Experiment Results: I Just Got Back My First CGC Submission

On April 25h I sent in my first submission to CGC. Not because I’m a huge fan of graded comics (they’re fun but I like it raw) but rather to test my eye and see how I would do.

I sent in 25 Star Wars comics with the 9.8 pre-screen option. This means that my comics would only be slabbed up if they were a 9.8. If they are graded lower, then I pay $8 (raised to $9 on May 1st, 2023) for CGCs time and they send them back raw.

The whole process was actually pretty fast.

Here’s the timeline:

Apr 25th – Dropped off my comics at USPS (CGC received them a few days later)
May 10th – CGC sends confirmation email that they are starting the grading process
May 15th – Grading is done and they’ve been shipped back to me.
May 19th – The graded books are in a box on my front porch (this was supposed to require a signature but the postman just dropped it off on my porch with no knock or anything like a goofball)

All in all the process only took a few weeks.

While I obviously hoped to get 25 9.8s, I set the mark for success and failure at a completely arbitrary hit rate of 21/25.

So, how did I do? Well… not great. 🙁

I ended up getting 15 9.8s on the 25 books I sent in. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still very satisfied with what I got back in slabs. This was my first submission. I didn’t have any books pressed, cleaned, or looked over by someone who grades books regularly. I was going to miss some.

(also some of my comics appear to have been damaged in the grading process, I’ll elaborate more at the end of this post)

Here’s what I got enshrined for all eternity as a 9.8 graded comic.

Let’s break down the books I got back as a 9.8 and why I sent them in in the first place.

First Image – Top Left to bottom right

Star Wars: The Mandalorian #2 – Ema Lupacchino Exclusive Variant – First full” appearance of Grogu in a traditional comic and the lowest sold print run of that issue. So technically the rarest Grogu first appearance.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian #2 – 1:50 Jim Cheung Incentive Variant – First full appearance of Grogu. Highest ratio variant for The Mandalorian #2 that has seen demand stay pretty steady.

Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters – Jabba The Hutt #1 1:25 Variant – First appearance of Bounty Hunter Deva Lompopp. Super unique look and she’s been alive for at least 280 years. She can show up in a ton of content moving forward.

Star Wars: 2nd Print 1:25 Cummings Sketch Variant – It’s a Star Wars 2nd print 1:25. Those typically hold value fairly well and can be tough to find. Especially 9.8s.

Star Wars: Han Solo & Chewbacca #5 1:25 Variant – First cover appearance of Buck Vancto.

Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #32 Stott Variant – First full appearance of the Iden Versio and Inferno Squad.

Star Wars: X-Wing Rogue Squadron #26 – First appearance of Corran Horn. They’re are something like 3-4 9.8s in existence of this book. This one was my favorite of the bunch.

Star Wars: High Republic Adventures #1 – Peachtree Playthings Variant – A ton of first appearances of this book. I like it long term because there are not nearly as many of these out there as other variants since it was sold at Dollar Tree. This one is only the 2nd 9.8 on the CGC census.

Star Wars: High Republic Adventures #2 – Peachtree Playthings Variant – First full appearance of Marchion Ro. I like it long term because there are not nearly as many of these out there as other variants since it was sold at Dollar Tree. This one is only the 2nd 9.8 on the CGC census.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian #1 – Granov Virgin Color Exclusive Variant – Din Djarin’s first appearance. Beautiful cover. Only 800 in circulation.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian #1 – Granov Virgin B&W Exclusive Variant – Din Djarin’s first appearance. Beautiful cover. Only 400 in circulation. This is one of my favorite variants in the last few years.

Star Wars: The High Republic – The Blade #2 Mico Suayan 1:25 Variant – First cover appearance of Barash Silvain. First cameo appearance General Viess.

While I’m a little disappointed in my hit rate I LOVE the books that I got back graded. Excluding the cost of the comics, the entire grading process (CGC fees and shipping) ended up costing me around ~$400. Well worth the 15 9.8s above in my opinion.

I will be doing another submission in the next few weeks to give it another shot. I will probably keep the process the same. I don’t want to deal with pressing the books or anything. I’ll just be more careful examining my submission.

Also, I didn’t want to derail this post with this above, I’m pretty sure CGC damaged some of my comics. I had 3-4 come back with significant creases and/or spine ticks that I cannot imagine were there when I submitted the comics.

Stuff like this: