Hey all! Have been busy for some time. I just wanted to point out something. We just got in a batch of items. 3 of them were the Monsters & Treasures sets 1, 2 & 3 individually.

M&T Assortment

By the way, the link from the new page is broken to see these, so I found it doing a google search. Seems like lots of the links are broken since the site was updated.

We cannot grade these if they are loose due to the fact that all pages are separated. This decision was made years ago with some comic book items that had the same design.

I don't know if these individual sets came shirnkwrapped. If so, we can grade the sealed ones. Anything opened will be returned. Sorry for the inconvenience.

If anything changes in the future, I'll let you know.

Phil

Just wanted to give a quick update. We've been getting quite a few submissions both open and sealed items. I just want to clarify a few things for those who wish to send items to CGC.

1. Items must be bound in some way. What I mean with this is that either glued or stapled. There are some products that have pages completely separated with hole punches for binders. We will grade these items if still in shrinkwrap, but if opened, they will be rejected and returned.

2. Shrinkwap must be intact to be graded sealed. Torn and split shrinkwrap is fine as long as the contents cannot be compromised. The item cannot be removable from the shrinkwrap. We got a few of these recently, one of which had the shrinkwrap put on backwards. As long as the contents cannot be totally removed from the shrinkwrap, then that is fine.

3. Just want to touch on this, though we haven't gotten any of these submitted. We do not grade hardcover books. This also goes for comic books and other magazines. I don't exactly know the decision behind this, but I think it has something to do with the holder.

4. We do not grade print on demand RPG items. We have gotten submissions where someone had autographs on PODs and we had to send them back.

5. We will grade any other RPGs. I've been waiting to see other items. We've mostly gotten TSR items along with some DC RPG pieces, but not much else. I've been waiting to see some of the I.C.E. items from Middle Earth among other things since I do own a few pieces from this series. Though my personal copies were played.

6. I attempt to give art credits when possible. With magazines, we only have a total of 4 lines where we can add art and key comments. So we always put the writer, written as "Gary Gygax text" for example. We also try to give the cover artist. Interior artists are added if there is room.

7. If you see any mistakes on a label, please contact me. Typos occur occasionally, but we usually have 3 sets of eyes on each item. Many of the early releases didn't give credits, but research on Wiki and other sites sometimes gives me the info I need.

8. If you want to submit something but are unsure, contact me and let me know what the item is and I'll discuss it with management to see if we can grade them.

Thanks and happy collecting.

Phil

Philflound wrote in CGC Grading Etc...:Just wanted to give a quick update. We've been getting quite a few submissions both open and sealed items. I just want to clarify a few things for those who wish to send items to CGC.

1. Items must be bound in some way. What I mean with this is that either glued or stapled. There are some products that have pages completely separated with hole punches for binders. We will grade these items if still in shrinkwrap, but if opened, they will be rejected and returned.

2. Shrinkwap must be intact to be graded sealed. Torn and split shrinkwrap is fine as long as the contents cannot be compromised. The item cannot be removable from the shrinkwrap. We got a few of these recently, one of which had the shrinkwrap put on backwards. As long as the contents cannot be totally removed from the shrinkwrap, then that is fine.

3. Just want to touch on this, though we haven't gotten any of these submitted. We do not grade hardcover books. This also goes for comic books and other magazines. I don't exactly know the decision behind this, but I think it has something to do with the holder.

4. We do not grade print on demand RPG items. We have gotten submissions where someone had autographs on PODs and we had to send them back.

5. We will grade any other RPGs. I've been waiting to see other items. We've mostly gotten TSR items along with some DC RPG pieces, but not much else. I've been waiting to see some of the I.C.E. items from Middle Earth among other things since I do own a few pieces from this series. Though my personal copies were played.

6. I attempt to give art credits when possible. With magazines, we only have a total of 4 lines where we can add art and key comments. So we always put the writer, written as "Gary Gygax text" for example. We also try to give the cover artist. Interior artists are added if there is room.

7. If you see any mistakes on a label, please contact me. Typos occur occasionally, but we usually have 3 sets of eyes on each item. Many of the early releases didn't give credits, but research on Wiki and other sites sometimes gives me the info I need.

8. If you want to submit something but are unsure, contact me and let me know what the item is and I'll discuss it with management to see if we can grade them.

