How Do I Get A Rare Comic Book Graded?

[Palanan]

I was going through my old comics recently, and it turns out I have one or two that might be worth a little.

But this depends on their condition, and I don’t know a thing about how to get them professionally graded. Where do I start with that? And if they are in good condition, how do I go about selling them?

[Peelee]

Do you live in a large city?

[Spore]

Tangent, but if they arent in mint condition, my experience in trading card games, stamp and coin collecting shows that they're vastly devalued.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Peelee
Do you live in a large city?

…ish.


Originally Posted by Sporeegg
Tangent, but if they arent in mint condition, my experience in trading card games, stamp and coin collecting shows that they're vastly devalued.

Hence my interest in getting them graded.

[Peelee]

…ish.

Find the biggest comic shop you can, ask if they can do that or if they know anyone who can. You're probably going to want to talk to the owner, if possible.

[Tyndmyr]

This is an area I have some familiarity with...now, most local shops will do you the service of looking at a book and telling you what they'd pay for it, free of charge. In most cases, this is sadly not a great deal, unless it's a particularly old/rare/good condition comic.

Actually getting one professionally graded is a different matter. Typically, you send the carefully packaged comic off to one of the services for doing so. They look it over, grade it according to a set standard, and preserve it in a hard plastic shell. Once it's been certified and slabbed, then it is generally valued at or around whatever the listed price is for that kind of comic/certification.

Grading companies charge for their service, and it's significant in most cases. The vast majority of comics are not worth paying for this service for. Research yours in advance to make sure it is, or chat up your local comics dealers. It doesn't hurt to get a few opinions locally, but be aware that comics in general have been sort of on the decline. Dropping $20-$60 a book or even more may not be worthwhile.