Question: When you all buy Slabbed Comics, how much attention do you pay to the condition of the comic that is slabbed? Does it matter what it looks like if it already has a grade? Are all 9.4s the same??
How much more are you willing to pay for a better looking comic within the same grade?
You are gonna get different answers from people on here for that question. I personally don’t look any further the the assigned grade if it’s from CGC or CBCS.
Someone said it here, buy the book not the slab.
Buy the book. Look it over as much as you can, as the grading company is giving you nothing more than an opinion of what they think the grade is. They are human and make errors.
Good to know, thanks for all the responses!!
That’s what I preach myself.
I buy the book, not the slab.
But, isn’t the beauty of slabbing a book to eliminate the subjective opinions? If it’s deemed a 9.8, whether you agree or not, it is wholeheartedly a 9.8. You are for sure buying that number. And if your 9.4 looks better than my 9.8, it no longer matters. It’s a 9.8. That’s just how this current system works.
I don’t know if I buy into the “buy the book, not the slab” mentality. Once it’s slabbed, you are absolutely buying that number. Buy the book when it’s raw. Buy the number when it’s slabbed.
A slabbed book is nothing more than a subjective opinion. There is no industry set standards for how to grade a book, or what determines any given grade. It’s literally all subjective.
If you are to take that approach, you are handicapping yourself in some regards. If you buy a book simply for the subjective grade attached to the label, then you may miss spotting possible pressable defects where the book could be cracked, pressed and resubmitted. I understand there is a risk there too.
You could be leaving money on the table. A 9.4 Star Wars 42 will fetch you a lot less than a Star Wars 9.6, as an example. A personal example. 
To get the number, it’s an opinion. Or, well, the average of three opinions. I’m sure they do have standards and rules, but there definitely is a range with each grade. But once it’s graded, it no longer matters. A 9.8 is a 9.8. If I have a 9.8 for sale, I sell it for the going 9.8 price. Nobody says “that 9.8 is really a 9.4, so I’m only paying you 40%.” Subjectivity is removed from the equation.
On Ebay its difficult to see the intricate details of slabbed books, so going with the cgc grade just seems easier? I guess it comes down to money. Is it worth dropping $100 more on a different book when I’m working with imperfect information?
That is an assumption. If you had a terrible looking 9.8, I know a lot of collectors who will pass on buying that book, myself included. You are then diminishing your potential client pool. Understanding that if a book is desirable enough, no matter what it looks like behind that arbitrary label, it will most likely sell at asking price (these days, it seems).
You also should pay attention to this graders notes if possible. There are things like rusted staples, poor cover cuts, etc. A book may be gorgeous, but have a single rusted staple that is bringing the grade down. On a pricey book… something like that can be the kiss of death to hardcore collectors.
So you may be “buying the book…not the grade”… but there could be issues you are unaware of simply be looking at the face value appearance.
Certainly, doesn’t really matter I guess if you just want the book for your personal collection…but if buying with the investment mindset, you had best know why the book received the grade it did.
I bought a pre-slabbed 9.8 Spider-Gwen 24 that looked pretty terrible. I still made money on it but took multiple up close photos and sold it for 20% under going prices just to move it, and to ensure buyer would be happy. Seriously, compared it to the 9.8 I sent in myself to be graded and mine was a flawless victory 11 compared to that one.
Sometimes a book still meets the criteria for a grade but isn’t as aesthetically pleasing. Other times people really kill it with a press and bump a book up, and then reversion happens while inside the slab 6 months later.
Books can also bounce around inside a slab, and sometimes skuffs on the slab itself can make a book look worse.
There are so many variables, so you really need to find your own balance.
Personally, if it’s for the PC I will check the book but for the most part I’ll assume the grade is correct, but for selling, the higher the grade, the lower my buy in, the higher my sale, the better.
Different goals, different relevant factors.
100% agree with @Joe on this. Im talking strictly 9.8’s here. If im selling a graded 9.8 I sell it at the market price. If you are picky about how you want your 9.8 slabs you can message me for more photos if you want. I don’t deal a lot with lower grade slabs but when I do I put up way more detailed pictures than I do on a 9.8.
And honestly if you ask for more pictures on a CGC 9.8 I probably will tell you I don’t want to sell to you because you are going to find some small thing you disagree with on the grade and want to do a return.
Unless of course you are asking about the quality of the case itself which I could understand.
I have seen CGC 9.8s with a whole corner of the book missing. Also I have seen 9.8 with the wrong book inside (not a secret variant but labelled as such).
I don’t think Zero and I agree, and that is just fine. If you are afraid to send more pictures because someone will find some small thing you disagree with on the grade, that is a perfect example of why a 9.8 may not really be a 9.8 grade, but just a number and you should therefore be buying the condition of the book. If a specific number gets you a sale, grats for you.
If the grading companies spent just as much time scrutinizing grades 0.5 through 8.5 as they do 9.0 and up, they might actually be able to validate the “small” things that slide through, making that number a more reasonable grade.
Always matters. Unless all you care about is a label.
Always inspect the case to for suspect tampering. Especially the older slabs as they aren’t as secure/tamper proof as the newer ones. Or the slab may have been dropped at one point.
Also comics can get damaged during the encapsulation process. Giant Size X-men is notorious for getting damaged when placed in a cgc slab.
Oh, and if shops have a slab up on a wall for years the case is not capable of protecting the comic against UV light…and will fade.
A book in a slab is capable of deterioration in the same way a raw book is in a lot of ways.
I disagree it’s called Overstreets Grading Definitions. It’s just to strict for the grading companies to use. As well grading should be the same regardless of a comics age.
Cgc graders are just dudes that are busy at work. I’ve sent in many many books that had issues and received 9.8s. I’ve sent in 9.8s that got 9.6. I sent in a book with a hole in the centerfold that got a 9.8 telling me that they didn’t even bother to crack it open. That said people go nuts over that number. I’ve sold 9.8 slabs to people that wanted to return the book because they didn’t agree with the assigned grade and took the book back. I agreed with them.