Comic Book Grading Drama! Scams, Lawsuits and Damaged Comics!

#cgc #comics #comicmarket #mcu
Comic book grading has been full of drama this last year. Let's go over everything that has happened as well as the most recent lawsuit that may have impacts on PSA.
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[@Swagglehaus]

See! This is why you shouldn't grade...only buy raw! 😉

[@AutomaticComics]

💯

[@The9.9Newsstand]

Hahaha I see what you did there!

[@MetalBum]

Would you buy an amazing fantasy 15 in a raw. The seller claims it’s a 3.5 and you think it’s 2.0? And then when you buy it you find out later the cover was trimmed? And that it’s a 2.5 in reality. But you paid a 3.5 price because you just trusted the seller?

[@CoMoComicBooks]

@@MetalBumWHO would this ever happen to??? 👀😬🙋🏻‍♂️

[@Supertomscustoms]

@@MetalBumno different than all the times people have bought CGC graded books, gotten them regraded only for them to drop a grade. Sure, they’re slightly more reliable than the average dealer. But far from 100% accurate. Imagine paying 60x for a 9.9 only for a corner to get dinged in the case. Thats a much bigger price drop than a 1 point drop on AF15.

[@brute_nm]

For New Years Eve, you should distill this into a slow-mo black & white compilation with Sarah McLachlan "I Will Remember You" 😂

[@The9.9Newsstand]

Lollll

[@fiddlechips8555]

If you buy expensive comics online, they have to be graded. I crack all my slabs. I enjoy my in thick mylar. Sorry but if it’s over $500, it has to be graded. I got burned in the late 90’s with restored books. It’s not that fault of the grading companies that the grade became more important than the book. Buyers dictate the market.

[@lmn222002]

CGC is toast, and CBCS is hurt by losing people. Overall, I think grading is losing its value. Raw values have been going higher than graded recently.

[@robotzvsfolks1559]

I love CBCS's new label. Books look very nice in them. I actually doubled my subs to them since they did. The books are for my personal collection though not resell. And i still use CGC as well, i just send more than i usually do to CBCS now since the label change, so to each their own.

[@Bar-Lord]

I actually do the same. I don’t flip/deal, so all of my books are PC. I prefer their label as well as their slab to CGC’s.

[@tensixtythreecomics]

I’m holding off on sending in over 200 books to see what the sales report of psa and bendgate. Looking forward to hearing your updates

[@Thynqikan]

that cgc 9.9 GSXM #1 is a 9.9 by label only. There is a video by Improve Collecting where he compares a 9.6 to images he took of the 9.9 and the 9.9 is worse in all aspects. Proof that CGC is doing the 9.9's to gain business in my opinion.

[@wonderworldcomics2020]

Don’t forget it seems all the gift grades are going to mr pinks auction house, so that’s weird too

[@DocReasonable]

I really don't know what it'll take for people to stop using CGC.

[@skytripa]

Will take the people selling graded to get the courage to do so. It don't matter what issues pop up with CGC they keep using them. If the market is flooded with 1 company thats what people see and want.

[@Supertomscustoms]

It’s taken 20 years to get where we are. In another 20 years, when every gold/silver/bronze/ key has been slabbed, I predict whatever shops are left will have “dollar” bins of slabbed modern books. Thats when people will stop using them.

[@codyspencer3491]

Totally agree. Out of all the drama this year, banana gate is the worst. Literally damaging books and killing the resale value with a very noticeable dent center spine. This is still happening right now, it has not been fixed.

[@nidaldeeb5663]

Always informative and well-researched. Pleasure, Ryan. But dude, add some variety to the pictures in the thumbnail. Maybe a Winter Soldier tee and a red Spidey hat? Take a ton of vacation-location pics and cycle them through.

[@300baud]

I think sub-grades are niche but might be preferred for some books. Imagine a book with a front cover grade of 9.8 but a back cover grade of 8.5 because of a stain. A seller could use the sub-grade as a selling point of a book that has an overall grade of 8.5 and point to the cover 9.8 grade and go "look how nicely it presents, the front cover is a perfect 9.8."

[@jabezcreed]

The irony of the latest drama is that PSA might have been poaching talent and trade secrets from CBCS. Wouldn't they have tried to poach from CGC? Haha

[@johnmoran6418]

Ryan...you doing a heritage wrap up vid?

[@BrooksSeanRobinson]

60x the price for a .1 bump in a subjective grade is absurd.

[@AutomaticComics]

I don’t disagree.

[@timdanner2596]

And I was just saying to myself an hour ago, "Why hasn't Ryan posted a video yet on the CBCS lawsuit."

