Comic Books: To Grade or Not To Grade? How to decide

Professional geic book grading and preservation has been around for less than a decade, but since being introduced in early 2000, it has revolutionized the way collectors buy, sell and protect their geic books.
In circumstances where the condition of a geic book is an important aspect of a transaction, there is very little room for differences of opinion. What one collector considers a minor, insignificant flaw, another collector may consider a serious defect (Of course, ones opinion tends to vary, depending on if youre on the buying or selling end of a transaction). To eliminate this dilemma, many geic book collectors rely on third party, professional grading.
By using predefined, established standards, a third party grading gepany can remove much of the subjectivity out of evaluating a geic books physical condition, and provide collectors with an unbiased, impartially graded collectable. And as an added bonus of the grading process, geic books submitted for grading are protected and preserved in a tamper-proof, clear case (also referred to as slabbing).
Clearly, professional grading is a valuable and necessary geponent of todays geic book collecting market. But is grading always the best option for collectors?
The purpose of this guide is to help you decide if professional grading is the best option for the geic books in your collection.
Professionally Graded geic Books and okay
Theres no question that professionally graded geic books have surged in popularity as a direct result of okay sales and other transactions where a buyer is unable to personally examine a book before gemitting to a purchase.
There are currently two gepanies that provide professional grading and slabbing services:

geics Guaranty, LLC (CGC) www.cgcgeics.ge
Professional Grading eXperts, LLC (PGX) www.pgxgeics.ge
Both gepanies offer similar services. Both gepanies also appear to use similar standards in grading. However, as evident from the thousands of graded geic book listings that can be found on okay, currently, a preference within the geic book gemunity tends to favor CGC. At any given time, okay users are likely to find more listings, higher bids, and more successful listings for CGC graded booksas opposed to PGX graded books (As a result, thisguide will focusprimarily on CGC grading).
Why Submit Your geic Books To Be Graded?
The answer to that question can be broken down into two basic motives that drive collectors to submit their geic books to be professionally graded:

Grading to raise the value of a book and prepare the item for sale
Grading to enhance and protect a collectors personal collection
Both motives are valid reasons to submit a geic book for professional grading.BUT... That being said, not all geic books are good candidates for professional grading.
Grading to raise the value of a book and prepare the item for sale
Professional grading can add hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to the selling price of a geic book. But at $15 - $79 per book, professional grading can be a costly and unnecessary expense if a book receives a less then desirable grade. This in no way implies that if a seller thinks a book is going to get a low grade, the book is not worth being professionally graded.

For example:Copies of rare books such as Action geics #1 or Amazing Fantasy #15 are desirable in any grade.But a copy of any heavily-distributed book released within the last year, graded below 9.6, has pretty much no resale value to the average geic book collector.
Desirable in any grade...
Sellers should always self-evaluate the condition of a book and determine if the guesstimated grade, in gebination with other criteria, are enough to make a book a good candidate for professional grading.
Guesstimate the Grade before Seeking Profession Help
A guesstimated grade can be determined using a 10 point scale such as the grading scale referenced in the okay geics Buying Guide. Sellers should always be extremely critical when judging the condition of the books they intend to sell. Any flaw- no matter how small- should be evaluated. This will provide the seller with a best educated guess as to the professional grade the book may receive (due-diligence in self evaluating a geic book will also allow a seller to list an ungraded item with an honestly evaluated description).Sometimes, a books potential grade may be all the information a seller needs to determine whether to move forward with submitting a geic book for grading. Books published within the last 20-25 years typically will only benefit from grading if the book receives a high (9.2 average) grade. The book may still be desirable in a lower grade, but having the book graded will most likely only eat into profits (due to the costs of grading) rather than increase the books selling price.But even if a book published within the last 25 years is likely to receive a high grade, this does not automatically make the book desirable. Potential high grade books from the last 25 years, and older books (at any grade), should be evaluated further to determine their desirability.
Will buyers want it?
Assessing a likely grade is only part of the process in determining if a book should be professionally graded. To be considered desirable to potential buyers, a book should also have one or more of the attributes below:

Rarity-A book is usually considered rare due to low initial circulation or shrinkage of the supply available to collectors due to passage of time. One way to gauge the rarity of a book is by looking at previous okay sales. If a book doesnt appear on the market very often or if it sells consistently well, this may be an indication of rarity (or it may be an indication of high demand- another plus in favor of having a book graded).A book can also be desirable due to a short supply in higher grades (the census for all graded books can be verified by using the census search feature found on the CGC website, www.cgcgeics.ge).Age can be a contributing factor to a books rarity- In most circumstances, due to readily available product, a new release (geic book published within the last five years) with a guesstimated grade below 9.6 will not benefit from professional grading. Also, due to the glut of product in the 80s and 90s, most of these books are only desirable in higher grades. Older books are more readily acceptable in lower grades.Whatever the reason for a books short supply, rarity is an important criterion in-favor of having a book graded.
Collectible Significance- A book has to have a degree of importance to collectors. Significant attributes include:


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