While CGC books consistently sell for more money than CBCS and PGX books, my frustration level with CGC is at an all-time high. I have had close to 10 slabs which were either damaged during encapsulation, had the wrong labels or damaged during shipping.
Positives and Negatives
CGC - highest selling price, reasonable turnaround time, good cases.
Negatives- Inconsistent grading and damage during encapsulation, higher price.
CBCS - toughest grader, verify signatures, cheaper than cgc.
Negatives, long turnaround times, flimsy cases, lower selling price.
PGX - lowest price, fastest turnaround.
Negative, bad reputation of over grading books.
I have used PGX once for pressing and grading and all books came back PGX 9.8 and super fast turnaround times. Great service.
I have never used PGX. But I have used both CBCS and CGC I would consider using PGX to preserve old comics I do not want to further deteriorate for the personal collection. Right now I am a cgc guy.
I use CGC because I’m a bit OCD and I like consistency in my display of books.
I am not opposed to CBCS but I think their turn around times are absurd. I’ve had one experience with them and wasn’t happy with the communication nor times. I had no issue with the overall product through.
I have not used PGX but am not opposed to them and sort of feel like they have gotten “bullied” a bit. I get that they had some issues…but so have the others. I feel like the market doesn’t want any competition.
Agree seems PGX never could overcome its past reputational risk issues. I has some old PGX books and I submitted them to CGC for the transfer service and they all came back the same grade. I think PGX grading of modern books is probably very consistent with CGC and CBCS.
while cgc had issues with newton rings and waviness and cbcs turnaround times can be over 6 months. people seem to be forgiving to CGC, as they remain king.
I’ve seen many questionable grades for CGC books. Some have had negative experiences with how they take care of the books when grading. They don’t wear gloves so fingerprints make there way onto covers.
The recent CGC grading video shows a guy not wearing gloves while he grades a Hulk #181. Somehow he arrives at a grade of 3.5 with an extreme accumulation of spine color-breaking ticks/creases and multiple chips and splits on the cover. There are many other minor issues with the book and things we can’t see. I would’ve thought it would be around a 2.5-3.0 considering the extensive amount of issues. If I’m a reseller, then I’m sending my books to CGC. If I’m a buyer, then I want to see the book in person.
Yeah, I was surprised by the gloveless handling as well, but he specifically mentions why their graders don’t wear gloves. It’s not just any guy - it’s their head grader - so this is worth watching.
I have multiple books from CGC that have oil streaks and newton rings that are book’s worth $1000s it’s really sad to see. The fact that CGC doesn’t acknowledge newton rings as a big Fn mistake and fix the problems they created for free means they don’t get my business even though I’ve got a stack of magazines that need grading. PGX is more of a stigma some comic Karen’s have I love them they do a good job I don’t think they overgrade personally I’ve had 260+ books graded by them. Lower grade SA books use to see a little better grade in PGX but CGC has relaxed their grading on mid and low grade SA and I would say they are the same now. Moderns have been getting extremely over graded at CGC in my opinion the last couple years like they don’t even look at the book and catch damage or create damage while slabbing it. One bad thing I can say about PGX I’ve received a crooked slabbed book or two which I’m sure they would fix for free if I complained and asked. CBCS I’ve never directly submitted to have quite a few CBCS slabs though. They are strict on grading but that’s a double edged sword so depending that could be good or bad. CBCS case is all right their labels are a little confusing. Why I use PGX the most is it’s cheap so when grading 100 books $12-$20 a book is so much better than $40-$500 per book. Technically I’m just buying plastic For preservation and someone’s opinion and don’t need to be swindled for $1000’s of dollars for percentage grading fees, I bought the raw books myself so I know what I have buy the book not the slab.
Also they let me express grade at PGX for an extra $5 a book which I actually use sometimes, doing that with Moderns elsewhere people paying upwards $100 a book for grading with express turnaround.
CBCS upgraded their case design to match the robustness of CGC. This was several months ago. All new submissions and reholders get the new case.
In fact, CBCS cases are now considered superior as they are clearer and they do not have the “Newton Ring” defect that most CGC cases have.
So if the comic is for the PC, I’d highly recommend CBCS. But if getting pressed go with an outside presser, although right now they have a promotion for 20% off pressing fees and guaranteed 12 week turn around time.
They know their case was more attractive than the others…but Now that CBCS has demonstrated Newton rings are not necessary in a case design…the pressure will be on CGC to address it. I think CBCS is in a good position to start making gains…unfortunately Covid set pack their TATs a bit just when they had caught back up on their backlog.
From the few that I have and the many that I have seen I actually think PGX grades well…Their past reputation hurts them though. CBCS is tougher with their grades but probably the most accurate especially in high grades. A 9.8 CBCS is far more likely to be an actual 9.8. CGC and PGX do over-grade 9.8 and 9.6 books on occasion. They do get it right many times though…I just think those two are more likely to over-grade than CBCS.
CGC is the gold standard. If you are going to sell right away go with CGC. You will more often than not get a higher return on your investment. CBCS and PGX will also offer you good returns if you bought your investment book low enough. If you sent the same books to each service and got the same grade nine times out of ten you will make more money with CGC.
If you are a stickler with grading and want your books graded precisely, go with CBCS. Their signature authentication is also an awesome option for all those old school, page one Stan Lee autographs out there…
If you just want your books certified and don’t care about maximizing a return because you will never sell…Go with PGX. I think their past is in the past. I’m not sure they will ever fully recover from some of the shenanigans when they first started out but I haven’t heard anything bad in a while. Price and turn around is good with them.
@D-Rog Thank you for that information. I may just try some with CBCS then again. Do you think that 12 week TAT means for the just the pressing part (and then another significant amount of time at the actual grading?)
