pages were reattached.
Golden Age comics are graded on a curve, receiving more lenient grades than newer comics. Books prior to 1950 may have some small amount of restoration but still be in a Blue label.
Sarasota, Florida
Sarasota is a city located in Sarasota County on the southwestern coast of the U.S. state of Florida. It is south of the Tampa Bay Area and north of Fort Myers...
comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
grading service. CGC is an independent member of the Certified Collectibles Group of companies. It is the first independent and impartial third party grading
Third Party Grading
Third Party Grading is a term used to refer to coin grading, authentication, and encapsulation companies. Often abbreviated TPG, these companies will, for a fee, "slab" a coin. Some companies offer a guarantee covering the grade or authenticity of the coin.-History:As of 2008, there were four...
service for comic books. The company was launched in early 2000 and has since gone on to become a notable yet controversial part of the comic book collecting community. CGC's current President, Mark Haspel (as of July 2008), is also the company's primary grader.
Process
Comic books are sent to CGC for grading and encapsulation either directly by the owner through CGC's website or through an authorized dealer. People sending in comics themselves can get a 10% discount from CGC by using the "Internet Partners" links on their submission page. Comics may also be submitted to the company from an individual who signs up for one of their two membership options, associate or premium, and pays an annual membership fee. A person does NOT need to be a member of anything CGC-related to send books in, nor do you need a comic dealer middleman to submit books. The company also accepts submissions in person by sending representatives to several comic book conventions. Upon receipt, the comics are inspected by 1 pre-grader for obvious defects (missing pages, etc) and are then graded by 3 graders in a temperature- and humidity-controlled environment.. The grades are not averaged together, the Head Grader determines the final grade. So for example, if 2 graders rated a book at 7.0 and the Head Grader decided it was a 7.5, the book is a 7.5. The graders look for damage and signs of restoration. The comic books are then graded on a scale from 0.5 to 10. These numbers correspond with more traditional descriptive grades such as "very fine", "near mint", and "mint", with the higher numbers indicating a better grade.http://www.cgccomics.com/grading/grading.aspIn addition to the numeric grade, CGC also uses color-coded labels to categorize comics:
| Label | Description |
| Universal (blue) | a standard comic book |
| Universal (blue) No Grade (NG) | a comic book that is in such bad shape that CGC will not give it a grade, only verify that it is an actual original comic book. CGC will slab pages of a comic book in this manner. |
| Restored (purple) | a book that has evidence of restoration, either amateur (A) or professional (P), combined with the descriptors slight (S), moderate (M), or extensive (E) |
| Qualified (green) | a book with a significant defect that needs specific description or one with an unauthenticated signature For example, an otherwise "near mint" condition book with a 4-inch back cover tear would be given a Qualified grade of "9.0, back cover 4-inch tear." |
| Signature Series (yellow) | a book signed by someone of significance to the comic, as witnessed by an employee of CGC, and the signature certified as authentic. |
| Signature Series Restored (yellow/purple) | a book with a signature that has been authenticated, and is showing evidence of restoration |
| Modern (red) | No longer in use, originally used to distinguish modern comics Modern Age of Comic Books The Modern Age of Comic Books is an informal name for the period in the history of mainstream American comic books generally considered to last from the mid-1980s until present day... *CGC will accept receipt of previously "RED" labeled books to be encapsulated in a new container and labeled with a blue label at the same grade. |
| Wizard First (red and white) | No longer in use, originally used by CGC/Wizard Magazine as a new type of slabbed collectible. Only 3 grades were given to comics submitted by Wizard directly to CGC: 9.0, 9.5, and 10.0. This is the only time CGC has ever used the grade "9.5". |
After grading, the comics are placed in an inner well - a sealed sleeve of Barex, a highly gas-impermeable plastic polymer. Then, the comics are sonically sealed in a hard plastic, tamper-evident holder. This process is often referred to in comics jargon "slabbing". A label is affixed at the top indicating the title, date, grade, page quality, and any notes, such as notable creators. Books which would be damaged by encapsulation are returned without this process. Examples of this include books with cover overhang (i.e., the cover protrudes beyond the interior book), some European variants, and Museum Editions of modern comics. In such cases, the grading fees are refunded and the book is returned ungraded. Although ashcans
Ashcan copy
An ashcan copy is a term that originated in the Golden Age of Comic Books, meant to describe a publication produced solely for legal purposes , and not normally intended for distribution.-Origins:...
are graded, CGC will not grade certain black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
books (e.g., Eerie
Eerie
Eerie was an American magazine of horror comics introduced in 1966 by Warren Publishing. Like Mad, it was a black-and-white newsstand publication in a magazine format and thus did not require the approval or seal of the Comics Code Authority. Each issue's stories were introduced by the host...
