Comic books grading

OK... So you've decided where to buy your comics and are now checking the different titles they have in stock. For the same title, you'll notice they somtimes have different prices. This usually has to do with different gradings... What it means is the closer to its "brand new" state the book is, the more you will have to pay for it. The different grades are:

• Mint (MT)
• Near Mint (NM)
• Very Fine (VF)
• Fine (FN)
• Very Good (VG)
• Good (GD)
• Fair (FR)
• Poor (PR)

You will basically never find any comic book in mint condition... OK, unless it's brand new but new books usually do not carry any grade. If you would like to know some more details about the above mentionned grades, you can read the grading standards page over at MileHigh. They can differ from shop to shop but they should basically be the same.

You will also find some CGC comics. CGC is a grading company that grades comics and then seals them inside hard plastic cotainers to prevent tampering. They're usually more expensive and CGC does not give the details on their grading standards.

Last thing, if you're willing to start a comics collection to retire on, you will probably be interested in Golden/Silver/Bronze age comics. This qualifies all the comics before the early 80's, which are basically the only ones worth something today. Comics published in later years will usually not turn you any profit.