Grasshopper’s is proud to be an Authorized Submitter for CGC Comic Book Grading. We also offer In-House Pressing and Screening Services for books of all vintages.
CGC Submissions: Grasshopper's is An Authorized CGC Submitter
Grasshopper’s is an Authorized CGC Submitter and can submit books for CGC grading on your behalf. We have submitted thousands of books for grading and have a highly refined process to ensure the safety of your books. We offer in-store Pre-Screening Services as well as in-store Pressing Services, and handle everything from the moment you drop the book off to the moment you come to pick it up.
Drop Off: While its always good to call ahead, you can drop off books for grading at any time. We normally send out batches of books every three weeks on average depending on how many submissions we’ve got.
Pre-Screen: Not every book is worth grading. So we’re happy to go through your books with you and provide our estimate of what grade CGC would give it prior to you sending it for grading. This not only can prevent you from getting a disappointing grade, but can also save you some money. There is no fee for us to Pre-Screen your submissions.
What is CGC Grading?
CGC, or Certified Guarantee Company, is an independent grading company based out of Sarasota Florida. Their grading services evaluate a book for condition, assign it a numerical grade from 0.5 up to 10.0, and then encapsulate it in a locked plastic holder. During the process they evaluate the book not only for damage, but for authenticity and evidence of any restoration, which can significantly lower a book’s value.
CGC is the primary comic book grading company and the standard in the hobby.
Shipping: All comics sent out for grading are sent double boxed, with plenty of cushion and padding placed within the boxes. While we’ve never had a lost or damaged book, all books are still sent Fully Insured and packages are sent Registered Mail to keep track of every USPS employee that touched that package and guarantee their safe arrival.
Fees: We only charge $5.00 per book to submit, plus the normal CGC Grading Fee per book. You will also be responsible for your proportionate percentage of shipping to and from CGC. You don’t have to pay for your own annual CGC Membership, Invoice Fees, and only pay a percentage of shipping equal to your percentage of books in that shipment. (So if there are 40 books in the shipment and 10 are yours, you only pay 25% of the shipping cost.) Primarily due to the huge savings in shipping, its usually cheaper for us to send the books out for you.
Grading fees are associated with both the age of the comic and the value of the comic. Newer less expensive books currently cost $30 per book to grade. While older expensive books can cost $135 per book or more.
You can see the current grading fees here: https://www.cgccomics.com/submit/services-fees/cgc-grading/
Yes, Grasshopper’s offers in-store pressing services. You can drop your book off and we can clean and press it then send it out to be graded for you. We take care of everything.
Generally most books tend to take 6 to 8 weeks, including shipping. High value books, which also cost much more to grade, usually take 2-3 weeks, primarily due to shipping times.
There are times when turnaround times are significantly longer. In fact, there are some grading tiers we will not submit to without also upgrading the submission with Fast Track (which costs extra but moves twice as fast) as the turnaround time for those tiers is simply far too long. Feel free to ask us what the current turnaround times are when you are ready to submit.
While grading itself is not cheap, unfortunately safely shipping the books both ways is quite expensive. Also, shipping a box of 25 comics is almost the same price as shipping a box of 5 comics. Insured Return Shipping can often run close to $100 per box from CGC. If only 5 books were yours in that box then you only pay 1/5th of that, or $20, which is quite a bit less than their cheapest option. Also, there’s no need to buy an Annual Membership either, which is especially convenient if you only want to send out a few books.
And since we Pre-Screen the comics with you when you drop them off, we can often prevent you from submitting a book that you have gotten a lower grade than you would have been happy with.
Sometimes, yes. Generally speaking, having the impartial CGC grade means there isn’t much arguing over the price a book is worth. In the days prior to CGC grading a buyer and seller could seriously disagree on the grade and therefore on the value of a comic.
But in many cases now having a top grade on a book does increase its market value as opposed to a “raw” or ungraded copy. A grade of 9.8 is considered the top possible grade for the overwhelming majority of comics with standard paper covers, and some 9.8 comics do demand quite a premium. For older books having a confirmed high grade, or in some cases the highest known grade, will raise the price significantly as the number of copies in top grades of older books is often very low.
Generally speaking, No. Once the book is encapsulated it cannot be opened without breaking the case. This is to ensure the integrity of the grade and to prevent someone from swapping in a lower grade book into a higher grade case with the intention to defraud someone. That said, the case is not permanent and it can be opened, but not without cracking the case and nullifying the grade.
Usually, yes. Despite all the advances in grading, grading will always be part art and part science. And since two people looking at the same thing can see two different things, you may not always agree with the grade your book was given. That said, the number of books we disagree with is usually very low and CGC does seem to be right on the money the overwhelming majority of the time. In fact, most of the times we disagree its because CGC graded the book higher than we would have personally.
There are four basic CGC label covers:
Blue: Universal Grade. This indicates that the comic is in its original, unrestored condition.
Purple: Restored Grade. This indicates that at some point in time there was some type of restoration on this comic, usually a color touch or trimming. There are Restoration Grades attached to this label indicating how extensive the restoration is.
Green: Qualified Grade. This indicates that there is some sort of hidden defect in the inside of the book, usually something cut out. Green labels are often (though not always) given for unverified signatures both on the cover and inside the book.
Yellow: Signature Series: This applies only to signed comics, and indicates that a CGC representative personally witnessed this comic getting signed. There is a related JSA Authentication label that is given to books where the signature was not witnessed but has been independently verified by CGC.
At the moment the answer is “not really”. CBCS who was CGC’s primary competitor, although in a very distant second place, shut down in early 2026. The only other company left is PGX, but they are used by so few people that their grade is of dubious value. In fact, if the same book were graded with the same grade by PGX and CGC, the CGC graded book would be worth more as there is simply more confidence in the grade.
At this point CGC is the absolute standard in comic grading.
Grasshopper's Offers In-Store Pressing Services
Grasshopper’s offers our own in-store comic book pressing services, offering value and convenience for all our customers. We have been pressing comics for years and have successfully improved the appearance of thousands of comic books of all vintages and values.
Pressing can be done prior to us submitting a book to CGC for grading, or it can be done without grading just to improve the appearance of a comic.
A few key benefits of Grasshopper’s pressing in-store are:
Savings and Convenience: No need to pay to ship your books anywhere and potentially have them damaged in transit. Just drop your books off with us and pick them up when they’re ready.
Pre-Screen: Not every book will benefit from a press, or perhaps it may not improve enough to meet your expectations. We’ll go through your books with you beforehand to let you know if its a good candidate. We care about your books and won’t press anything that we think may be damaged in the process.
Security: Your books never leave the shop until you pick them up or we send them out to be graded. We do not use outside contractors, which means there is no chance for your book to be lost or damaged in transit to an outside pressing location (importantly, your book is uninsured when in the car or home of an individual pressing as a side gig.)
What is Comic Book Pressing?
What is normally referred to as “Pressing” is actually a suite of tools that work together to dry clean and eliminate imperfections from a comic without qualifying as restoration. These often include using heat and moisture to encourage the paper to release creases and revert back to its original form.
Pressing is primarily used to minimize non-color breaking spine and corner creases, corner dings, ripples, and finger dents. It is also an excellent tool to eliminate or minimize spine roll and stacking bends of the spine.
A well pressed book will usually present nicer and look sharper and cleaner after pressing. It’s not a miracle cure and there are plenty of imperfections that nothing can be done about, but generally a well pressed book will grade higher after a pressing.
Fees: Our standard pressing/cleaning fee is $15.00 per book or 4 books for $50.00. Older books and books of very high value have a higher fee to account for the greater amount of time and care they require and is agreed upon on a case by case basis.
Usually no, but it’s always a good idea to call first to make sure someone is there to accept them.
Usually your book will be done within a week. Turnaround times obviously vary depending on how many books people are bringing in. But we will give you a good estimate when you drop your books off.
Pressing can only remove “non-color breaking” creases, basically the creases that don’t create a white line. Color breaking creases may be minimized in appearance, but once the color is broken there is no way to correct the color break that would not count as restoration.
No! Some books definitely cannot be pressed. These include foil covers, or books with any type of cover enhancement that could melt of otherwise be damaged in the process. In addition, some older books should not be pressed as they may not be structurally strong enough to survive the process. In older, fragile books a press can blow out the spine, damage the staples, or cause the paper to stain.
We reserve the right to not press any book that we believe would be damaged in the process and have turned away a number of books in the past. Unfortunately, some of them ended up being pressed by other people and were significantly damaged in the process just as we feared.
Pressing and dry cleaning don’t count as restoration because nothing is being added to the book, neither chemicals (used to clean), ink (used to color correct) or any kind of structural modification like tape or staples. All pressing does is use heat, moisture and pressure to let the fibers in the paper revert back to their original form.
Unfortunately, there is no 100% guarantee when pressing a book. When you give us a book to press you have to sign a form saying that you understand there is a small chance of risk of damaging the book. This is standard for all pressing service providers. That said, we do our best to ensure that we do not accept books that have a marginally high risk of damage and have only seen a single book damaged the the years that we have been pressing.
If you have any questions about submitting to CGC or pressing comics feel free to give us a call at (516) 741-5724 or send us an email and we’ll be happy to help.