Is CBCS slabbing magazines yet?9432

Originally Posted by esaravo
Slabbing no, but CBCS has been grading magazines and Treasuries for a few years. The service is called Raw Grade and is $10 for Moderns and $15 for 1975 and older comics, magazines, or Treasuries. You also don’t get a restoration check (not sure why) and your graded book is placed in a sealed Mylar holder with backing board.
Magazine slabbing is supposedly in the “near” future.

Originally Posted by Jesse_O
Back in February, 2017, CBCS introduced Raw Grading. Here is what they said about it in an article from Scoop

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scoop
CBCS has announced the launch of their new grading service, Raw Grade. According to CBCS, it will be a less expensive and faster method of providing independent third party grades on comic books, magazines, and treasury edition books.

The new service is designed to give customers a fast and reliable grade to help them sell their books without paying for traditional grading and encapsulating. It is directed at collectors who believe the return on the investment doesn’t need traditional grading or is looking to sell collections quickly.

In the Raw Grade service, books are evaluated, graded, and placed in Mylar bags with backing boards. The grade is displayed on a sticker on the front of the Mylar bag, which is sealed with a tamper evident sticker for security. Raw Grade services do not include a restoration check, it is simply for evaluating the condition of the book.

Jesse,
I understand TREASURY EDITIONS but what about SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN or HOWARD THE DUCK or any of the other magazines?

It is also not meant to provide long-term protection. Customers who are looking for that type of protection should use the traditional grading service. The Raw Grade was developed to assure potential buyers of the book’s quality and condition.

Another feature of the Raw Grade service is that it can be used in conjunction with the CBCS grade screen option. That means that if it’s chosen during the submission process, any book that fails a CBCS grade screen can be graded with the Raw Grade service, if the customer chooses.

I believe they did this so there was an option for Treasury comics and magazines mostly. Since they were using mylar, I believe they decided that by not doing a restoration check that they could save time, which is money, and offer this service at a discount but still make a profit. Many treasury editions and magazines are typically well over the average 28-32 pages in a comic. So, just the regular inspection is going to take longer. If they had to do a restoration check on that many pages, it would be neither quicker nor cost effective and the final price would have to adjusted. More than likely it would be the same or more as regular submission. At that price point, you loose the regular comic submission base. These are comics that are relatively low value (I can't find the stated max value but I'm thinking $150-$250) that may be on the edge of being worth slabbed.

I know some collectors do not like "bulky" slabs but like having their personal collection graded. Again, these aren't high dollar books, but when you have 20 or more $100 books, good luck on getting the insurance company to agree with your evaluation unless it has been independently graded. There are some instances where this service has value.

Plus, I think that this was meant as temporary fix to not offering magazine sized slabs. I don't think you will ever see Treasure sized slabs in the traditional slab format. The weight would be a huge factor and there really isn't that many treasury editions out there to justify the investment (IMO). If the comic industry all of a sudden switches to Treasury size for 3-5 years, then you might see it.

Originally Posted by Jesse_O
@Rafel Where you wrote "Jesse, I understand TREASURY EDITIONS but what about SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN or HOWARD THE DUCK or any of the other magazines?", that was actually the article from Scoops. But to answer your question, those can all be graded under the Raw Grading program. Does that answer your question?

Originally Posted by Jesse_O
@Rafel From what I understand, magazine sized slabs are definitely coming, it is just a matter of when. They were working on it before the Beckett buyout happened. It was put on hold until after the move. Things got fubarred during the move so nothing was done until things got under control. After everything was finally in place and everything returned to a more normal routine, they started working on it again. Late last year, I had heard that they wanted it out by SDCC in July. This Spring that got pushed back to the first quarter of next year. Now, I am hearing the possibility of it coming out before Christmas.

Originally Posted by Rafel
Hi all,
I'm just wondering if CBCS has started slabbing magazines yet. I have a few that I want grade/slabbed. I tried calling the 844-384-4777 and all I get is "Good-bye" <Click>. If they have started slabbing how long have they been doing it?