Big news for CGC Signature Series collectors! Certified Guaranty Company (CGC) has officially launched their signature authentication options in partnership with James Spence Authentication (JSA) to allow comic collectors to get their raw signed comics authenticated and graded all at once.
If you’re new to comic collecting and graded (or slabbed) comics, here’s why this is kind of a big deal.
CGC is easily the the most prominent comic book grading service and comics graded by CGC typically have a higher resale value compared to books graded by their competitors.
Up until now every signed comic that was not witnessed by a CGC Signature Series (CGC SS) authorized facilitator got a green “CGC Qualified Label” that essentially considered the signature a defect because, without witnessing the signature, they didn’t know for certain that it was a real autograph.
Instead, you’d have to find an official CGC witness at the event to come with you (with a fee) to watch the signature happen. When you follow that process your signed comic would be considered authentic and would get a yellow “CGC Signature Series Label.”
Now, with this new partnership, you don’t necessarily have to follow that process.
Instead you can send in your signed comic and have CGC’s partner JSA authenticate the signature for you. CGC put out a post on this with all of the details here but I’ll summarize the main points below.
- This service is available starting on May 7th, 2024
- The signature authentication fee is $25 for all comics (regardless of value)
- The grading fee for JSA Authenticated Autographs is an additional $25 (so $50 total)
- Authenticated comic books will get a gold “CGC x JSA Authentic Autograph” (CGC AA) label
- CGC Signature Series (CGC SS) labels will still be used for witnessed signatures but with a new CGC Signature Series logo top center
As you can see the two look pretty similar but have slightly different shading and logo bars at the top.
It will be interesting to see how the market reacts to this change. Will there be more graded and signed comic books? Of course. But will CGC x JSA Authentic Autograph (CGC AA) hold the same value as witnessed CGC Signature Series (CGC SS) comics? That’s yet to be seen. The market will decide.
My guess is that the SGC Signature Series slabs will hold more value than the JSA authenticated alternatives. But I don’t think the gap will be as wide as the completely unauthenticated green label slabs.
Which, if you really think about it, doesn’t make much sense. Does a book really have more value because someone watched it get signed or not if the signature is genuinely authentic?
But then again… there’s a lot that doesn’t make sense with collecting. The whole hobby doesn’t make much sense. But we love it anyway.
But, while I don’t believe that they’ll hold the exact same value, the gap between CGC SS and CGC AA will be as wide as the gap between CGC SS and the completely unauthenticated green labeled slabs.
I for one am happy about the change. I recently went through the process of getting comics signed, witnessed, and graded at Planet Comicon KC and the whole process is a pain in the ass.
You can read about my experience here if you’re interested.
And here are the final results of my efforts there.
Paying someone to stand next to you in line (sometimes for a long time) and then following them back to the booth and submitting your books to be graded takes up a substantial part of your day.
But being able to get things signed and then send them in once you get home to be authenticated is a much simpler and faster process for collectors.
Which, to me at least, is a big win.
For light and life!
Grand Admiral Frik