#1) as these books may easily be counterfeit
Counterfeit
To counterfeit means to illegally imitate something. Counterfeit products are often produced with the intent to take advantage of the superior value of the imitated product...
ed.
Purpose of grading services
Restored books are another matter of debate as it can be considered misleading and an attempt to ruse a potential buyer of a comic not to disclose any restoration efforts. Authenticity of a signed book is another issue that can arise in comics collecting. A signed book has the potential to valued more than the exact same book in equal condition. CGC's primary service is to provide a reliable, consistent, and non-partial comic books grading and authentication. Which can greatly mitigate all these challenges and pitfalls that inherent with comic book collecting.
Grading
Condition is a significant factor in the valuation of a comic book. An example is Action Comics #1, the first published appearance of SupermanSuperman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
. In 2010, 2 copies sold on the comic book auction website comicconnect.com for record prices. One copy was CGC graded 8.0 and sold for $1 million USD . The second book at a later auction, a copy CGC graded at 8.5 sold for a record setting $1.5 million dollars, the most ever paid for a comic book. So with CGC's ability to provide a grading service as a neutral third party from a transaction, this created a degree of impartiality that did not exist before.
Identifying Restoration and Counterfeits
Similar as with other collectible markets such as classic cars, restoration and even counterfeiting can at times be a problem.Counterfeit
Counterfeit
To counterfeit means to illegally imitate something. Counterfeit products are often produced with the intent to take advantage of the superior value of the imitated product...
comics pose a problem as someone could be paying a high price for something that is essentially worthless. There are known counterfeit copies of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles # 1, Cry For Dawn # 1, Eerie # 1, and Detective Comics # 497 (foil variant). A part of CGC's service is to identify the authenticity of a comic. One of the first steps CGC takes upon receipt of a book is a pre-grader makes determinations if a book has been restored. Generally an original book will be of more value than a restored book, however this is hotly debated along with the definition of restoration. CGC labels a comic book it has identified as restored with a purple label. Another grade that CGC implemented in 2008 is a NG or no-grade label, that identifies a comic missing cover or an authentic piece/page of a comic that has been authenticated.
Authentication is part of the grading process to determine if a submitted book is genuine and not counterfeit. This is another valuable service as a good counterfeit can be hard to detect even by a trained eye.
Criticism
For highly-valued comics, a higher grade can result in a price difference of thousands of dollars. Similarly, a comic book marked by CGC with the purple "Restored" label (known by collectors as the "purple label of death") can suffer a significant price reduction. As a result, CGC's actions are highly scrutinized by collectors. There has been controversy regarding CGC's policies on conservation, restoration, and trimming, as well as concerns about its impartiality.Grading
Not all experts agree with CGC's grades. The comic book store chain Mile High ComicsMile High Comics
Mile High Comics is an online retailer and a chain of 4 Colorado comic book stores founded by Chuck Rozanski in 1969 from his parents' basement in Colorado Springs, Colorado....
offers their customers a refund if a comic book which they evaluated as "Near Mint" is given a lower grade by CGC. For its part, Comics Guaranty LLC has never released their grading standards and have no intention to ever release them. In 2001, when the Comics Buyer's Guide
Comics Buyer's Guide
Comics Buyer's Guide , established in 1971, is the longest-running English-language periodical reporting on the American comic book industry...
changed its "Price Index" column to add Overstreet's grading definitions to CGC's grades, CGC requested that this change be reversed, stating that Overstreet's definitions were not necessarily the same as its own. When asked by the Comics Buyer's Guide to clarify its definitions, CGC declined. However, in July 2003, CGC announced that it had decided to fully adopt Overstreet's grading standards. In October of that year, CGC President Steve Eichenbaum stated that although the company had adopted the Overstreet standards, CGC's standards remained unchanged. Eichenbaum cited the 2002 publication of the 2nd edition of The Official Overstreet Comic Book Grading Guide – with input from CGC's graders – as the reason for the July announcement, stating that "there is now little difference between Overstreet and CGC."In reporting on the subject, Comics Buyer's Guide reporter Nathan Melby asked, "Who adopted whose standards?" According to Mile High Comics owner Chuck Rozanski
Chuck Rozanski
Charles Rozanski is a German-American retailer and columnist, known as the President and CEO of the Denver, Colorado-based Mile High Comics Inc., and a columnist for the Comics Buyer's Guide.-Early life:...
, prior to the publication of the new grading guide, Overstreet was negotiating a "middle ground" between the standards established in their 1992 guide and the stricter CGC standards. Rozanski questioned the wisdom of changing Overstreet's standards – which could greatly lower the value of several collections – in order to achieve a "political solution" with CGC.