[@AutomaticComics]

I was on vacation =).

[@illuzion30]

@2:48: The old CBCS label was my fave. It wasn't gaudy like CGC's. I'm generally still all-in on PSA for cards for personal collection consistency. When I first started grading cards, they had those $7-8/card bulk specials and I also liked that they were less bulky than BGS.

[@danielsantini4580]

The price of the cgc should be once not every transaction. Stop passing the buck it’s turning into overpriced book. Buy raw.if it’s a first appearance, slab it.

[@MJComix]

Been a crazy year for sure. Hope we get some normality back soon.

[@FierceRabbit11]

Hi Ryan, thank you for this overview... terrific! Makes me want to sit my non-comic collecting friends down and orient them to the whole sitch (with far too much excitement on my part). My 2 centavos on sub-grading, after watching this video & the Swag interview with Paul Logan this morning: it is often said that grading is more art than science. Perhaps the proprietary "algorithm" they mention, crunching the sub-grades in the background, gets you the same result regardless of the grader (I believe from their website that CBCS uses 3 independent graders per book currently to achieve consistency). I do agree with the sentiment that sub-grades by themselves probably wouldn't catch on. In my view, they're not unimportant but my attention would wane after seeing the final score/overall grade. Maybe what makes sub-grades (and of course a proprietary algorithm) important is an improvement in consistency. And consistency - recent 9.9s anyone? is the bedrock of grading. It's a long game move where public trust is built on... well, science.

[@BigMoneyGripMCV]

comic subgrades can be fine. You could go way overboard so just keep it at 4 grades: Front cover 9.6, back cover 9.8, pages (meaning interior pages) 9.8, spine 9.0. Or something like that.

[@rgi_comics]

Morning Ryan, are you planning to do a review of the latest Heritage auction? I’ve been looking forward to that one. Wanted to get your opinion on the varying prices of the EC Gaines file copies.

[@jamisonlm3]

More competition is great and all, but it'll amount to a hill of beans if everyone keeps choosing cgc. It seems, for better or for worse, the comic community has chosen cgc.

[@timhall5382]

Dave has lost his mind. He sounds like a crazy person.

[@starchad1969]

Why can't we have a grading company that does not slab the books. Place the book in a mylar then in a toploader an then place a tamperpoof holgraphic seal over the top that would have to be broken if comic is ever removed. It would be cheaper and faster to do so it would not hurt the overall value of the book if it is removed. This would help the online buyer be more trusting of the grade, but eliminate these crazy expensive sealed slabs.😮

[@thecomickeeper5127]

I like this idea . It should def be done!

[@AutomaticComics]

This does exist already. CBCS provides this option. It’s called a “Raw Grade” on their site.

[@Supertomscustoms]

A while back I remember seeing someone who tried to open an online marketplace that exclusively sold CBCS raw graded books. Sadly it never took off. People are now accustomed to buying numbers and plastic. Not books.

[@ronaldbourgeois1255]

Heard fantastic four #1 9.6 cgc at auction went for $2,040,000.00.

[@DanThrue]

I had a few books back from CGC that has this banana situation, I was pretty disappointed when I got them back, not about the grades but the visual appearance, my first comment was that the presser didn't seem to have worked on them (he had).. Even if they would accept them back for mechanicals, it's so expensive when we do this from Europe. By the way, any updates on the break-even-collection or what name it has now - the collection you bought with bigby.

[@bandoogiemanz]

I use cgc, i have a submission at them as we speak. However, I'm under no illusions, cgc, these auction houses, etc, are engaging in a plethora of dubious and questionable business practices. I mean I don't see how you can come to any other conclusion.

[@The9.9Newsstand]

What a yeeeaaaarrr it’s been!! Great Video! Thank you 🙏🏼 !!

[@Vexer-rl9fq]

Is it just me or does that PSA label on comics look like a REALLY old CGC red label?

[@mattolsen397]

Subgrades just seem like an algorithm for calculating a grade. Can’t see how they win a lawsuit about a system and algorithm that hasn’t even really been launched yet. You showed another subgrade system. It just seems like a waste of time and money on their part. Maybe Beckett are just so mad they are losing to PSA on cards that they don’t want to surrender this market to them as well. I feel like the lawsuit must stem from the larger corporate competition more than this non-issue.

[@karlb10024]

Ryan, why aren't you starting a consulting service? you could make a fortune!

[@timhammell394]

Yeah, I just read my comics without all this yotz.

[@ronaldbourgeois1255]

Sending in a golden age Canadian Captain America #67 to cgc do think it’ll be ok no bending.

[@tonyzane4945]

Good point re sub grades and sellers...