Thanks and happy collecting.

Phil

I'd love to see some ME ICE items graded, hardly see those in shrink anywhere. Angus McBride covers were amazing.

Badmike wrote in CGC Grading Etc...:
They do, but it's not a ton. I would only get stuff slabbed you are interested in preserving, or for display. Betting on the price rising to crazy levels will not pay off, IMO.

Mike B.

Hello, sorry I wasn't clear in my post. I was asking about the value of CGC vs CBCS for the same grades. The few public auction sales seem to show CGC carries a higher premium even though I understood CBCS were stricter graders.

Also to confirm this is mostly for display and preservation not investment.

cstojano wrote in CGC Grading Etc...:

Hello, sorry I wasn't clear in my post. I was asking about the value of CGC vs CBCS for the same grades. The few public auction sales seem to show CGC carries a higher premium even though I understood CBCS were stricter graders.

Also to confirm this is mostly for display and preservation not investment.

In my experience, CBCS does grade stricter. I've seen many, many examples in the RPG milieu (not sure about comics). The CBCS cases are (also my opinion) much sturdier. Books graded by CGC are typically .5 a grade higher, all things being equal. Since the majority of books I choose are for presentation purposes and not sale, it generally doesn't bother me much.

However, I've found CGC can pull in higher prices. Could be many reasons for that, but familiarity with the brand is probably the biggest one. Also, until recently their presentation was superior. If you are looking to sell your items I would think about CGC over CBCS.

I've owned comics graded by both CGC and CBCS, and I prefer the CGC presentation for older comics (CBCS for new).  I absolutely prefer the CBCS presentation when it comes to RPG items. But this is purely a personal preference.

My advice is to use both services and see which you prefer.

Mike B.

Was this a fluke or are CGC graded prices normalizing?  Regardless, this was a great snag, as these often sell for this price non-graded.


** expired/removed eBay auction **


It probably didn't help the seller that this was listed under comics.

Seller also has this listed:

 The Dragon Magazine #1 1976 CGC 8.0 White Pages Bill Hannan Cover

	$3,300.00   * sold *   (fixed price)
	ended     Fri Jul 3rd  4:01pm EDT
	Seller:  titan_cards_games

Tszii wrote in CGC Grading Etc...:That is a good snag. Its like $35 to grade. I dont know about normalizing. The amount of copies of everything is as high as I have ever seen. Prices seem to stay level or up overall.

The dragon #1 looks great. Its one of my regrets.

A 7.5 graded Dragon #1 went for $5000 at Heritage Auctions last year. $3500 for an 8.0 is a pretty good price IMO.

Mike B.

stratochamp wrote in CGC Grading Etc...:I just looked at the Dragon #1. There are stains on the back cover, rubbing all down the back right side and a noticeable rounding all down the spine (I wonder if it was in a binder for a long time). I'm just stunned this received an 8.0, which is supposed to be very fine. That magazine is NOT in very fine condition. I really do wonder what circus monkeys decide on these grades. It is possible this is how they have been taught to grade these and they would grade any copy that looked like this with that same grade. In which case I would suggest the meaning of the words "Very Fine" eludes them. I do further realize that I am likely an old man shaking my fist at the clouds; on the other hand my best copies of all of these super rare items are in a lot better shape than this 8.0.

CGC's grading is not up to the standards of CBCS. it's one reason I don't get anything graded through their service (and now that CBCS has been bought out by PSA and is not grading comics or games anymore, doubt that I will get anything else ever graded). What sucks is that now with CGC being the only company who will grade RPG items, it's buyer beware IMO when buying any of their encapsulated products (including comics) because without competition, there is no reason to improve their grading or service, or to attempt to be accurate on grading RPGS (as it's only a sideline to their $74 million dollar comics grading service) .

You have to understand that most of the recently slabbed items should be for display purposes only, if buying for investment purposes I wouldn't trust their condition estimates over my own eye. And also, most of these recently sold slabbed RPG items are not going to collectors like us but to comic collectors who have been brought up to only "trust" CGC services for condition estimates, and they are bringing the same energy to buying and collecting RPGs. Look at several of Heritage Auctions latest RPG themed auctions, prices are all over the place.

Mike B.