In September 2003, CGC changed the labels it puts on graded comics, removing most descriptive terms used by Overstreet ("near mint", "fair", etc.), instead using just CGC's own numeric grading scale. On CGC's message board, the company's then-President Steve Borock explained that this change was made so that the numeric grade would be larger and easier to see. He added that the descriptive terms which were removed are becoming obsolete, and amazingly, some people saw the "minus" sign as a "negative". Overstreet now uses both the numeric point grade and the alpha descriptive grade in their annual price guide and their official grading guide.
After the discovery of a micro-trimmed issue of Fantastic Four
Fantastic Four
The Fantastic Four is a fictional superhero team appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The group debuted in The Fantastic Four #1 , which helped to usher in a new level of realism in the medium...
#3 which CGC did not detect, other undetected restorations were found and CGC posted an official announcement, banning the restorer, Jason Ewert, from doing business with CGC. Borock said " Over a month ago, when this situation first came to light, CGC began an extensive review process of all books in-house. Furthermore, Jason Ewert has been banned from submitting. He is only the second person CGC has banned. Anyone knowingly submitting books on his behalf will also be banned. CGC also announced on their message board that they would recheck any and all Ewert books for free.
CGC offers several memberships, but you do NOT have to be a member of anything CGC to submit comic books to them. They also offer a 10% discount on their website, and you do NOT need to sign up for anything to get the discount. You can also send your own books directly to CGC, you do not need a middleman or authorized dealer to do this.
The Guaranty in the name CGC guarantees that what they encapsulate is an authentic comic book, looked at by 3 graders (who grade the comic book to the best of their abilities), the book will be checked for restoration and the book will be encapsulated - first in an inner well, then sealed in a tamper-evident holder. Note: this is the service that is advertised. Some collectors feel that the word "Guaranty" in the name CGC implies more than the service as stated. The grade is NOT guaranteed.
CGC does not reveal their grading standards. However, CGC does consult with Overstreet for their Grading Guides, and most, if not all, of the Senior Graders at CGC are Overstreet Advisors, including Steve Borock (President of CGC), Mark Haspel (Vice-President of CGC), Paul Litch (Modern Age Specialist), among others. At one point Steve Borock announced that CGC was going to fully adopt Overstreet standards [1], but then 3 weeks later backpedaled from that assertion [2].
CGC used to put some grading notes on the label, but hasn't done this since 2001, when dealers asked for the notes to be removed from the label. Grading notes are available if you call CGC's customer service line (1-877-NM-COMIC) during regular working hours (weekdays 9AM-5PM), not available on evenings or weekends.
CGC does not put the traditional alphabetical grade on the label anymore, the alphabetic descriptive grade (near mint, very good, etc.) was dropped when they revised their labels in 2004 to emphasize the numeric grade and make it clearly readable from a distance - a beneficial took for those buying and selling graded books. Some argue that this was a way for CGC to "brand" their service, while CGC argued that the numeric grade is easier to explain and understand and that four years of the company's presence in the marketplace had shifted the emphasis away from the alpha descriptive to the numeric point scale. Nevertheless, this was a controversial move to seen by some as a calculated break from Overstreet. Overstreet now lists both the numeric point grade and the alpha descriptive grade in their annual price guide and their official grading guide.
Heritage Auction's Jim Halperin owns stock in CGC. This has been confirmed by Halperin himself on the CGC message board.
CGC is not as responsive and open as they might/should be on their message boards. Example: response from CGC on the identification of books trimmed by Jason Ewert that made it through the grading process without being identified by CGC as restored. (More info here: [4]) CGC improved their checking standards re: trimming and has offered "free grading reviews of all CGC graded books submitted by Jason Ewert during the suspect time period" but it's only posted on one thread on the CGC Boards. No mention of this on their website or the comic trade publications.
CGC does not put the date the book was graded on the label. However, this can be obtained from CGC directly. You can call them at 1-877-NMCOMIC to find out this information during regular working hours (weekdays 9AM-5PM), not available on evenings or weekends.
CGC will put "From the collection of" on the label if there is an arguable reason for it, or if you submit a monetary minimum (confirmed by Steve Borock, but the minimum amount of money is unknown at this time). Such as when the book comes from a collection assembled by a well known comic book creator like Stan Lee or Don Rosa or a celebrity such as Nicholas Cage. However, this is defined as a provenance, not a pedigree. Some collectors feel that this is misleading other collectors into thinking these are pedigrees as the only way you tell the difference is where this info is located on the label. Any person can receive the "From the collection of" notation if a minimum amount of books are submitted (see Dallas Stephens and the Mile High II collection).
CGC does not put both grades (the apparent grade and the actual grade) on Qualified books.
Collectors have identified "slab damage to the comic in transit in the mail" (aka "SCS" - Shaken Comic Syndrome) as a valid problem. The comic is not always snug inside the inner well, and can move when jostled - leaving bends, folds, indentations, and on some occasions - tears on the corners. CGC has stated that they have made some revisions to improve this problem.
