Okay, so I’ve been collecting Marvel comics for a while now, mostly stuff from around 1999 to 2002. Nothing too crazy, just a small-ish collection I picked up here and there. I started wondering if any of these things are worth anything, so I did what any normal person would do – I hit up eBay.
Turns out, a couple of them might actually be worth a few bucks. I’m no expert, but I spotted some titles like Bloodstone #1, Alias #1, and The Hood #1 that seemed to have some value. It got me thinking, should I get these bad boys graded?
Now, I’m not rolling in dough, so I had to do some digging. I started looking into this whole grading thing with companies like CGC and CBCS. From what I gathered, it’s a bit of a gamble. You send your comic in, they slap a grade on it, and that grade can make or break the value. Some folks online were saying it’s only worth it if you’re planning to sell, and even then, only if the comic is valuable enough and gets a good grade. Otherwise, you might end up losing money.
I looked around on some forums and Facebook groups, and man, it’s a mixed bag of opinions out there. Some people swear by grading, saying it can really boost the price, especially for older comics. But others are like, “Nah, it’s a waste of money unless you’ve got a real gem.” There’s even talk about how the prices for graded and ungraded comics are getting closer, especially for those Silver and Bronze Age ones.
Here’s the thing, I found out that a graded comic, especially if it gets a 9.0 or higher, can sometimes sell for more than an ungraded one. Collectors seem to like that certification of condition thing. But then there’s the cost of grading itself, which isn’t exactly cheap. And there’s no guarantee that your comic will get a high grade. You could end up with a low grade and be out of pocket for the grading fees.
My Grading Process
So, after all that research, here’s what I did:
- Checked the Comics: I went through my collection and pulled out the ones that seemed to have some potential value based on my eBay lurking.
- Researched Prices: I looked up the prices for both graded and ungraded versions of these comics to get a rough idea of the price difference.
- Considered the Cost: I looked into the grading fees for CGC and CBCS and tried to figure out if it was worth the gamble.
- Made a Decision: Based on my research, I decided to only get a couple of my potentially more valuable comics graded. I figured it was worth a shot to see if I could increase their value, but I didn’t want to go all in and risk losing a bunch of money.
I sent them off to get graded and waited. It felt like forever, but finally, I got them back. One of them got a pretty decent grade, and the other, well, not so much. I listed the higher-graded one for sale and it actually sold for a bit more than I expected! The other one, I decided to just keep for my personal collection.
So, was it worth it? I guess it depends. For the one that sold, yeah, it was worth it. For the other, not really. It’s a gamble, for sure. But hey, it was a fun little experiment, and I learned a lot about the world of comic book grading. I thought I’d share my little adventure in case anyone else is thinking about getting their comics graded. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme, but it can be interesting. Just do your homework, and don’t bet the farm on it!
