How to Grade a Comic Book
A “grade” is probably just what you think it is. When you were a kid, you received grades on your paper where the teacher determined how good your paper actually was. Well, the grade here implicates how good your comic book is. Imperfections will lower the score. An A or Mint is considered very good. An F or Poor is considered to be bad. Things taken into consideration are things like torn pages or bent corners. A large crease in a page will lower the grade. Any form of fading or discolored pages will hurt the grade of the comic book.
There are a couple of types of grading. You could grade your comic book by yourself. Several people to do the grading for themselves for lesser valued comic books. However, higher valued comic books are often graded by a company known as the CGC.
So who is the CGC? Well, this is basically a company that specializes in grading. The comic book industry often holds their grades in high esteem. They will tell you what they consider the grade to be for you so that other potential buyers are aware. They will also take your comic, put it in a sleeve and seal it for you.
Why would you ever care about using the CGC? It is a fact that if you look at comic book selling online, the CGC graded comic books sell for more. The reason is because they have less concern that they are receiving an item that should technically be graded lower than what is listed in the auction or listing. With an outside opinion of the grading, most buyers know what the product should look like upon receiving it. Thanks to the way business is done online, this was needed.
So why would I not get every comic book graded? It is pretty simple, money. If you have a comic book that you know is not worth much, it does not make sense to spend extra money on it to have it be graded low. While you might make some of your money back, a low valued comic book will rarely ever sell for more than what it is worth, even if the CGC placed a grade on it.
You should always be careful when putting a grade on it yourself. Never just look at the outside cover and make a determination that way. Each page will make a difference to the buyer. Use the following 8 grades to determine where your comic book should land: Mint, Near Mint, Very Fine, Fine, Very Good, Good, Fair, or Poor.
The grade, unless it is the CGC is always going to be a subjective kind of thing. Mint is meant to be the best comic book possible. Technically, only a few should attain this ranking, however, you will see people that grade their comic book at this level that shouldn’t. Regardless, you should value your reputation in this industry by giving the most realistic grade possible. There are a lot of buyers in the industry, but many know each other well. If they feel as though they got the raw end of a deal, they will let others know not to do business with you in the future.
