CBCS Comic Grading: What Happened and How CGC Compares

CBCS (Comic Book Certification Service) no longer grades comics. Collectors, the company that owns PSA, bought CBCS's parent Beckett in December 2025. On March 25, 2026 it announced that CBCS would close in April, with April 17, 2026 as the last submission date, so it could focus on the Beckett grading brand (Overstreet Access).

CBCS was founded by Dr. Michael Bornstein, his son Alec and Steve Borock (Wikipedia). QualityComix dates the founding to 2015 and Beckett's purchase to 2018; Borock had been CGC's first primary grader.

If you own CBCS-graded books:

• The grade is still on record. Overstreet Access reports that every CBCS-graded book stays in the database and the CBCS Population Report stays open.
• Nobody can reholder or regrade it at CBCS any more. A damaged CBCS case would need to be cracked and the book sent to another grader.
• Before the closure, CBCS slabs already sold for less. A January 2026 comparison by MyComicsCollection put CBCS copies at 20 to 30% below CGC copies of the same grade. Check sold prices for your issue before deciding whether moving it to another grader is worth the fee.

CGC (Certified Guaranty Company) is a third-party grading company. It seals a graded comic in a tamper-evident case with a label showing the grade and any restoration. It opened on January 4, 2000 in Parsippany, New Jersey, and is now based in Sarasota, Florida; Wikipedia puts its total at over 7 million comics graded as of 2021. CGC is part of Certified Collectibles Group, which grades comics, sports and trading cards, video games, magazines, posters, home video and pulps. CGC has graded every comic on its own list of the most expensive comic sales.

The label color matters as much as the number, because it tells a buyer whether the book has been worked on. From Wikipedia's summary of CGC labels:

• Blue (Universal): the standard label for unrestored books
• Blue and purple (Conserved): structural repairs done to preserve the book
• Purple (Restored): evidence of restoration such as color touch or added material
• Green (Qualified): a significant defect called out separately from the grade
• Yellow (Signature Series): a signature CGC witnessed or authenticated
• Yellow and purple: a Signature Series book that has also been restored

Restored copies sell below unrestored copies in the same grade. See spot a fake or restored comic.

Jay-Z does not own CGC. In July 2021 Blackstone bought a majority stake in Certified Collectibles Group, CGC's parent, valuing it at over $500 million. Jay-Z's company Roc Nation invested alongside Fanatics chairman Michael Rubin, 76ers executive Daryl Morey, NBA player Andre Iguodala and others (Front Office Sports, July 2021). That makes Roc Nation a minority investor, not the owner.

• CGC: the long-standing leader. Yahoo Sports noted when PSA entered comics in 2025 that CGC had graded all ten of the top ten comic book sales of all time.
• PSA: started grading comics and magazines on July 14, 2025, with launch pricing from $25.99 per modern book (Yahoo Sports).
• CBCS: closed to submissions after April 17, 2026.
• PGX: QualityComix describes it as criticized for inconsistent grading and for missing restoration.

For a book you plan to sell, check which grader's slabs sell best for that issue in recent sold listings. Current CGC fees are on our CGC grading cost page.

QualityComix suggests grading generally makes sense for comics worth $200 or more. Work it out for your own book: CGC's cheapest single modern tier costs $35 with handling, so the graded value has to beat the raw value by more than that. Keys that could come back in high grade, and books you plan to sell for hundreds of dollars or more, are the usual candidates. Learn the grade language first in our comic grading guide.