There are several ways to convey my grading standards,  and I have decided not to go into a detailed description of each flaw commonly found on a comic and how that affects the grade or an oversimplified statement that you may commonly see (“I grade strictly to Overstreet standards.”) which is widely used and very commonly misapplied.

Rather I will give you some statistics, based on over 30 years of collecting and over 400 books I have submitted to CGC, which will illustrate the level of accuracy of my grading.

Before doing that though, it is necessary, for those who are new to the hobby,  to understand who CGC is.  CGC (Comics Guaranty Corporation) is a company which was formed largely to help legitimize the hobby and provide a uniform and consistant standard of grading.  They are by far the most widely accepted comics grading company in the world and have set the standard for grading comic books. When you see a comic graded and encapsulated by CGC, there is very little debate about the grade assigned to the book.  Critical to the grading process, CGC graded books are encapsulated in a tamper evident case after an impartial grading process. For this reason, high grade books certified by CGC, almost always sell for multiples of price guide values.  You can click on the link at the bottom of the page to view the CGC web site.

As I mentioned, I have sent over 400 comics to CGC for grading, and prior to having them graded, I graded them myself,  so that I could compare the grades CGC assigned them with mine.  What follows is an overall breakdown of the statistics:

Books which CGC graded 1 ½ grades higher:              2

Books which CGC graded 1 grade higher:                  17

Books which CGC graded ½ grade higher:                103

Books which CGC graded the same:                        165

Books which CGC graded ½ grade lower:                 108

Books which CGC graded 1 grade lower:                   23

Books which CGC graded 1 ½ grades lower:               5

I prefer to interpret these statistics in the following manner.  Books purchased from this web site have an 89% chance of receiving a grade from CGC within a half grade of the grade I have assigned.  Better yet, they have a 68% chance of receiving a grade equal to or greater than the grade I have assigned!

For those who say, “Egad! You actually missed by a grade and a half 7 times?!!”  Let me add this to the mix.  I have opened twelve graded, encapsulated books and resubmitted them to CGC because, frankly, I just didn’t agree with the grade. One was graded lower from a 9.2 to a 9.0, 9 received ½ a grade higher, and 2 received a full grade higher!  So I think that illustrates the subjective nature of grading- CGC is human too, and even the best in the business, on occasion, can have a varying opinion.

I would encourage everyone, even when buying a CGC graded book, to make sure it meets your individual standard of grading, and carefully review a large scan of a book you are about to buy.  There are many characteristics such as date stamps, centering, and cover overwrap which CGC does not take into consideration, but which has widely varying levels of acceptance for each collector. As a collector, it is ultimately you who needs to be satisfied with the grade.