Comic Book Grading
What is comic book 'grading'?
Comic books have a scale of grading that is crucial to understanding what their value will be. Grading is subjective, this is something that one must always understand. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so what is mint to one person is not necessarily mint to another one. There are standardized categories that will range from poor or fair condition to mint condition. Most of the hobby now uses a ten point scale, of point five being the worst to ten being the best. And you have to understand where a comic book can fall within those different categories. The average readable comic book, one that has read and enjoyed, will typically fall in a very good to fine condition. And as you go up, there are nuances and variances: you have fine, very fine, near mint, and mint. All of these different categories will impact the value of the comic book. And it could be the difference between 50 dollars for a comic book versus 5,000 dollars for a comic book. So whenever you're looking into your collecting or selling, you have to be able to educate yourself as to what category that comic book will fall into and what the slightest little defects could impact the value of that comic book.
What is the best way to get my comic book graded?
The grading of comic books can be done by yourself. Obviously, these are things that can be self taught, but at the end of the day, most comic books will be graded by you the collector, or you the investor, which is why it is imperative that you educate yourself to understand what is the difference between a comic book in very good condition, and very fine condition, or mint condition. Because if youre going to be an investor, or even as a collector, your credibility will go upon how tight you are as a grader and how your grading standards apply to someone elses grading standards.
What are the different grades of comic books?
The comic book industry has evolved with respect to its grading standards. We used to just use 3 or 4, it could be Good, Fine or Mint. Nowadays we have mostly a 10-point grading scale. So for example, a comic book that's in near mint, or 9.2 on the scale, is a book that is typically as if you bought it off the rack. This is a comic book in a high grade condition, almost pristine like. If you start getting to books that are ones that would have seen a fair amount of usage, this was a comic book that was enjoyed by the reader, this is a comic book thats in very good or fine condition, even though it has creases, it has defects, maybe it has some tears. Down to obviously a poor grade comic book where perhaps the book has separated from the cover or the cover has ripped off. And each of these different grades will obviously impact the price of value of that comic book as the years go by.
