Every market is driven by supply and demand and the rare and collectible comic book market is no different. Minuscule differences in grade can mean the difference between thousands of dollars of value and final sales prices. With this reality where can the serious collector or investor go for information? Enter the CGC census.
Since the beginning of CGC they have been collecting data on every comic book they have ever graded. This data is searchable in two different places and is easy to use. The first location is CGC itself. In order to search their database you need to be a member, but fortunately it’s free. If you don’t want to bother with that you can visit CGCdata.com and also search their version of the database.
Each service provides the same data, only the search presentation is slightly different. The data is broken down my title and issue number, and then by how many total books have been graded along with how many in each specific grade. The data is important for both grading and purchasing.
If you’re contemplating grading your comics you may want to know if there are hundreds of other copies in the same condition as yours and then research what they are selling for. In the end it may not be worth having your comic professionally graded. On the other hand, if you think your comic could achieve the highest grade to date, submission to CGC may be very important to the final value.
Before I purchase a graded comic book I always take a look at the census. The “best” seems to always sell and I don’t want to overpay for an issue that’s readily available in the grade I’m considering. It’s a personal decision, but you need to be armed with all the information possible before you part with your hard earned money.
If you are serious about comic books, make sure you check out both sites. Once again, here are the links:
CGC Census Data from CGCData.com
