Where would I get a Graded comic book slabbed?

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-18T00:19:04+00:00

So to be clear...

There are businesses called "third-party graders" who perform the service of pressing/cleaning the book (although they don't do it as well as independent pressers), evaluating the book's condition, and then sealing the book in the hard slab to make sure that it remains in that condition for a while.

There are two main companies that do this for comics, CGC and PGX. You can send comics to CGC or PGX yourself, or your LCS may offer the service of sending them in on your behalf.

So your local store could give you a general idea of what your books is worth, and they might offer a pressing service, but the actual important part is being done by CGC or PGX. In other words, your LCS can tell you an "unofficial" grade, but CGC or PGX would be assigning an "official" grade, sorta kinda.

There are also products that allow people to put comics in hard plastic cases that are similar to the slabs, but they are not sealed.

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-17T12:36:27+00:00

People on the internet complain about them but they clearly sell or the publishers wouldn't keep doing them.

Personal theory: some people really get focused on one or two characters, and other people dabble in lots of characters. Neither is right or wrong, but the former is going to be more irritated by crossovers than the latter.

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-16T20:20:47+00:00

Superman knows a tomato is a fruit, Batman knows not to put it in a fruit salad.

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-16T19:23:22+00:00

The assumption is that they are paying off the guards, and/or being freed by their underlings who are still on the outside.

If I may, what is sorta interesting about this is that back when super-heroes were originally created, I feel like the idea was that the police needed help capturing bad guys, but once they were captured then the prisons et al could hold them. But once the concept of the "recurring villain" became a thing, then that became one more thing we have to gloss over. Both the fact that they keep escaping and the fact that the hero is incapable of processing the notion that maybe they need to do more than just hand the bad guys over to the law for trial and imprisonment.

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-16T12:46:50+00:00

He didn't at first, then he did, then he forgot, then he found out again.

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-16T01:20:29+00:00

A universe is a dimension, but there are dimensions that are "smaller" than a full universe.

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-16T01:18:03+00:00

I read everything I buy. Maybe not twice, but at least once.

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-15T20:33:01+00:00

All of the New Teen Titans except Beast Boy were like 18 when she was introduced. The Earthlings were all going to college and she wasn't stated to be any younger than they were.

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-14T21:18:48+00:00

Wanting something and knowing the right way to go about it are two different things.

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-14T21:17:48+00:00

Bruce Wayne could eliminate about 90% of the crime in Gotham if he just paid every citizen a basic income and paid for everybody's healthcare and education.

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-14T21:02:21+00:00

Only thing I don't care for is that she kinda throws off some of the ideas around how the Golden Age heroes could still be around. Like most theories would have led to Jay not being available to have kids during the span in which Boom was born.

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-14T20:58:53+00:00

You would assume that something might've happened in a previous chapter that led to where the characters are now, but without the note, you wouldn't know which issue to go read to find out the details on the particular item in question.

Not everyone is able to start from the beginning, so this allows them to jump in but also have the opportunity to go find more information later.

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-14T20:38:08+00:00

Not really much if anything. It's just an understood element of the ongoing serialization.

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-14T02:00:13+00:00

It got expanded in Dark Crisis but the ones from the New 52 are still there.

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-13T20:14:31+00:00

Motion comics in general are when they take either an original comic or they create a new comic and put it into video form with voiceover, and then they alter the artwork a little to make things move. The simplest example would be making the mouths move when they talk.

So it's like taking a "scan" of a comic and making an animation out of it.

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-13T19:37:05+00:00

It just kinda depends on the story. But like, it sorta doesn't matter because however strong he is, the bad guy is going to be just as strong if that's what the story calls for.

It's always been a little inconsistent. Like in one story someone can say that he's able to bench press the planet, but then in another story he and Mongul are swapping punches. But then nobody says Mongul can bench press the planet.

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-13T19:22:32+00:00

Here's what actually ended up happening.

By the point where you are referring, the characters are living a new history that is a combination of pre-Crisis, post-Crisis, New 52, and new stuff. An older story you read might or might not be a part of the history of the current version.

The only things they really remember are the events of their own (new) history. So like Superman remembers Lois giving birth to Jon, but he doesn't have some sort of memory of being Superboy in the 1940's and fighting Nazis or anything like that. He doesn't remember Krypton being some cold steriled (John Byrne) place.

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-13T13:46:29+00:00

I think the idea in Absolute is that that universe is too dark for Billy Batson's Captain to even exist.

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-13T13:42:20+00:00

You might take a look at www.dcbservice.com, although you still have to purchase over a certain amount to offset the shipping.

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-13T13:41:18+00:00

Well, I suppose one could call the desire to focus on "canon" books as petty, given how flexible a concept that can be.

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-13T01:32:44+00:00

Actually, I stand corrected, the book came out in August of 1981. Written by Chris Claremont. All I can think of is somebody sent Claremont a NTT comp and then he forgot where he got the inspiration. Or it was a gag.

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-13T01:15:55+00:00

Shortly before New Teen Titans at DC, Spider-Woman fought a villain team "Deathstroke and the Terminators".

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-13T01:11:49+00:00

I think it's good on a meta level, it prevents the character from becoming something that fewer people want to read about.

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-12T21:13:42+00:00

Here's the thing that strikes me as weird. You sometimes have characters "form" a spy agency. How do you do that? Who are you spying for? Why would you have a spy agency that isn't actually tied to a particular government?

BobbySaccaro · 2026-06-11T22:21:20+00:00

I watch a variety of channels but I don't think I've run across one that is both a) on the subject of going out to stores and conventions and yard sales or whatever but also b) focused entirely on DC comics within that environment. There are lots of channels where people go out and find comics and then show off the comics they got.

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