‘The Official CGC Guide to Grading Comics’ Now Available in Hardcover!

Posted on 30/11/2022

Learn the tricks and tips of comic book grading from the industry’s leading expert.

The “Official CGC Guide to Grading Comics” is now available in an elegant hardcover 1st edition for collectors to enjoy! A limited number of signed and numbered hardcover copies are also available for purchase. 

Get your “Official CGC Guide to Grading Comics” today through the CCG Store!

(Psst… Paid CGC members — use your 10% CCG Store discount when purchasing the book!)

CGC, a division of the Certified Collectibles Group® (CCG®), is the world’s leading third-party grading service for comic books, trading cards, magazines and other pop culture-related collectibles.

Over the course of nearly 400 pages, “The Official CGC Guide to Grading Comics” offers an exhaustive examination of the many types of defects collectors might find, and how they might affect the grade of the comic. There are chapters on comic book history, CGC history and labels, grading scales, enhancement, reprints, variants, pedigrees, how to handle comics and how to submit your books to CGC.

Nelson’s book will undoubtedly become a must-have resource for any comic book collector!

Meet the Author

Matt Nelson

Nelson started collecting comics at the age of 14. In the 1990s, he opened More Fun Comics with Bill Ponseti, and within two years Nelson became the youngest Overstreet Advisor ever. Shortly thereafter, he opened Classics Incorporated, a business dedicated to comic book restoration. After CGC opened in 2000, Matt quickly realized the potential of third-party grading in the industry and added pressing and restoration removal services to his business.

“I spent the next couple of years learning the process. I was working closely with Heritage Auctions, and I saw a lot of graded books coming through each month. I became intimate with the grading scale that way,” he said.

Nelson joined CGC in 2013 when it purchased Classics Incorporated and reorganized it as Classic Collectible Services® (CCS®) with Nelson as its President. Nelson transitioned to CGC Primary Grader in 2016.

With an encyclopedic knowledge of comic book history and pedigrees, Matt Nelson is well-known among comic book collectors and industry professionals. In numerous interviews, he has shared his expertise, from how to handle comic books to how to get the most enjoyment from one’s collection.

Nelson was named CGC President in 2021.

What’s inside?

CCG Chairman Mark Salzberg offers a foreword in the book, noting that grading has become the new language of collecting, and praising Nelson’s work in gathering this information for readers.

“This book is the most complete, thorough and authoritative examination of comic book grading ever published. Matt Nelson is the foremost comic book grading expert and has personally examined hundreds of thousands of books,” Salzberg writes in his foreword to the book.

As the market for CGC-graded comics exploded over the years, so too did submissions. CGC has now graded more than 5 million comics and increased its staff of graders to more than 30. CGC is always looking for new ways to improve submission turnaround times through new technologies and a growing number of staff members.

The book is a condensed version of the meticulous standards that CGC graders must learn and follow, but it gives collectors a working knowledge and understanding of the grading process.

Click images to enlarge.

“They are educating themselves so they can be better submitters and better collectors, and they are more aware of what our standards are when they’re buying CGC-graded books,” Nelson said.

It can take a collector many years of practice and study to develop their grader’s eye, but the information available in “The Official CGC Guide to Grading Comics” can teach them some of the steps and tools needed to make their collection look its very best.

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