Came across this blog post by cartoonist John Backderf about slabbing comic books.

His opinion: Please Stop

http://derfcity.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-one-man-crusade-against-slabbing.html?m=1

Our comic book hobby got the first Overstreet Price Guide in 1970 through the efforts of Robert Overstreet (a coin, comic and arrowhead dealer) and 'superfan' Jerry Bails that you probably connect to the fanzine, Alter-Ego.

The problem, according to Derf, is that Overstreet was a good reference but lousy price guide. The prices were well above going prices at cons. Within a decade though, it became the anchor price. New price guides were based on sampling dealers with an interest in higher prices.

With the growth of the direct market, prices rose dramatically. Derf discusses this happening to key, but not rare, issues. I recall the ever rising prices of back issues then.

The marketplace shifted with the internet, and we comic book fans could buy and sell directly to one another, no dealer needed. The result? Prices went down.

Dealers were upset as their inventory devalued (paper value).

So around 2000 we get CGC - Certified Guaranty Company - to take out the mystery of raw comics. Graded and sealed in plastic. Unlike coins or baseball cards, sealing a comic book means much of it is now inaccessible. Entombed.

According to Derf, its the dealers who liked it, allowing them to cater to 'collectors' - which is a pejorative to Derf.

He also points out how secretive CGC is, and posits it was begun by five big time dealers seeking to uphold the value of their inventory.

Derf gives us an anecdote of how he was selling raw comics in the early 2000s on Ebay, but inexplicably getting 10x their Overstreet value. He speculates it was CGC influenced buyers trying to get a 9.8 grade, like hitting the lottery.

Another Derf anecdote illustrates the CGC customers want 9.6+ grades, while raw comics buyers don't bother with CGC slabbed books => leaving few people like himself buying what CGC buyers reject, like 9.2 graded books.

The slabbing debate is not isolated to comics. With things like coins, it appears slabbing has taken great hold. More recently has come slabbed video games.

Video games really didn't need this.