CGC charges books by tier - tiers are determined by something called "Fair Market Value" and these prices are based upon the insurance value that the collectors themselves originally place on the comics when submitted to CGC and GPAnalysis information. The more valuable the book, the higher the grading cost and the faster the turnaround time as CGC does not want to hold onto books worth thousands of dollars for long periods of time. However, on occasion, the comic may be bumped by CGC graders to a higher tier if they feel that the book was not properly insured (placed in the correct Grading Tier) to reflect the value of the comic in the marketplace. CGC does not state how they determine the Fair Market Value of these books when they are bumped - however graders do have access to sales data and sites where comics are sold and sites where sales figures are tracked. For example, there is a single website that tracks sales of slabbed comics, GPAnalysis. The Overstreet Price Guide does not catalogue prices of slabbed books, and this is the reason the guide's top grade is now 9.2 - books that grade 9.4 and higher mostly sell for a price higher than the Guide's reported 9.2 price. Overstreet had a short-lived publication called Overstreet's Comic Price Review that tracked sales on slabbed comics, but it is no longer published.
CGC recommends you get your books re-slabbed every 7 years because the microchamber paper (a small sheet of paper that is inserted between the inside covers and the interior of the comic to protect the comic from any paper off-gassing) becomes inert. This inert paper will not hurt your book at all, so the "myth of 7" is more a business move to try to get people to resub their books than anything.
After the Ewert scandal, CGC curtailed the usability of their CGC serial number search on their website. The serial number search was used to identify other books submitted by Jason Ewert, and several other trimmed books came to light which wouldn't have if the search engine was then like it is now. People have questioned CGC's motivation for this hindering change.
Restoration
In the collectors' market, unadulterated original works are considered more valuable than repaired works. However, there is disagreement among comic book collectors on the definition of restoration. Some collectors feel that any work done to improve the quality of a book should be defined as restoration. CGC defines it as "treatment that returns the comic book to a known or assumed state through the addition of non-original material for aesthetic enhancement". CGC does not consider the following to be restoration and comics with these conditions may receive their blue Universal label: tape removal, dry cleaning (i.e., erasing pencil writing or surface grime with an eraser or other object), tucking loose wraps back under a staple, disassemble and reassembly of a comic, certain staple replacement, and pressing.Pressing, that is, using heat and pressure to smooth out wrinkles, is one the most controversial topics in comic book collecting. Some collectors feel that such changes should be called restoration. CGC's president, Steve Borock, has expressed a different view. Interviewed for the Iron Slab website column Borock said, "Who cares? Really, when you get down to it, dealers and smart hobbyists have been doing it for years and years." He added, "The biggest complainers are the guys who don't want the collectors to have a level playing field. Taking a bend or fold that does not break color out of a comic book is not a bad thing. It is not like you are adding glue and/or color touch, using something artificial, to bring paper closer back to look like its original state. You are bringing it back closer to its original state. I and many of the top collectors and dealers have never seen a problem with this." In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Borock offered the analogy, "When you're buying a used car, do you say to the guy, 'Hey, did you wash this?' " Critics say that this policy encourages sellers to press comics without disclosing it to buyers.
Also, if it meets CGC's approval, reassembly of a comic might not be counted as restoration. In one case, a book which had previously received a low grade was given a much higher rating after two loose center pages were reattached.
Impartiality
Various concerns have been raised regarding CGC's impartiality and independence from other companies. In October 2005, CGC's parent company, the Certified Collectibles Group, announced the launch of a new separate company called Paper Conservation Service (PCS) with CGC's main restoration expert Chris Friesen as its President. The company's stated purpose was to "perform conservation to prolong the life of a comic book". PCS defined conservation to include deacidification, structural repair, reinforcement, pressing, and dry cleaning. The announcement also differentiated between conservation and restoration, saying that the company would not perform services which it defined as restoration. PCS also planned to offer consulting services regarding comic book conservation. However, the Certified Collectibles Group announced PCS's dissolution in April 2006, two months after the company's planned incorporation. Steven Eichenbaum, CEO of the Certified Collectibles Group cited the perceived conflict of interest between CGC and PCS as the reason for the decision. One concern was that comics with restoration could be "unrestored" to the point where they would receive the blue Universal label and could then be sold as if the comic had never been restored. Steve Borock confirmed this possibility in an interview and also on CGC's chat board. Another issue is that Jim Halperin, co-chairman of collectibles auctioneer Heritage Auction, owns stock in CGC. This has led to accusations of Heritage Auction giving preferential treatment to auction items graded by CGC. Although the stock ownership has been confirmed by both Halperin and Steve Borock, they deny any favoritism.Golden Age comics are graded on a curve, receiving more lenient grades than newer comics. Books prior to 1950 may have some small amount of restoration but still be in a Blue label.